Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20150312/80788942-a504-4285-92ba-7b6215236003

Attempted kidnapping of toddler:

"The incident began after Michael Wright left his three children with a baby sitter in Sprague on Sunday while he went to work. The children — Brenden, 10, Delicia, 8, and the toddler — were playing unsupervised in a city park near the sitter's house."

Again, the reason why events such as this make international news is because they are so rare.

[/b]It was from WA state. This just happened days ago. [b] Rare or not, the older kid should not have been responsible for a toddler.

Yes, it happened in WA state & I read about it on a British news site. So it was international news.

It happened just days ago. Since then likely hundreds of car crashes have occurred, some of them fatal & involving children. Yet I'm guessing you're still allowing your children to ride in cars.

Anonymous wrote:It amazes me how uptight parents can be. Social media and 24hr hyped-up news really have done their jobs of making you all paranoid. I walked 2 blocks to a school bus stop by myself until I met up with others starting in K. There was never a mom at a bus stop after the first day. Ever! It was no big deal because we all played outside on our own already. Today every mom/nanny is at the bus stop and many even drive to the bus stops. Now if I let my 7yr old walk home the 8 houses alone, I look like a negligent mom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20150312/80788942-a504-4285-92ba-7b6215236003

Attempted kidnapping of toddler:

"The incident began after Michael Wright left his three children with a baby sitter in Sprague on Sunday while he went to work. The children — Brenden, 10, Delicia, 8, and the toddler — were playing unsupervised in a city park near the sitter's house."

Again, the reason why events such as this make international news is because they are so rare.

It was from WA state. This just happened days ago. Rare or not, the older kid should not have been responsible for a toddler.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

On the other hand, there are a lot of things that kids can't do because they have never had to do it.

Six-year-olds did used to be able to do this. Now (you say) they can't. What changed?

I don't know "what changed" because in the neighborhood I grew up in, they couldn't. Kids started being able to go places on their own around 3rd grade, which seems right to me.

How old are you? I'm 47. I'm guessing you're younger than I am. In the neighborhood I grew up in, when I grew up, kindergarteners went to school by themselves and/or with siblings. (You weren't allowed to ride your bike to school by yourself until second or third grade.) If your mother had walked to school with you, everybody would have laughed at you for being a baby.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all 8 pages of this thread, but I will tell you a few things that were completely normal back in my day:

--Drano under the sink; no safety locks
--me riding public transportation alone, in an urban area, at 8 years old
--several kids piled in the "way back" of the station wagon; no seatbelts, of course
--as many kids as could fit in the backseat; sitting on laps was the norm. Again, no seatbelts
--smoking everywhere, including doctors' offices
--my grandmother giving me booze for a toothache
--and my personal favorite: when I was an infant, my mother used to visit my grandmother, who lived in a different neighborhood in our urban area. She would leave me sleeping in the stroller outside so I could "get some fresh air" while she visited. Totally not uncommon in those days.

Should those kids have walked alone? I don't know. But the excuse "it used to be OK" doesn't fly on its own merits.

Of course "it used to be ok" doesn't fly on its own merits, and nobody is saying it does. What people are saying is that it used to be ok, and it still should be ok.

The risks vs. benefits of Drano under the sink, lack of seatbelts/carseats, smoking, and booze (or paregoric) are clear.

The risks vs. benefits of children riding public transportation by themselves, children walking places by themselves, and babies napping outside in their strollers/prams? Not so clear. In fact, all of these things are routine in other countries.

(See napping babies here: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988 )

Now we're bringing in other countries? Have you compared the gun laws in the U.S. with, say, Canada? Or the typical living arrangements in Manhattan versus Kenya? Your stats, especially when we're dealing with children in public spaces, need to be specific to the environment.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all 8 pages of this thread, but I will tell you a few things that were completely normal back in my day:

--Drano under the sink; no safety locks
--me riding public transportation alone, in an urban area, at 8 years old
--several kids piled in the "way back" of the station wagon; no seatbelts, of course
--as many kids as could fit in the backseat; sitting on laps was the norm. Again, no seatbelts
--smoking everywhere, including doctors' offices
--my grandmother giving me booze for a toothache
--and my personal favorite: when I was an infant, my mother used to visit my grandmother, who lived in a different neighborhood in our urban area. She would leave me sleeping in the stroller outside so I could "get some fresh air" while she visited. Totally not uncommon in those days.

