As a boy I’d take off into the woods with a promise to my parents that I’d be home in time for dinner, and I’d return covered in mud, dirt, and usually there would be a new gash or two in my hide.
Occasionally I see kids out playing alone, but not often. I guess I’m not the only one:
Do your kids have that much grit today? I doubt it. Parents now try to protect kids from all danger. In New York City, some won’t let teenagers go to school by themselves.
Lenore Skenazy, author of “Free-Range Kids,” thinks that’s absurd.
“Free-range kids are kids we believe in,” she told me. “They can do things on their own.”
Once she allowed her own 9-year-old to ride the subway alone. After she wrote about that, she was labeled “World’s Worst Mom.” Really. Google “world’s worst mom.” Skenazy’s name comes up.
“Free-Range Kids” promotes events like “Take Our Children to the Park and Leave Them There Day.” Skenazy says leaving kids in the park without adult supervision teaches them grit. Kids get used to bugs, rocks and a lack of constant supervision. They become leaders by discovering how to organize their own lives without parents bossing them around.
And they are not likely to be kidnapped. The horror of what happened to the three women in Cleveland makes all of us more frightened of sexual assaults and other threats. Skenazy says that today’s parents are so frightened that only 6 percent allow young kids to play outside unsupervised. But the risk of harm is small, and we put our kids at greater risk, says Skenazy, if we don’t allow them the freedom to learn from their own mistakes — to acquire grit.
Go read the whole article, but I certainly think kids should know how to entertain themselves, and explore their world, and frankly parents could use a break too.
h/T Mrs. Weer’d (Who I’m glad is on the same page as me!)
Stranger Danger is Bullshit, from Penn and Teller:
http://youtu.be/Vx6nGxw_hnM
Be careful though if you let kids roam.
My mom and dad let me and when you come how with what you think is a garter snake that turns out to be a cotton mouth they kind of freak out at you.
No Venomous Snakes in Eastern Mass. Allegedly you can find timber rattlers out in the western lands, but I’d be IMPRESSED to find one.
Still my Dad loves to tell the story of hearing a blood-curdling scream one day and seeing me come running around the house with a garter snake attached to my nose.
I thought it was cute enough to kiss….it kissed back…Lesson learned!
No Joke. There’s a Family in my Neighborhood that lives ONE Block away from the local Elementary School on the same street who takes their Kids in every morning in the Mini-Van. I stood in front of their house one day and had absolutely no problem seeing the School Doors from there. Yet they have to Pile in, go one Block, wait in line with all the other Soccer Moms, THEN get out of the Mini-Van.
Pathetic.
Isome cases, it may not be legal to leave a kid in a park. I know it’s not where I work, at least. The reason isn’t so much for the safety of the kid (what environmental dangers exist typically exist whether the kid had a parent there or not). Rather I’m betting it’s to provide the owners of the park (city, state, etc.) with some sort of legal coverage should kid get injured or whatnot. I could easily see some parents leaving little Timmy at the park for a day, then suing the shit outta the park system when little Timmy eats it going down a hill on his bike.
I will admit it.
I am somewhat overprotective. Ok…. paranoid.
My what if button has been jammed in and broken off.
I would love to send my daughter out…and now that she’s 13 and somewhat capable…. I can. But, unfortunately, we just don’t have that habit. I am going to have to man up..but…..what if?