'Free range kids' - May 22 "Take Our Children to the Park...& Leave Them There Day,"

Doesn’t it seem like having a special “leave them alone at the park day” endanger the kids?


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Would you let your 7-year-old play at the park alone?


Kids gain confidence from alone time at the park.
New York mom and author Lenore Skenazy made newspaper headlines when she sent her son on the New York subway at age 9 in April 2008.

In a column for the New York Sun, she wrote, "Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn't strike me as that daring, either. Isn't New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It's not like we're living in downtown Baghdad."

Skenazy has since written a book titled Free Range Kids that's become a handbook for parents wanting to give their children more freedom to explore the world.

Skenazy advises parents to let their kids walk to school, make dinner, ride their bikes to the library, and climb trees, and now she's telling parents to take their kids to the park and leave them.

Yes, Skenazy has declared Saturday, May 22 "Take Our Children to the Park...& Leave Them There Day," and in a recent post in her blog, she asks parents, "Are you in?"



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=63292&tsp=1#ixzz0nepFq0QS

:rofl:

:rofl:

all the time when I was a kid. Starting at about 10 or 11.

Seven seems too young.

~1963

That's the age when Mom or a designated neighbor has to sit in the park and read a book while the kids run around without much supervision, at least in an urban park.

Still, when I remember how free I was as a child and how overscheduled, oversupervised and overconfined the suburban kids I know now are the contrast is stark, to say the least.

My mother later confessed her heart was in her mouth when I went down toward the railroad tracks with their hobo camps, but the hobos were usually long gone early in the morning. She said she didn't want to wreck my budding independence. I tried to return the favor as my parents felt theirs wane.

and he's still alive. In fact, he is very successful and independent.

HOWEVER, to declare a national day and publicize it is lunacy. "Hey, pedophiles, free pickings at the park."

I grew up. At the age of six I was already walking to and from school myself (several blocks away) and by the time I was 8, I was walking across town on my own. Great freedom.

I wonder how kids these days will ever learn to have confidence in their own abilities and confidence that the world is a reasonably safe place.

I live in a neighborhood that is a safe one, yet I see parents waiting in the car for their teenaged sons and daughters to leave the bus and then they drive them all of half a block home. The parents are literally too afraid to let their teenaged children walk a few hundred feet. Just bizarre to me because I grew up with such freedom.

Jesus, we walked or bussed to school every day. Not ONCE was I dropped off or picked up from school. That shit is just weird.

his elementary school is right next door to the high school at which I teach. Plus, at the time I drop him off (7:25) there's no traffic.

But, anyway, more kids should ride the bus, I agree. Mine could, but it would be pointless, since I go there anyway.

Why would I pay that when I drive past my child's school on the way to and from work? :shrug:

The hysterical media has made over-reaction to any child injury the norm.

Of course, sitting inside playing computer games is threatening their health, but that is a small price to pay to have them terrified and easily led by the time they are 14.

And I would add: a seven year old alone at the park all day? Depends on the seven year old and location of the park.

Lots of kids are at risk at home. But we won't go there today.

Kids do need to learn independence and how to use their heads. Too much supervision for too long keeps them infants and that is dangerous too.

MSM has done a fine job terrifying adults into thinking kids need to be kept in a box on a shelf.

Fear Fear Fear: it's what's for dinner. And it does not make society safer or healthier. It makes people naive and more likely to be victimized. But it's OK, so long as it is the top tier of capitalism that does the victimizing. Don't want any independent thinking by parents or kids. Makes them hard to manipulate.

'safe' is a relative thing.

they don't know what to do.

and she's quite independent and confident at 19.

