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I find it funny the amount of fear I feel now as a parent of the world around me. Partly, my wife is a newsaholic paranoid freak who thinks some guy wearing a clown suit and driving a white van is going to drive up in our yard and take our kid to sell him on Ebay or something. Outside of that though, I still am considerbaly more fearful for children in general now than it seems my parents were when I was young.
I grew up in a fairly small town (20k or so pop.) and I can remember as young as 4 or 5 being outside riding the big wheel around the corner and over on the next block. Then, we moved to a new neighborhood when I was 7, and it didn't have sidewalks. I started riding my bike in the streets and started riding farther away. By middle school, I was walking a mile or more through rough neighborhoods after school to get to where my mom worked (an elementary school), or I would take the bus, and walk 1/2 to 1 mile to my house from the closest drop point.
I can remember staying home alone on a few occasions, but probably not until I was 13-15 or so because I had two younger sisters (one 3 years younger and one 9 years younger). I would normally be in charge of them for short periods. Often, my mom would go out and take my youngest sister and leave me and my other sister home alone.
I guess it all just depends on the children, the area, the trust you have with your children.
I know that my wife and I have already started having those debates about what age will we let our son(s) go out and play in the yard without us watching them. I suspect probably not until school age at least (5-6). However, even that to me seems like much less freedom than I had at that age.
And, I can't even imagine giving a kid the kind of freedom I had starting as early as middle school. My parents, my father particularly, were very protective and usually very knowledgable of what I was doing, where I was going, who I was going with, etc. At least when I was in high school. However, even at 12 and 13, I would ride my bike across town without my parents knowledge (talking 5 or 6 miles here). For some reason, knowing how I was, scares the shit out of me about the future of giving my children greater freedom to go out on their own and ride their bikes, etc.
However, I will say one thing that I see becoming more common, and though I always thought it ridiculous, I now am starting to see the reasoning of kids with cellphones. The primary reason is so a parent can track a kid down, or give the kid a way to call in case of danger or emergency. Now, of course, we realize all they do with them is call their friends all day long, but still.
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I think that's what they mean by "nickels a day can feed a child." I thought, "How could food be so cheap over there?" It's not, they just eat nickels. - (supposedly) Peter Nguyen, internet hero
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