Comments on: New School, New Independence

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 02:44:57 +0000

@Nancy: Nancy, it's terrifying. At least when he was walking to school pretty much all I worried about was cars, and in the four block walk there were so many people we knew on the streets going to the same place I would get frequent updates on how he was doing - good or bad. Now, I worry about wrong buses, wrong subways, subway fires, bus accidents, high school kids picking on him...and cars.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:38:48 +0000

I started letting my kids walk the .9 miles (yes, I clocked it) to school by themselves last year. They have to cross Broadway and another MAJOR intersection to get there, and I panic just thinking about it. But your line about how no one questions if an adult gets run over crossing alone — things happen. You can’t keep your kids under your watch all the time. You just give them the best tools you can to navigate the world themselves.
But that’s some scary S&*T!
Nancy recently posted..Real Life Lessons from a Virtual World (dofollow)

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 13:23:43 +0000

@Real Dad: I think it started with twenty-four hour news networks looking for space to fill, and got a million times worse as the internet grew. There were child abductions when I was a kid, but since there wasn't wall-to-wall coverage of them, they didn't hover over us like a constant threat.

By: Real Dad

Real Dad — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 12:06:52 +0000

I give you a ton of credit! My kids are small so my wife drives them to school which is 3 miles away but I guarantee that she wouldnt let my oldest take the bus even in middle school. You make a good point because I think the parents of this generation, including me, do not not give our kids the independence given to us as kids. I don’t know when and why that started but it did.
Good for you and good luck to your son! I am sure he appreciates it haha
Real Dad recently posted..A Double Standard