Posted on 05/14/2024 1:53:05 AM PDT by grundle
Ever since returning to the Chicago area after living for almost a decade in Switzerland, my nice suburban neighbors have scrutinized my parenting. The biggest shock to the community was when I decided that my 7-year-old daughter was responsible enough to walk five blocks to school alone.
"You know, we'd be happy to drive her in the morning," said one neighbor.
I've discovered that these parents are all lovely people and well-meaning, but they are also part of something my husband and I still — even after being "home" for a decade — can't bring ourselves to join: the school car line.
The car line at our neighborhood elementary school is seemingly never-ending. It snakes around the corner of an otherwise beautiful centuries-old brick school. In the cars sit devoted parents who want the best for their children, which also seems to include polluting the air and constipating the streets.
But beyond the environmental consequences of the car line, something feels even more detrimental: American parenting culture.
Opposite the Swiss version, which promotes independence from the time a child can walk, American parenting culture seems to say to the child: I'm in charge of getting you to school — you have no agency. If it's cold, I'll keep you warm. If it's raining, I'll keep you dry. If it's snowing, sure, wear your sneakers, I'll drive you. If you're late for school, it's not your fault, it's mine.
But in Switzerland, where I learned to parent, children as young as five walk or bike to school alone. If there is ice on the streets, they fall and get up again. Parents don't drive children to school or hover at the playground while constantly telling their child to share, to say they're sorry, to be nice.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
DING! DING! DING! We have a WINNER!
Our ENEMEDIA has made every story into a life or death matter, like children crossing the street to actual kidnappings. It isn’t that they don’t care they are scaring America...that is what they are trying to accomplish!
Sensationalism sells!
And when they were caught, they were often disappeared
Ten miles, through the snow, uphill, both ways!
Amazing how safe HK is considering how densely packed it is. We visit family there and you can be stumble down drunk and you will get home safely with your belongings.
A friend corresponds with a person in HK who describes the homeless under bridges, begging for food, as they have been cut off from all funds and jobs by the government, because of poor social scores...
“Pervs hadn’t inundated civilization.”
And democrats were not sticking up for them. We had control of the border and if you broke the law you got punished. Funny how little things like that make a difference.
“There were always pervs.”
More now. Go to Walmart. Things have changed since when my Mom put on makeup to go to the store.
Yes, seems more and more expats are leaving as China takes full control of HK. CCP is killing the golden goose at a time when they need the money coming out of HK. It is either Hubris or their poor understanding of economics. A CCP linked Professor at HKU went off on an exchange student because the student had a background in economics and disagreed with what the Professor was spewing. Family member witnessed exchange and said the professor was teaching CCP economics not rooted in reality.
Most likely both. Communists are good at keeping people under tight control.
Communists are terrible at allowing people enough freedom to prosper.
Correct: see post 25
The proper verb is “to raise” or “to rear.”
I have a very close friend who always corrects those who say “raise” children. He says that you raise corn; you rear children. He went to a “cow college” (VPI), so he may well be right.
This is largely caused my media consolidation. What was once a local story is endlessly repeated nationwide. Depending upon where you live, a given neighborhood may or may not be 'safer' than it was when you were young. Sadly, it is not if it is more mixed race or has any significant concentrations of muslims around.
I had issues regarding my girls when they were younger because I would just as soon have let them be mostly 'free range' once they seemed to be responsible enough for it, but the wife was definitely against that. I walked a bit more than a mile to school from kindergarden on, and we did live in a fairly mixed-race area. To us, we were all just kids, and didn't care about such things, but we also didn't have people trying to make blacks hate whites 24/7/365. By the time we got to where we really noticed 'race', we'd all been living and playing together for years, so it really wasn't much of an issue, thank God.
Chicago ain’t Switzerland.
Switzerland is an orderly and relatively safe society with little street crime. Not so the US.
“Now we keep our kids from experiencing that independence and the responsibility it builds.”
*************
We expected our kids to help out with some of the daily chores around the house, which is the way we were raised. Other parents in the neighborhood who coddled and spoiled their children to no end couldn’t understand the concept of building responsibility in children.
When applied to humans and animals "to raise" and "to rear" are similar. However, "to raise" seems to be a broader term, referring to nurturing and upbringing in general, while "to rear" refers to the training, socializing and disciplining of a human child in preparation for life or the preparation of an animal for a specific purpose. According to Merriam-Webster, "to rear" can even be applied to corn. Although I have never heard anyone speak of "rearing" corn, the term might be used by those seeking to develop specific breeds.
Many suburban grade schools don’t allow walking to school
How an Obsession with SAFETY Leads to Mental Illness & Tyranny - Academy of Ideas
It seems apropos.
The Safety First mentality is poison.
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