At 12 she went to Australia for 3 weeks with a supervised group (People to People). In the last three years she's made around a dozen trips to four major metropolitan areas on her own, ignoring the advice of some adults who warned her she would get lost in the middle of DC if she tried to go through the city rather than round the beltway - which she did, at 2:00 AM...All the trips except the Australia trip, she's navigated the public transportation system once she arrived. I did most of the preparation for the first big trip at 17, in terms of gathering the information she would need to get around, she's followed that model on her own since then - spending time on the transit authority web page before she leaves home to find bus/train schedules, fares, etc., looking through whatever guidebooks she finds when she arrives if she has free time to do something spontaneous. I never quite know where I'll get the call from - or what it might be about. Just the fun of being in Grand Central station prompted a call from NYC - as did the dog carrying its master's grocery bag on the last trip to Boston for medical treatment. This summer - Italy, for a study abroad program.

It's quite possible to foster independence, while making reasonable choices about when it is appropriate to leave a child alone (which will depend a lot on the circumstances and the child). The roads near us are quite busy, and not very safe for walking/biking, most of the neighborhood works so there is no one home to ask for assistance if something does go wrong, etc. When she hit 11/12 she seemed appropriately mature, especially after taking babysitting classes, which included some basic CPR, first aid, and home alone smarts.

Now - the thing that drove me crazy was after the People to People folks insisted she be able to handle her own meds (and medical crises) in connection with her chronic illness, she returned to summer camp the next summer and was forced to hand over her meds (which would be useful to absolutely no one for any kind of mischief) to the camp nurse on arrival so they could be doled out to her three times a day...talk about stifling independence.

Just to see if I could.

I became more of a homebody a while after that; moved to Alaska, and, well, long jaunts from home are a lot different once you're in a place where you're back in the local food chain.

I don't think the world is more dangerous. I just think the dangers get more advertising. There's just more money to be made from keeping kids at home, whacking their wiis, than there is in letting them go out and catch turtles or whatever.

aside from a lot of rides, nothing else happened. When I was 14 I did the same from the same to Big Springs TX, there I spent a few days in jail while my folks came to pick me up. The ride home was really quiet.

Why would anyone go to Kansas?

before the local sheriff picked me up and put me in jail to await my mom coming to get me. The ride home on the bus was very quiet.

what the hell is in Reading PA?

During the general decline of heavy manufacturing, Reading was one of the first localities where outlet shopping became a tourist industry. It has been known as "The Pretzel City" because of numerous local pretzel bakeries. It is also known as "Baseballtown," after the Reading Phillies trademarked this moniker to market Reading's rich baseball history. Legendary left-handed pitcher Ty Sofflet led Reading to several fast-pitch softball victories in the mid-1970s.

WooHoo! Good times.

jeez, did you think I hitched to Salina KS because Reading was a booming metropolis?

But thanx for the information. Ya never know when you'll need that kind of stuff.:thumbsup:

Not exactly a cultural hub.

All summer long I would take off in the morning and come back home for dinner. Sometimes a bunch of us would hike to the lake and swim. Sometimes we wander all day in the forest collecting snakes or tadpoles from the streams. Sometimes we'd take a bus downtown and wander around. Sometimes we'd ride our bikes across town to the dump to explore for abandoned treasures.

I think today's parents are far too overprotective, and today's kids are growing up with no sense of adventure, self-sufficiency, and independence.

Of course, I'm just an old fogy grandfather now, so feel free to ignore anything I say.

growing up in a suburb with a forest presrve but I wasnt allowed there until 6th grade in 1990. we had parks in town when we were young. rode our bikes to get everywhere

By the time I was 8 I was riding my bike many miles away from home.

I don't blame the parents much. These days you can get nailed with child neglect for much less.

when I was a teenager. From 15 to 18 on weekends I'd live in a dumpy apt building that was kind of like a commune with lots of really good stuff. That was 71 to 75.

A family I lived with one summer lived there, they owed the Gilgrist restaurant on the inlet. Brigantine is not the same as when I lived there.

blanket. There used to be a huge pool in Absecon that I went to most of the time but I just loved Brigantine. I caught the devil from my mother when she found out, I was 9 at the time...LOL. The name Gilchrist does ring a bell...

during those years. the old two lane bridge was there when I first started going there. Harrah's ruined the marina I knew.

him "Hap." At the point in Absecon there was and still standing, the "Black Cat" and where High Point Inn was used to be "Albert's Old Vienna." The parents used to go there and I was allowed (at 4 years old) to get cigarettes out of the machine for dad. Haha, good times!

