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To: summer
Homeschool bump!

Unfortunately, I see this attitude amongst many, many parents these days, whether black or white (or anything in between, for that matter).

Case in point: It's against regulations in the area where we live to leave kids under the age of 12 unsupervised, yet 99.9% of the time I am the only parent outside watching the kids play...and that includes two- and three-year-olds, as well. (What kind of parent sends a toddler outside to play without any supervision whatsoever? There are plenty of teenaged girls in the neighborhood who would love to be paid five bucks for watching a little one play outside for a couple of hours!)

The other day some unsupervised kids were playing on a neighbor's porch and broke a planter and a stand with glass shelves, all over the neighbor's front porch. I wasn't out at the time (nor were my kids), but came out when I heard her yelling at these kids to go home, get off her property or she was going to call the police. The kids, about a dozen of them ranging in age from 4 to 8, scampered off laughing but half-scared. Later on, would you believe some of the parents of these hooligans had the audacity to threaten the woman for yelling at their kids? Never mind that the kids were the instigators, playing where they should not have been, responsible for destruction of private property--in their view this woman was completely at fault for yelling at the children. One response: "If you don't like kids, you shouldn't have moved to a family neighborhood." (Followed by mutterings of profanity directed toward the woman.)

NONE of the kids, to my knowledge, were punished for being on this woman's porch or for breaking her planter and shelf. Rather, they were coddled for having to endure being verbally disciplined.

And, as evidenced in the news story above, the little hooligans will most certainly grow into big hooligans with mummy and daddy still getting mad at the discipliner, NOT the perpetrator who is actually at fault.

16 posted on 06/15/2002 5:02:10 AM PDT by shezza
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To: shezza
It's pretty sad when kids can't go out to play unsupervised. When I was a kid, there were unsupervised kids all over the neighborhood, playing softball, riding bikes, building forts, up in a tree house. I never see kids out on the streets today. They're either at supervised activities or at home watching TV or on the computer -- and people wonder why they're so fat and out of shape?
25 posted on 06/15/2002 6:56:50 AM PDT by ladylib
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To: shezza
BTTT to your entire post #16. Thanks, shezza.
68 posted on 06/15/2002 9:35:53 AM PDT by summer
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