Wondering

[were_gopher]

What is wrong with this world that makes me even slightly nervous that I've let a 12YO and a 9YO go to the park at the end of our road on their own for an hour. Ok the 12YO isn't as savy as most kids his age but it's still something I don't think our parents would have thought twice about in the 60s or 70s.

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I was cycling a couple of miles to school by the time I was 12.

It's every bit as safe now as it was in the 60s, it's just that newspapers have realised that child molestors sell newspapers.

Stop reading the papers and you'll feel a lot less worried.

I realised the 'stranger danger' thing had got out of hand when a friend's child fell off her bike and was too scared to allow the local vicar to help her.

I decided at that point to tell my kids that virtually all people are nice and that they could do pretty much anything - as long as they ALWAYS told me first where they were going and who they were going with.

They grew up fine.

I remember a few of our neighbours were initially concerned when their daughters started playing with Henry during his university holidays. Age gap of about 8-10 years. He found the company of younger kids relaxing and the gang of girls (and a few boys) liked having a friend who was big enough to give them shoulder rides. I recall one summer where he had a group of them up on the scaffolding tower while he was painting the front of the house. I think he was telling them stories.

He's a natural uncle - and sadly, being a male who enjoys the company of children is enough to generate suspicion in this day and age.

(Just in case you're wandering, he was never alone with any of the girls and almost never brought the gang into the house.)

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

I don't tend to read or believe the papers, it's the rest of the neighbours who read the red tops that make me worried.