Posted on 08/23/2014 9:08:42 AM PDT by Drew68
A whopping 68 percent of Americans think there should be a law that prohibits kids 9 and under from playing at the park unsupervised, despite the fact that most of them no doubt grew up doing just that.
What's more: 43 percent feel the same way about 12-year-olds. They would like to criminalize all pre-teenagers playing outside on their own (and, I guess, arrest their no-good parents).
Those are the results of a Reason/Rupe poll confirming that we have not only lost all confidence in our kids and our communities—we have lost all touch with reality.
"I doubt there has ever been a human culture, anywhere, anytime, that underestimates children's abilities more than we North Americans do today," says Boston College psychology professor emeritus Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, a book that advocates for more unsupervised play, not less.
In his book, Gray writes about a group of 13 kids who played several hours a day for four months without supervision, though they were observed by an anthropologist. "They organized activities, settled disputes, avoided danger, dealt with injuries, distributed goods... without adult intervention," he writes.
The kids ranged in age from 3 to 5.
Of course, those kids were allowed to play in the South Pacific, not South Carolina, where Debra Harrell was thrown in jail for having the audacity to believe her 9-year-old would be fine by herself at a popular playground teeming with activity. In another era, it not only would have been normal for a child to say, "Goodbye, mom!" and go off to spend a summer's day there, it would have been odd to consider that child "unsupervised." After all, she was surrounded by other kids, parents, and park personnel. Apparently now only a private security detail is considered safe enough.
Harrell's real crime was that she refused to indulge in inflated fears of abduction and insist her daughter never leave her side. While there are obviously many neighborhoods wrecked by crime where it makes more sense to keep kids close, the country at large is enjoying its lowest crime level in decades.
Too bad most people reject this reality. The Reason/Rupe Poll asked "Do kids today face more threats to their physical safety?" and a majority—62 percent—said yes. Perhaps that's because the majority of respondents also said they don't think the media or political leaders are overhyping the threats to our kids.
But they are. "One culprit is the 24 hour news cycle," said Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, when I asked him why so few kids are outside these days. Turn on cable TV, "and all you have to do is watch how they take a handful of terrible crimes against children and repeat that same handful over and over," he said. "And then they repeat the trial over and over, and so we're conditioned to live in a state of fear."
Rationally understanding that we are living in very safe times is not enough to break the fear, he added.
So what is?
Experience. Through his Children and Nature Network, Louv urges families to gather in groups and go on hikes or even to that park down the street that Americans seem so afraid of. Once kids are outside with a bunch of other kids, they start to play. It just happens. Meanwhile, their parents stop imagining predators behind every bush because they are face to face with reality instead of Criminal Minds. They start to relax. It just happens.
Over time, they can gradually regain the confidence to let their kids go whoop and holler and have as much fun as they themselves did, back in the day.
Richard Florida, the urbanist and author of The Rise of the Creative Class, is one of the many parents today who recalls walking to school solo in first grade. He was in charge of walking his kindergarten brother the next year. The age that the Reason/Rupe respondents think kids should start walking to school without an adult is 12.
That's the seventh grade.
Florida has intensely fond memories of riding his bike "everywhere" by the time he was 10. Me too. You too, I'm guessing. Why would we deny that joy to our own kids? Especially when we're raising them in relatively safer times?
"Let your kids play in the park, for God's sake," Florida pleads. "We'll all be better for it."
Why should South Pacific toddlers have all the fun?
We are raising a generation of frightened, neurotic children incapable of fending for themselves and this does not bode well for our nation.
No more “Go outside and play until I call you for dinner.” Or until the street lights came on. Sadly, the days of being outside from sun up to sun set will never be seen again.
On the other hand, there’s plenty to be afraid of in our modern society. Gun control laws in cities have rendered many areas killzones. Perverts and deviants may now promote agendas to children unsupervised. Pedophiles are emboldened by leftist judges.
The solution is for sane people to live much more rurally, away from the detritus of modern liberalism. Then your kids can run as free as they like without fear.
I think I learned to be self reliant by going out on my own and finding friends to play with. Taught me to be adventurous.
I doubt the danger is any greater today than it was 100 years ago. We have access to information about it a lot more than we used to.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Raise your babies like convicts confined to their cells. That will work out well.
Unfortunately there may be more dangers having your kids play inside at a neighbor’s or friend’s house (or perhaps your own house unsupervised). . .no control on the remotes as well as computer/ipads, etc.