Should those kids have walked alone? I don't know. But the excuse "it used to be OK" doesn't fly on its own merits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all 8 pages of this thread, but I will tell you a few things that were completely normal back in my day:

--Drano under the sink; no safety locks
--me riding public transportation alone, in an urban area, at 8 years old
--several kids piled in the "way back" of the station wagon; no seatbelts, of course
--as many kids as could fit in the backseat; sitting on laps was the norm. Again, no seatbelts
--smoking everywhere, including doctors' offices
--my grandmother giving me booze for a toothache
--and my personal favorite: when I was an infant, my mother used to visit my grandmother, who lived in a different neighborhood in our urban area. She would leave me sleeping in the stroller outside so I could "get some fresh air" while she visited. Totally not uncommon in those days.

Should those kids have walked alone? I don't know. But the excuse "it used to be OK" doesn't fly on its own merits.

Of course "it used to be ok" doesn't fly on its own merits, and nobody is saying it does. What people are saying is that it used to be ok, and it still should be ok.

The risks vs. benefits of Drano under the sink, lack of seatbelts/carseats, smoking, and booze (or paregoric) are clear.

The risks vs. benefits of children riding public transportation by themselves, children walking places by themselves, and babies napping outside in their strollers/prams? Not so clear. In fact, all of these things are routine in other countries.

(See napping babies here: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988 )

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all 8 pages of this thread, but I will tell you a few things that were completely normal back in my day:

--Drano under the sink; no safety locks
--me riding public transportation alone, in an urban area, at 8 years old
--several kids piled in the "way back" of the station wagon; no seatbelts, of course
--as many kids as could fit in the backseat; sitting on laps was the norm. Again, no seatbelts
--smoking everywhere, including doctors' offices
--my grandmother giving me booze for a toothache
--and my personal favorite: when I was an infant, my mother used to visit my grandmother, who lived in a different neighborhood in our urban area. She would leave me sleeping in the stroller outside so I could "get some fresh air" while she visited. Totally not uncommon in those days.

Should those kids have walked alone? I don't know. But the excuse "it used to be OK" doesn't fly on its own merits.

Anonymous wrote:

On the other hand, there are a lot of things that kids can't do because they have never had to do it.

Six-year-olds did used to be able to do this. Now (you say) they can't. What changed?

I don't know "what changed" because in the neighborhood I grew up in, they couldn't. Kids started being able to go places on their own around 3rd grade, which seems right to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Unless she has been raised in a bubble, any neurotypical 6-year-old should certainly know enough to walk on the sidewalk, cross at the cross walks when the sign says walk, look both ways for cars before crossing, etc. & should be well beyond the age where darting out into the street is a risk! So the need for the 10-year-old to supervise in a situation like this is pretty minimal.

Wow, I guess my son and every single one of his friends who we have had over and taken to the park are raised in a bubble and not NT! Thank you so much for setting us straight about these many unusual kids.

Anonymous wrote:

On the other hand, there are a lot of things that kids can't do because they have never had to do it.

Six-year-olds did used to be able to do this. Now (you say) they can't. What changed?

I don't know "what changed" because in the neighborhood I grew up in, they couldn't. Kids started being able to go places on their own around 3rd grade, which seems right to me.

On the other hand, there are a lot of things that kids can't do because they have never had to do it.

Six-year-olds did used to be able to do this. Now (you say) they can't. What changed?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20150312/80788942-a504-4285-92ba-7b6215236003

Attempted kidnapping of toddler:

"The incident began after Michael Wright left his three children with a baby sitter in Sprague on Sunday while he went to work. The children — Brenden, 10, Delicia, 8, and the toddler — were playing unsupervised in a city park near the sitter's house."

Again, the reason why events such as this make international news is because they are so rare.

[/b]It was from WA state. This just happened days ago. [b] Rare or not, the older kid should not have been responsible for a toddler.