Child neglect?

[bae]

Are these bad parents?

Should CPS and the police be grabbing their children?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...ddc_story.html

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/lo...299520411.html

[kib]

I think it really depends on the neighborhood but unless an area is known to be unsafe, letting the children explore on their own seems perfectly ok to me. My girlfriend and I would walk 8 blocks or so to school together when we were 7, I don't think this was seen as strange at all, and by the time we were 10, we were roaming the neighborhood all summer long. THe neighborhood was safe (of human predators) then, and it's safe now. I think learning to think and be competent in your environment includes learning how to be in the world without a leash, free to form your own perception of things. To me, this hypercontrol of children is freakish, egotistical and unhealthy.

[LDAHL]

It's amazing how many things that were a given in my childhood arouse the ire of the nanny state today. I rode my bike without a helmet. I had a paper route that involved knocking on strangers doors every month. I drank water from the tap. I walked to school. When another kid attacked me, I fought back. I would not have known what a "play date" was. It was a good week if I escaped some form of (generally well-deserved) corporal punishment. We could take peanuts to school. My parents would habitually shove me out the door for unsupervised play when I became too annoying. Nobody felt it necessary to censor my reading or TV viewing. Everybody most assuredly did not get a trophy.

My parents did not feel the need to treat me like a veal calf. I shudder to think how I might have turned out if they had.

[catherine]

I assume the parents had assessed the neighborhood, and I assume they also trusted the relationship the two children had with each other, and thus felt reasonably safe in allowing them to take the walk. If that's the case, they are not neglectful at all.

I agree with LDAHL.

[ctg492]

I don't know.

Everything is different in each generation. My 85 year old dad used to jump in the St Clair river and ride a 20 mile bike ride to his Aunt at age 10. I could not cross the busy street till 6th grade. My sons I joke had never rode bikes anywhere or crossed a busy street alone, then they got the key to the car.

[CathyA]

It's a different world out there. I think those parents are acting like it's the world they want it to be........which it isn't.
So what do we do? ..........maybe let them do it and if their children get abducted or murdered, we just say "Oh well.........this is what you wanted."

[bae]

It's a different world out there. I think those parents are acting like it's the world they want it to be........which it isn't.

What do the real-world statistics tell us about "danger" though, compared to the Golden Age of Ozzy & Harriet/Leave It To Beaver?

I realize the media likes to be all scary and such, but the data seems to indicate it is much safer Now than back in The Olde Days.

[Reyes]

Ridiculous. The parents should be given an award for letting their children have even a moment of time without a hovering adult around.

[Tenngal]

Depends on the neighborhood. I would never do it, but I know I am paranoid...........

[sweetana3]

bae, I agree with you. The problem is that the media posts one off stories that happen (sometimes all over the globe) that frighten people about their own neighborhoods and towns. I grew up in Ozzie land and we had our strange neighbors that the kids were warned about, the perverts that drove around, the drunks downtown, etc. It was a part of life. My parents pushed us out of the house every day and we explored all over the wild areas and stores on foot or bike. The most accidents we ever had were within a block from our home.

Edited to add, my brother was hit by a car in FRONT of our house on a residential street, bitten by the next door neighbor's dog, my sister(the youngest child of four) was killed when she darted in front of a driver on a curve on the corner next to our house. The most dangerous place to be seemed to be within a block of our house. None of this means my parents would to keep the kids on the lot or inside the house. We were a family of 6 in 900 square feet.

True story, my Dad left my mom with three kids in downtown Honolulu when he decided to extend his vacation in Guam. She would give us each $1 and send us out to explore downtown Waikiki. Fabulous place. I was the oldest at 13. We went all over and even took the bus. No one even asked us why we were not in school.