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Suburbia's fortress mentality
Christian Science Monitor ^ | June 1, 2007 | Melodee Martin Helms

Posted on 06/03/2007 2:38:07 AM PDT by Lorianne

Parents' fears are robbing children of their childhood. ___ My three boys sprawl on the couch, fingering their Game Boys. I wish I could shoo them outside until dusk. I wish they could tromp to the marsh to search for polliwogs. I wish we didn't have to live in a fortress.

But we don't let our children play in the front yard, because a sex offender lives two doors down. Instead, like other families in this neighborhood, we've built private playgrounds in the back.

From my kitchen window, I see two wooden play structures, three trampolines, and four basketball hoops, including our own. The kids on our street don't play unsupervised on common ground. They have play dates now, arranged by protective parents.

Carefree childhood of the '70s

The unsupervised outings of my 1970s childhood are over. When Mom told us, "Be back before dark," we'd check in sooner only if our stomachs insisted.

My family lived in a subdivision full of cul-de-sacs with small ramblers and split-level homes. I wandered freely. My sister and I traipsed past construction sites to undeveloped land beyond. We'd romp in waist-high grasses, trampling down areas we'd pretend were houses. We wandered in the woods.

We explored the creek, trying to keep the mud from sucking our sneakers right off our feet. I used to ride my banana-seat bike (without a helmet) down the busy road to buy candy at the gas station.

That would never happen today. Two-thirds of Americans say it's likely that a convicted child molester lives in their neighborhood, according to a 2005 Gallup Poll. Yet the constant supervising seems to be taking its toll.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: childhood; genx; suburbia
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To: Hardastarboard
My buddy and I used to take our uncased .22 single shot rifles on our bicycles to a retired teacher's house and shoot frogs out of his pond

My late husband used to tell semilar tales - a rifle at an early age, overnights in the woods w/pals, and hunting & eating frogs. He grew up in a small town in Michigan. To this DC girl, he might as well have lived on the moon, those activities were so foreign to me.

On the other hand, tho I lived in DC, my childhood was very much Mayberry-like. We shucked corn and shelled peas on the front porch. The only store open on Sunday was the drug store, from which we might get a quart of hand packed ice cream for a Sunday treat. We knew our neighbors and they knew our parents well enough to let them know when we messed up. Being a city girl, I didn't play in the woods, but we did hang out in the cemetary. Happy days.

61 posted on 06/03/2007 11:57:10 AM PDT by radiohead (They call me DOCTOR radiohead.)
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To: kjo
I grew up in DETROIT in the fifties. Can you imagine Detroit today? Kids could go anywhere using public transporation.

I remember my parents let me take the bus to Northland when I was 11 years old.

62 posted on 06/03/2007 12:04:30 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
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To: wideminded

The reason I say that is they are usually attracted to other types of people as well.


63 posted on 06/03/2007 12:28:12 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: radiohead
The key to this was identified in another discussion several years ago.

The culprit in destroying the safety of the neighborhood?

AIR CONDITIONING for the home;with TV as an accomplice.

With the house now a cool refuge from summer's heat,no one needed to sit on the porch for the breezes and shade that made it better than a closed house.Without those millions of adults quietly reading the paper,talking,listening to the ballgame on the radio ,and casually watching the streets and sidewalks the world became less safe.People turned their backs literally on their neighbors.Rare is the TV that could be viewed comfortably in the brighter ambient light outside of the house,so TV viewers had a double inducement to stay inside.

Those kids of earlier times were watched more than they realized but people didn't forbid the kids to be kids as now;plus the perverts knew the real adults were watching ,too.And nobody was taking seriously any crap psychologist when a pervert tried his stuff.

64 posted on 06/03/2007 12:29:07 PM PDT by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a creditcard?)
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To: seemoAR
Shoot, shovel, and shut up was also used before the police could ever get involved.

I some places, when the cops did show up they helped certain perps disappear down sewer grates.

65 posted on 06/03/2007 12:32:35 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: widowithfoursons
yup, small town childhood in the ‘50’s was as carefree as one could imagine..it is frustrating when one cannot successfully begin to communicate the the differences, you had to be there.
66 posted on 06/03/2007 12:39:43 PM PDT by gorush (Exterminate the Moops!)
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To: hoosierham
AIR CONDITIONING

True, we didn't have air conditioning until I was in high school (and only window units then, which were used mostly at night in the DC heat and humidity.

Still, with my sinuses, I thank goodness for airconditioning. I couldn't get over it not being available in Seattle and am thankful for central air here in Iowa.

I'm also such a nerd, I went to the air conditioning exhibit at the National Building Museum. Most of the US would be unproductive w/o air conditoning. Kinda like France.

67 posted on 06/03/2007 1:10:47 PM PDT by radiohead (They call me DOCTOR radiohead.)
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To: Lorianne

When I turned 14 I got a brand new Remington 12 guage for my birthday. My mom would get up at the crack of dawn and drive me out to a buddies farm. I’d be gone all day with a sack lunch and a bag of duck decoys. It was no big deal to anyone. Those were the days, a young boy hunting on his own. I’d bag ducks, squirrels, rabbits, doves, pheasants, and even a couple of rattle snakes once. I’m sure a mom would be arrested for child abuse if that happened today. Too bad for today’s kids, they will never know the self esteem I was taught.


