We've gone from riding our bikes to the nearest convenience store to buy comics, cards and candy, to not letting kids ride alone at all -- even in the relative safety of suburbia, even if we've bought them cell phones...
...In the Southern Arizona neighborhood of my youth, the elementary school was also the local park. The grounds were open, so playgrounds and fields could be accessed any time, day or night...
...When I was a kid, early arrivals at school were guaranteed a spot in games of football, kickball, soccer, basketball, tetherball, four square and whatever else we could think of. The sooner you got to school, the more you got to play.
He hit the nail on the head.
The problem is that even well-adjusted parents are forced into this weird behavior.
We lived in an apartment complex a few years ago and it was a nightmare. There was another mother who had a son my son’s age and the two of them would go out to play in our front yard. The boys were nine and ten. The doors were open and both moms could hear the boys.
A neighbor called the police on us over and over again. And what were the boys doing wrong? Well, one time they were sitting in a tree examining ants. (”They could fall or hurt the tree.” They were perched on a branch five freakin’ feet off the ground.) Another time they were running their trucks up a grassy hill. (”They could hurt the grass.”) Another time they were playing ball. (”They could take out a window.”)
In the end, she won. We either had to be visibly watching the boys or having to hire a baby sitter.
The best part was that nine was the legal age to leave children without supervision *of any kind*. Her kids were left for hours locked in their apartment while she worked.
Exactly. Today, we treat our kids like veal and adults like children.