A family I lived with one summer lived there, they owed the Gilgrist restaurant on the inlet. Brigantine is not the same as when I lived there.

But they keep finding their way home!! :rofl:

:hide:

I was spending weekends during trout season in the woods by myself, fishing.

By the time I was fifteen, I was taking a gun into the woods hunting all weekend, and usually for a week in the summer.

But then, this is a satellite image of where I lived-

http://khm1.google.com/kh/v=60&x=2229&y=3182&z=13&s=Galil

too protected, while "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv focuses on kids not having enough time on their own in nature. Both are important and right on, IMO.

if their parents are constantly hovering over them 24/7?

I have no statistics to back this up, but it just seems like "street smarts" requires a sense of independence to comprehend and to hone it.

Or not.

I'll never forget the sight of some kid, maybe eight or so, flying into a stranger-danger panic at the sight of me - literally; he ran away screaming "mommy! I saw a stranger!" In a grocery store. When I was about twelve. I knew even then that was probably one of the more depressing things I was going to witness.

of the house for hours at a time. neighbor kids' yards or often to a nearby park along a winding creek. sometimes longer walks to stores to buy stuff.

They had no idea how to play outside. They didn't know how to play kickball or jump rope or any outdoor games. They didn't know how to play together. So recess had to become learning time.

The other teachers told me that they didn't play outside because the neighborhoods where they lived were not safe. And I reminded them that this city is full of beautiful parks. Why can't the kids play in a park? And one of the teachers said "But the parks are even more dangerous!"

Sigh.

4 and 5. The 4 year old is too young and are kind of going through a clingy stage. I actually want them to do some stuff on their own! I do let them play in the backyard of our house by themselves and we have a nice big backyard. I can get some dishes done or put away laundry and if they need me they can come inside.
The one thing I always try to do is get them outside for some period during the day. You would be amazed at how many kids just don't play a lot outside anymore. We are always on the sidewalks with our big wheels and I hardly see kids out in our neighborhood. And we live in a little town that is considered very safe.

...locking the kids in the house playing video games.

I'm thankful I grew up in a rural area, I was by myself as early as 7, and this was in the early 90s.

Playground reopens after razor blades removed from slides, other equipment
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8319626

(My thought: it wasn't done so much to harm anybody, as it was to make everyone in the country afraid to go to the park again.)

I agree the world does not to be wrapped in bubble pack for the chiiiiiiiildruuun, and it's okay to let kids old enough to go to the park go to the park ... But it's not a great name.

And that was the mid-90s!

How the hell did this country go so freaking insane in just 15 years?

is essential to the development of maturity and independence.

they WANT you to leave! This would probably be harder for the helicopter parents I see @ the playground than for the kids.

who left their kids at home alone. The local media was all "OMG! SKY FALLING! KIDS LEFT ALONE" I later found out that the oldest kid was 15. :eyes: My parents started leaving us home alone way before that age.

dg

were kids who went home alone, i remember kids like that from third grade on back in the 80s

My sister graduated and moved out when I was 8 and both my parents worked long shift-work at the time, so i was a latch-key kid. This was the 90s.

Many of us older Millennials in rural areas had a more Gen-X-like childhood because it took time for technology and social trends to reach where I grew up. I didn't have cable until I was 11 (1997) and internet until I was 13 (1999).

My Mom had a part time job, I let myself in and made my own lunch and was just fine. Had neighbors around if I needed something. This was around 1988.

Being a single parent when my kids were younger, I couldn't afford the after-school care for three kids.

I always told them not to answer the door or phone unless they saw my office # on caller ID, as I was more afraid of those "good Samaritans" than kidnappers or murderers. I figured with my three, a kidnapper would be pleading with me to take them back, possibly paying ME to get them off his hands.

who will gladly rip your family apart in order to reunify it, or more likely, sell your kids on the adoption market.

dg

of my house from the time i was in first grade on, i was in first grade in 1985

I was out and about by the time I was 8.

