Days pregnant: 54 U.S., 40 Europe
There was an interesting article I recently stumbled across about a mom who let her 9 year old son take a subway by himself to find his way home. The article was written by the mom, after the media frenzy died down surrounding this news story.
When the story hit the airwaves, people reacted in wildly different ways. Some people vilified the mom, and accused her of negligence, and “oh how could you,” and the such. And other people applauded her for giving her child the opportunity to be responsible and independent.
If you don’t know, here’s the story: the woman’s 9 year old son was begging her to ride the subway by himself. They lived in New York City. So, when they were across town one afternoon, she agreed. She gave him subway fare, and change for a phone call in case of an emergency. He knew the route to take, and she dropped him off at the subway stop. And, wouldn’t you know it, 45 minutes later, he returned home safe and sound.
The woman goes on to make an interesting point that parents have become so paranoid, that if you drive around suburbia, you rarely see kids out playing anymore. As a society, we’ve gotten to the point where in order to be considered “a good parent,” you have to take the most extreme stance and assume every single car that drives by is trying to abduct your child. People don’t let kid’s travel beyond the block, much less the driveway.
But at what cost? This woman’s child learned a lot about self esteem, and being independent, and what it means to be trusted. I remember being a kid, and my sister and I would be 6 or 7 years old, and we’d go ride our bikes a couple miles from our house, through mud and forests, and would usually get lost in the woods about once a week. But that was half the fun. Are we raising a generation of kids in bicycle helmets when they ride a tricycle? Are these kids not going to realize how to be independent and rely on their own wits? I doubt if taking extreme caution is really being a good parent.
Granted, I say all of this without having a child of my own yet. And I see how people can become uber protective. Yes, child abductions do occur. And you would to do everything to prevent that from happening to your child. But I gotta think life is full of scare, and awe, and amazement, and every emotion in between. To a certain point, you have to equip your children with the skills to survive, and be independent. I hate to say, “play the odds”… because that sounds callous … but truth be told, I’m sure the odds are 1 child out of a million is abducted. Heck, probably even fewer by total strangers (I’d venture that most abductions occur by people the child knows). But, then again, the odds of getting smashed by a semi or an SUV while your child is in the car may not be that different. Point is: there are lots of things out there to be protective of, but you have to take a stance somewhere, and not at the detriment of your child’s maturing and growing up.
PS- I reserve the right to disagree with all of this once I hold my newborn baby in my arms.
Posted by Manchild 