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5 years 4 months ago
- Posts: 2217
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Look, here's the honest to gods truth. The world is NOT a more dangerous place now. In reality, the crime rate is actually at an all time LOW since the 70s, meaning it was higher when we were kids. I totally understand wanting to shelter kids, and if parents want to keep their kids inside all the time to keep them safe, fine. If parents want to walk their 16 year olds to the bus stop, fine. That is their peragative and I won't judge them, however, I hate hate HATE when people judge ME because I let my nearly 9 year old son play in the front yard without me. I don't let him leave our street, I let let him ride his bike to the playground at the end of our street and I let him play in the neighbors (the neighbors that have kids he's playing with) yard without me right there. That doesn't make me fat and lazy, it means I trust my almost 9 year old to play without his mom and dad right out in the front yard. <br>
I mean I can't speak for anyone else here, but my mom and dad weren't fat and lazy, and they kicked myself and my brother and sister out of the house to play without them while they cleaned and did god knows what, as i'm sure most ppl here's parents did. I'm sure most ppl here also had parents that yelled to them outside the door as well. Again, it's actually SAFER now than it was back then, there have been murders, kidnappings, rapes, home invasions, etc since the dawn of time.. we're just a more paranoid nation. We're all SO scared of EVERYTHING...the media jumps all over every little story and it's shoved in our faces. No one wants anything bad to happen, but I'm not going to live my life in fear like that and I don't want my son missing out on an active childhood because i'm to afraid something will happen to him. <br>
Things can happen anywhere, anytime, do we let the kids suffer over it? I don't. I just teach my son to look both ways, to not talk to strangers, about inappropriate touching and all the things he needs to know. I go outside with my son all the time, and my husband plays football with the neighborhood kids. However, we DO let him, at almost 9, play outside alone when he wants to. He has ground rules. I won't be the parent that walks their 16 year old son to the bus stop because i'm afraid he's going to get kidnapped. You have to let go a litle bit sometimes. Just because some parents let their kids play outside a lone does NOT mean they are bad parents. It's amazing to me, it's like when most ppl reach their 20s, they forget what it was like to be a kid. All of a sudden they have no patience and hate seeing kids do what they used to do..ride their bikes in the street, run around on the sidewalks shooting nerf guns at each other, acting obnoxious. The same shit we ALL used to do, all of a sudden a parent is a bad parent these days letting their kids do that. It's odd to me, especially considering statisticly it's a safer time than it was when we were younger. Kids are overweight now because we don't ALLOW them to be as active as we were. I honestly, to tell you the truth, kind of think that is one of the reasons WHY kids are the way they are today. They are SO sheltered, we do everything for them and hold their hands. They don't learn to do anything on their own, by themselves. It's kind of sad Trust me, I am NOT a bad parent. I am one of the most anxious, worrywarts you'd ever meet. I used to worry about my son having a substitute bus driver when his school was only a two minute bus ride LOL. However, my husband has taught me to losen up a bit.
I realize this was a huge tangent slightly from the original posters post, it just sparked me thinking about how sad it is we don't let our kids have the same experiences we did.
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