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Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone
New York Sun ^ | 03 Apr 08 | LENORE SKENAZY

Posted on 04/04/2008 4:55:02 AM PDT by PurpleMan

[Money quote] "The problem with this everything-is-dangerous outlook is that over-protectiveness is a danger in and of itself. A child who thinks he can’t do anything on his own eventually can’t."

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Unclassified
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Bravo! A sane voice in NYC
1 posted on 04/04/2008 4:55:02 AM PDT by PurpleMan
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To: PurpleMan

The quote is good, but in NYC I still won’t let a 9-Year-Old ride the Subway alone.


2 posted on 04/04/2008 5:00:49 AM PDT by SolidWood (Moqtada Al-Sadr has to die.)
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To: PurpleMan
Image hosted by Photobucket.com from the same woman that prolly won't let her kid have a BB gun...
3 posted on 04/04/2008 5:01:42 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist ©®)
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To: SolidWood
Growing up in Yonkers I was not allowed to leave the block alone. What a kook this one is. I live in rural PA now and I don't let me 13 year old go anywhere alone. We have a running list of Sexual Offenders in the area.
4 posted on 04/04/2008 5:04:05 AM PDT by angcat (Indian name "She who yells too much")
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To: SolidWood

> The quote is good, but in NYC I still won’t let a 9-Year-Old ride the Subway alone.

Do the Guardian Angels still patrol the subways of New York? (I should know this but I don’t!)

If so, the 9 year old will probably be quite safe riding them.

As a parent, tho’, I’d be more concerned about what happens before and after the subway.


5 posted on 04/04/2008 5:05:44 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: PurpleMan

I hope that nine year old has a black belt in street fighting and carries a Ka-Bar.


6 posted on 04/04/2008 5:08:31 AM PDT by shove_it (and have a nice day)
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To: SolidWood
The quote is good, but in NYC I still won’t let a 9-Year-Old ride the Subway alone.

I won’t let a 9-Year-Old ride the Subway alone in any city unarmed.

7 posted on 04/04/2008 5:09:58 AM PDT by deuteronlmy232 (.22 cal revolver, the perfect gift for an nine year old. Luke 22:36)
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To: SolidWood

I saw both the mom and the kid on Fox News. Both seemed level headed and in complete control of their faculties.

The mom looked chic but had confidence in her son who seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Although he was young he seemed to have a lot on the ball and was not cocky and overconfident or overly proud of his ride.

We live in a free society and that included the right to move about.


8 posted on 04/04/2008 5:14:23 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Never say never (there'll be a VP you'll like))
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To: PurpleMan
Bravo! A sane voice in NYC

Agreed. It's all a matter of relative risk. Do you send the kid out at 11 p.m. to ride uptown past 125th St.? No. But at 4 p.m. after school to head to a piano lesson on the upper West Side? Sure.

If a kid gets into a jam and starts to holler there are plenty of folks - yes, even in NYC - who will come to his aid.

9 posted on 04/04/2008 5:15:24 AM PDT by G L Tirebiter
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To: PurpleMan
No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn’t want to lose it.

Can't trust your kid with a cell phone but you can send him alone on the NYC subway system?  Nutzoid.

----

Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com

10 posted on 04/04/2008 5:15:24 AM PDT by JCG
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To: PurpleMan

How far we have fallen as a society. I think this parent is insane.

When I was growing in DETROIT in the fifties and early sixties kids could go anywhere. When politicians decided to stop defending property rights it was the beginning of the end of all personal rights including personal safety of children.

Today, Detroit and most other big cities have become criminal enterprises. This is where Lyndon Johnson and the liberals have taken us.


11 posted on 04/04/2008 5:15:58 AM PDT by kjo
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To: PurpleMan

Does this nine year old wear a target on their shirt? When something happens they should and will be prosecuted. Now if we actually kept our sex offenders and other criminals in prisons without releasing them early things might be different. The parent here isn’t living in the real world.


12 posted on 04/04/2008 5:16:36 AM PDT by badpacifist (They say your head can be a prison Then, these are just conjugal visits.)
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To: PurpleMan

The odds are against the little kid. The subways are a jungle. Sorry in my opinion no sane, conscerned parent would allow a 9 year old to ride the subway alone.


13 posted on 04/04/2008 5:21:03 AM PDT by kenmcg
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To: PurpleMan

BRAVO! So many parents are raising NANNY-STATE wards who are afraid of their own shadow.


14 posted on 04/04/2008 5:28:30 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
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To: PurpleMan
Absolutely nuts. At the very least, a pair or three classmates should be riding together looking out for each other.

Apparently the writer never heard of Etan Patz.

Granted, Patz was 6, not 9, but he wasn't on a subway, either.

15 posted on 04/04/2008 5:33:23 AM PDT by Tanniker Smith (I kid because I love . . . and I loved and now have kids.)
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To: Tanniker Smith
The fact that everyone remembers Etan now some 30 years later is testimony to the rarity of such events.

ML/NJ (Friend of the Patz family)

16 posted on 04/04/2008 5:38:59 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: PurpleMan
Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone

Because you're stupid.

17 posted on 04/04/2008 5:45:32 AM PDT by VoiceOfBruck (for a good time, call vobns.blogspot.com)
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To: ml/nj
The fact that everyone remembers Etan now some 30 years later is testimony to the rarity of such events.

Exactly! Let's all cower down in our bunkers because 'X' might happen to us, regrardless of the fact that the odds of 'X' happening are 1 in 50 million. Geez!

18 posted on 04/04/2008 6:00:28 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
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To: angcat

Growing up in Yonkers, if I did my homework, I was expected to be home for dinner. Between 3:30 and 6:30 P.M. my friends and I had free roam of the neighborhood. Never had a problem. (If you don’t count the bicycle damage to the golf course)

Now, as parents, we are constantly trying to balance freedom and safety for our kids. Part of the problem is that middle school aged children are not as innocent as we were. Thirteen year-olds are getting into things that I was clueless about at 16.


19 posted on 04/04/2008 6:01:31 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9 (DR #1692)
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To: kenmcg

A nine year old is generally small enough to pick up and carry off.

My rule about the kids going out on their own is that they had to be too big to easily abscond with.


20 posted on 04/04/2008 6:01:44 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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