68 posted on 06/03/2007 1:34:04 PM PDT by Trteamer ( (Eat Meat, Wear Fur, Own Guns, FReep Leftists, Drive an SUV, Drill A.N.W.R., Drill the Gulf, Vote)
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To: wideminded
But why do some people feel sexually attracted to children? Is this number going up?

Psychiatrists have been trying to answer that question for years. I don't know why, some people are just perverts and sociopaths, I guess.

69 posted on 06/03/2007 1:40:20 PM PDT by darkangel82 (Socialism is NOT an American value.)
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To: Lorianne
I don’t know where this person grew up, but I was born in the 70’s, and in San Francisco, it was definitely not carefree or safe, regardless of whether my parents realized that or not. I carried a switchblade from age 12 on, to school and everywhere else.

I suppose SF isn’t exactly typical, but I think (at least partially) the sense that things have gotten more dangerous since the 70’s is imagined.

70 posted on 06/03/2007 2:23:03 PM PDT by NMR Guy
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To: widowithfoursons

Sorry to pile on, but I grew up in the late 70’s, early 80’s in suburban Dallas, and we were never home afterschool until dark and out all day during the summers. We walked or rode bikes to the store or pizza place to play “asteroids”. Had secret forts in the “woods”.Our creeks we played in was on a golf course, but hey, it was still a creek to us! We knew not to talk to strangers, and if we were in trouble we always knew our neighbors would be home to help us..I think kids don’t play outside as much because they are too heavily scheduled with activities...


71 posted on 06/03/2007 2:35:03 PM PDT by pesto
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To: wideminded

True, but the question is, are there more now and if so why?

I am not sure that there are more of them. In the 70’s research showed about 1/3 of women were sexually molested in a local study. I would say that still holds true, using 70’s standards.


72 posted on 06/03/2007 6:33:49 PM PDT by Chickensoup (.The Muzzies are hanging us with the rope we paid out to the leftists.)
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Comment #73 Removed by Moderator

To: AEMILIUS PAULUS

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think with more “churched” people back in the day; enough people who are saddled with dark desires would control them out of fear of going to hell.


74 posted on 06/04/2007 9:51:09 AM PDT by jjm2111 (http://www.purveryors-of-truth.blogspot.com)
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To: SamAdams76
The big difference between then and now is that there is simply so much to do indoors. When I was a kid, there was very little TV (only about six channels and three of them you had to keep messing around with the rabbit ears to receive) and so us kids got underfoot. SO naturally our parents told us to get outdoors and stay out until dinnertime. It was today's equivalent of sending the kids to the rec room to play Nintendo or upstairs to surf the web until dinnertime.

That's a good point you bring up there.

I also wonder how much of it may have to do with the incredible amount of development today as compared to just 20 years ago. To truly live out "in the woods" these days, you have to be pretty far away from the city.

With private developments and strips malls increasingly taking up every possible inch of space in the near suburbs and heavy traffic on every street, there's just not as much room for the kids to run around and play games anymore.

75 posted on 06/04/2007 9:57:57 AM PDT by jpl ("Player haters, elevators, you cross me, you die." - Wise Lebron)
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To: wideminded
... there was a barber shop within biking distance of my house ... One of the barbers there would sometimes "accidentally" feel up kids as he placed the cloth over them in the barber chair

Something similar out of my childhood. The only shop in our neighborhood was run by a kindly old man whose son joined him in the business. The son was also the "adult advisor" for our Explorer Scout troop. Turns out he fancied young boys, and it wasn't long before he was sent up for a term of two-to-ten. I went to the shop after he was released, and wound up in his chair. Before long, I realized that the chair was at the height where his privates could rub against my arm on the arm rest. I pulled my arms into my lap and gritted my teeth until he finished the haircut, and got the hell out.

76 posted on 06/04/2007 10:13:51 AM PDT by LantzALot (Yes, it’s my opinion. No, it’s not humble.)
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To: Lorianne
Two-thirds of Americans say it's likely that a convicted child molester lives in their neighborhood, according to a 2005 Gallup Poll.

My, my ... now there's a stupid poll. They don't know this, they just think it's likely?

77 posted on 06/04/2007 10:16:17 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: NMR Guy
I was born in the 70’s, ... I suppose SF isn’t exactly typical,

SF became atypical even before you were born. I'm not surprised that you think others' perceptions are "Imagined" just because they're not the same as yours.

78 posted on 06/04/2007 10:19:57 AM PDT by LantzALot (Yes, it’s my opinion. No, it’s not humble.)
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To: Chickensoup

“If someone was funny with one of the children, they were driven out of town. We grew up not so far from the old days of tar and feathers.”

Driving Chester The Molester out of town was mere mob rule. Those were truly savage days. Chickens were killed and their feathers used in those barbarous mob events.

Now we have enlightened courts, social workers to counsel any and all, psychologists, psychiatrists, and lawyers beyond number - all working to make you and your child safe.

Can’t you see how much more safe we are? /sarc


79 posted on 06/04/2007 10:24:40 AM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: Lorianne
Two-thirds of Americans say it's likely that a convicted child molester lives in their neighborhood, according to a 2005 Gallup Poll.

And they are often correct in that belief. The advent of interactive mapping programs tied to databases of registered sex offenders is very revealing. We can finally see very quickly where the convicted offenders are living. It doesn't cover where the undetected offenders are lurking.

80 posted on 06/04/2007 10:25:12 AM PDT by Myrddin
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