Toddler Killed In Alleged 'Boxing Match' With Adult Man

mycfnow ^

[honeygrl]

"Have you thought about this? What message are we sending our kids when we start to believe that it is negligence to allow them contact with other people? "

If I lived in a neighborhood like my parents do, my kids may actually have a life like you described. Around me though there have been 3 drive by shootings (no one hurt yet thankfully) in the past month or so that we know of. There has been one attempted rape about a hundred yards from my apartment and some guy was selling coke and crack out of his trunk right next to MY parking space out front. We have every intention of getting out of here one day but our lease isn't up until December. We can't afford the penalties in breaking your lease plus the cost of moving in someplace else. The police are working with us all though on getting the neighborhood cleaned up so maybe we won't have to move. We have a cop moving in 2 doors down which I think will help. But kids running free like they use to just isn't safe anymore in a lot of places. Mine are 2 1/2 and almost 8mths old anyhow so they aren't even old enough to run around outside alone yet. We do visit my in-laws on their farm several times every summer so he gets to run around outside shirtless from the time he gets up until bedtime. It's better than nothing I guess.

[ChemistCat]

I know--it's not safe here either. We have two houses on my street that concern me...several families apparently living there, no clear blood relationship between the women and the several men who are in and out, and the kids. The teenagers are out all night long, being noisy...if they're playing basketball in the street, and you want to drive through, they just stand there and look at you with this sullen, scary look on their faces, and you know that if you make any kind of fuss, you may or may not have air in your tires. I'd have to be crazy to let my children out to play.

And yet---I can't believe I'm capitulating. Giving the streets to the criminals, the hoodlums, the nameless fears. How did they win? When did we give up the pleasure of sitting out on the stoops, of our kids running and chasing and learning and climbing fences and getting into and out of trouble on their own?

When did we give up the sidewalks?

[honeygrl]

Well, move to a place out in the country like my in-laws have and you can sit on the porch all day while the kids play. I love going there for a week or two at a time to visit and my in-laws love it that I drive 4 hours just to let them visit with their grandkids.

[netmilsmom]

I've thought all of it through. I wish that I could send my kids out and let them run. I now live in a sub by a 12 lane major road. We have had rapes and abductions in the area. It is a different world, people are not sicker, we just know about it and have two working parent families. No backup support moms in my neighborhood.