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

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Wow! I didn't know this. My only serious concerns for kids out on their own are twofold:

-- cars and road crossing (we're quite careful about this, and their ranging is limited by busy roads)
-- that so many people are heartless or busybodies these days that they won't help children in distress, so that if things go wrong it's hard for kids to get help.

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

It's not always heartlessness. I knew one man who saw a kid slip it's mothers hand and start into traffic. He grabbed the kid before it went under a bus, went to give it back to it's mother and got a mouthfull of abuse and an accusation of being a kiddy fiddler in return for having the temerity to touch her kids. He said afterwards it was the last time he was ever going to do something like that because it just wasn't worth the risk of getting branded unjustly and risking his job (he worked in the hotel trade).