Play dates? I laugh.

Calling parents to see if I could come over? I laugh.

We were running the streets all day during the summer.....swimming in irrigation ditches, playing at the cotton gin, riding horses, eating at who evers house we were at the time, playing hide and seek around the cacti....oh, and I didn't wear a helmet while biking, God forbid!

I feel sorry for kids these days.

... ya know, where pedophiles might read it and decide to get ideas....

But at age 7 I was exploring the neighborhood and walking down to the park all the time. At age 10 I was riding the public bus system by myself to get to the private school Mom was sending me to after violence in the public schools got out of hand. It still worried Mom when I would take a different bus than the one we originally planned for me to take, so I would arrive about 20 minutes before her shift ended -- I had to walk about 10 city blocks in downtown that way, but I was able to meet her as she got out of work and we could take an earlier bus home together. The original way we planned was for her to meet me at the bus stop on the one that would have dropped me off about 30 minutes after her shift ended.

Then again, I remember seeing people dealing coke in the park down the street from me -- four of us kids were down there together and saw it go down, and took down license plate numbers and told our parents. I know my mother, at least, reported it, but we weren't restricted from going to the park after that.

Back when I was a kid we didn't know anything about pedophiles or to watch out for strangers. I think most kids now days know all about that. They are more media aware and savvy than I was. Pedophiles can't just lure kids into their vans like they used to and an adult hanging around a park or playground elicits a lot more suspicion. I don't think there's any more or less pedos than there used to be but I think it's possible there are a lot fewer practicing their craft today. Hell, they have the internet now to keep themselves occupied. But then neighbors were a lot more neighborly and watched out for each other a lot more too.

But I'm not a parent. What do I know?

When my niece was born (she's 25,) we spent a lot of time together when she was little due to my sister being a single parent. Britt's childhood was so different than mine I'm STILL shocked. She did nothing without supervision. After all, my sister was big on the "stranger danger" stuff. Interesting to note that we grew up in a semi-rural area and were outside (and frequently out of both parents' supervision,) from sunrise to well after dark in summertime, walked to the mall on weekends, etcetera.

Last summer, I went to the Seahawks' training camp to watch practice. I saw a young man of ten or 11 or so, hysterically crying because he couldn't see his parents, and was convinced they'd left him there. Those of us who observe this stuff never know what to do. The security was more interested in monitoring what was going on with the players than handling the situation. We were about fifteen feet from a Seahawks player at the time. (I'm sure Patrick Kerney, 6'5", 270 pounds and can outrun most people when he's standing still, desperately needed the constant attention of a under six feet tall and paunchy security guy, for instance.) I digress. I felt badly for the kid. I knew his parents didn't leave him there, but there was something else at work that morning.

Some of these kids are so overprotected, and have the fear fear FEAR drummed into them so intensely, that they don't know WHAT to do when they find themselves unsupervised and in a somewhat unusual situation.

That would be a maybe. In a wooded area near home, I don't see the problem. I was allowed to wander the woods at will when I was six.(and it wasn't hunting season) Worst that ever happened to me was a hard lesson not to throw rocks at a hornet nest.

Nice place to have a beer :D

I had two choices as a kid: Poison oak infested woods above the house or magical mudflats below the house. I got muddy a lot.

I don't mean this exact thing on this exact date, but un-scheduling your kids is the best way to teach them how to regulate their own time. If my son were capable of self-care, and had a sense of danger, I'd shove him out the door every sunny day with a sandwich in his knapsack and instructions to come home when the streetlights come on.

We explored caves, went fishing and swimming. Bare ass beach was a hole basically fifty feet deep.We caught copper heads and water moccasins.

And if our parents knew a tenth of what we did, we would have been standing up for two months.

Today's too-often overly oppressive child-rearing tactics seem perfect for raising a generation of timid, cowering, fearful children who, upon reaching adulthood, will fall helplessly into the eagerly-awaiting arms of Big Brother.

You'd almost think that it was being planned that way.