Today’s parents would rather give their kids a bowl of condoms and tell them to run upstairs and “play”.
I guess fifty-sixty years ago most parents would have been in jail if they would have been punished for letting their kids play unsupervised. And there were many more chlldren running around then. I remember being four or five years old and running around the neighborhood and beyond far out of sight of my parents. With other kids of course.
My two sons are in their early 20s, already out of the house and doing well for themselves.
That's because when they were in Little League, I didn't camp out at their practices with a lawn chair and a cooler full of enough drinks to sate the thirst of a small Somalian town like the other parents did.
I remember getting dirty looks from those parents as I dropped them off at practice and told them I'd be back a couple hours later. Everybody else felt obligated to sit in those damn lawn chairs every single practice "cheering" their little brats as they fielded (or didn't field) some ground balls and took a few weak swings at the plate with their oversized batting helmets.
Me, I couldn't care less. My kids were on their own when it came to ball practice because I had errands to run, books to read, etc. I might have shown up at an actual game now and again but that was about it.
When raising the two boys, I was definitely a "come home when the street lights turn on" kind of parent. I let them explore their neighborhood, get into a little trouble, skin their knees once in a while. And guess what, they grew up and became independent at a fairly early age while their peers still live in their parent's basement watching Green Day concerts and working some dead end part time job at the Orange Julius over at the mall.
Waiting for their parents to die so they can inherit the house because they aren't going to get off their butts to go get a house of their own.
You are correct.
The number of kidnappings of “unrelated” persons (of all ages) in the US for the last year where you can get records is something like 175. For the entire year. For the entire country of 300 million people.
So, if you are on good terms with your spouse or the parent of your child, and there is no chance they will swoop down and take them...the chances of them getting hit by a car are huge compared to someone grabbing them and taking them away.
I live on a street next to a school. At 2:40 PM it is impossible to get out of my street because the line of cars waiting to pick up their fat kids is 200 cars deep.
If the parents all just went and stood on a street corner and watched out for the kids crossing the streets, they would all get a good exercise, the streets would be clear, and all of that gas would not be wasted, waiting in line.
Kids are not pansies. Their parents are.
Sadly, I see a lot of this sentiment on FR. People here get livid when other parents do things they don’t think parents should do.
My take: OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS ARE NOT MY KIDS. GOD HAS GIVEN THE PARENTS THE AUTHORITY TO PARENT THEM AS THEY SEE FIT. Barring IMMINENT loss of life, I butt out.
Yes, this means poke a lit joint in your four year old’s mouth and I may give you a tongue lashing, but it is none of my business. And once it becomes my business, this country is done. It is no longer free.
Come to think of it...
What idiots.
In the 50’s we were playing ‘unsupervised under the age of 9’ all the time.
We’ve become a silly country, culture, and society. Bad things happens when this occurs.
We will have deserved it.
This ain’t the 1950’s anymore. It’s far more dangerous now for kids.
What the effin hell?
The little buggers breathe and poop just fine on their own.
Let em go play by themselves.
this “supervised” crap is going to enable Xbox and yoir 80” inch screen to become the supervisor, as you won’t be able to work up the energy and go to the park....BECAUSE....you need to make sure the house is clean, a meal prepared, shopping is done or just have some frickin alone time.
Additionally, your presence will only hinder their ability to resolve things, as you will constantly intervene, stunting their growth of independence and self identity.
Amen!
Get as far away from scum infested cities as your financial circumstances will allow.
I wouldn't have my family live in a big (democrat) city, if someone gave me a house there.
I let my 5-year old play outside unsupervised. We live in a quiet neighborhood and he doesn't go far. If I'm hanging out in the garage with the door open, I'll let his 3-year old brother join him. I've already gotten an earful from some of the busybody neighborhood moms and I know I'm risking a visit by child services for doing this but I don't want to raise a bunch of wussy kids.
They way I see it is that all those other kids will someday be working for my kids, who are being raised with confidence and self-reliance.
Word!
Hell, I went to the local golf course and picked up wayard mulligans, then sold them to men playing through.
I also learned how to solo hike when we lived in the Redwoods.
To this day, I love walking off into the woods and sometimes not coming back for a few days because I don’t feel like it.
I used to play in hig school sports and spectators might number 20 per game.
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