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Let kids play outside alone? It should be a crime

I lived on the bad side of SLC (1135 W 255 S -- about 150yrds from where I-80 crosses the Jordan River) from age 2-11. We moved to Sandy in '89. As a kid from 8-11 my friends and I were all over that area on our own. We'd frequently walk over the 4th S Viaduct, letting out at Pioneer Park amongst the large homeless population there. Sometimes we'd take the bus to the Triad Center to go ice skating.

I can't imagine how boring my childhood would have been had I been tethered to my parents that whole time.

That said, my son is 12 and I live a couple blocks from the Jordan Landing Mall and I've never once let him wonder over there with his friends unsupervised and I assure you there are 1000% fewer homeless people, heroin addicts and ex-cons between here and there than there were between my house and my best friends house when I was growing up.
 
Gameface said:
I lived on the bad side of SLC (1135 W 255 S -- about 150yrds from where I-80 crosses the Jordan River) from age 2-11. We moved to Sandy in '89. As a kid from 8-11 my friends and I were all over that area on our own. We'd frequently walk over the 4th S Viaduct, letting out at Pioneer Park amongst the large homeless population there. Sometimes we'd take the bus to the Triad Center to go ice skating.

I can't imagine how boring my childhood would have been had I been tethered to my parents that whole time.

That said, my son is 12 and I live a couple blocks from the Jordan Landing Mall and I've never once let him wonder over there with his friends unsupervised and I assure you there are 1000% fewer homeless people, heroin addicts and ex-cons between here and there than there were between my house and my best friends house when I was growing up.
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I'm not questioning your parenting at all but I must ask, why have you not let your 12 year old roam free and be a child per se, unsupervised? Obviously I'm sure you do some but in the manner you spoke, why don't you?
 
Society has changed. Helicopter parenting is the norm. I used to ride miles away on my bike to go downtown and mess around as a pretty young kid. I walked two miles to school when I was six.

A lot of stuff is just not considered OK anymore, and I think the media is largely to blame by showing all of the crap that goes on in this country. Statistically our kids are safer than any time in the past, and I don't think the helicoptering has anything to do with it.
 
JAZZGASM said:
Society has changed. Helicopter parenting is the norm. I used to ride miles away on my bike to go downtown and mess around as a pretty young kid. I walked two miles to school when I was six.

A lot of stuff is just not considered OK anymore, and I think the media is largely to blame by showing all of the crap that goes on in this country. Statistically our kids are safer than any time in the past, and I don't think the helicoptering has anything to do with it.
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I wasn't looking for a broad answer. I know that society has changed and we must, at times, change accordingly. I was looking for Gameface's answer.
 
It's all ********. Let the kids roam for hell's sake. Any stats you care to google for will show that there have been virtually zero change in child abductions and murders in the past like 50 years. It peaked in the 70's, last I remembered looking it up, and has been on a steady decline ever since, albeit a very very slow, nearly flat, decline. It is all driven by the fact that every single bad thing that ever happens gets shoved in our faces from around the world the very instant it happens, which leads people to the mistaken belief that the world is full of nothing but horrible terrible people who just sit in bushes all day waiting for that poor little girl who happens to be all alone and a mile from her house so he can kidnap her and make her put the lotion on her skin or else she gets the hose again. It is all ********. Let the damn kids be kids for hell's sake. ****!
 
I got into it with a neighbor once who threatened to call child protective services because I let my 10 year old daughter ride her bike from my parent's house (in Washington Terrace Utah, if you know the area, a real hotbed of pedophile and criminal activity, amirite? /sarcasm) to the Newgate Mall in Riverdale...gasp..ALONE!! Oh the horror!!!
 
LogGrad98 said:
It's all ********. Let the kids roam for hell's sake. Any stats you care to google for will show that there have been virtually zero change in child abductions and murders in the past like 50 years. It peaked in the 70's, last I remembered looking it up, and has been on a steady decline ever since, albeit a very very slow, nearly flat, decline. It is all driven by the fact that every single bad thing that ever happens gets shoved in our faces from around the world the very instant it happens, which leads people to the mistaken belief that the world is full of nothing but horrible terrible people who just sit in bushes all day waiting for that poor little girl who happens to be all alone and a mile from her house so he can kidnap her and make her put the lotion on her skin or else she gets the hose again. It is all ********. Let the damn kids be kids for hell's sake. ****!
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This. Though I do think our growing population makes wide-open spaces to go play less viable and instead there are neighborhoods everywhere and cars all over the place that could run down and kill a child at any time. This is what parents may think anyway. I also live in NJ which is far more densely populated than other states and in area now that is much more busy and commercialized than where I grew up 30 years ago.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
This. Though I do think our growing population makes wide-open spaces to go play less viable and instead there are neighborhoods everywhere and cars all over the place that could run down and kill a child at any time. This is what parents may think anyway. I also live in NJ which is far more densely populated than other states and in area now that is much more busy and commercialized than where I grew up 30 years ago.
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Yeah there may be more threats due to urbanization, but I was taught, and subsequently taught my kids, how to safety cross a street and how to respectfully interact with drivers. No parental involvement in this kind of things is a different topic than the scary horrible world trying to kill our children.
 
I just happened to bring this up with my wife while I was on the phone with her a few minutes ago and she reminded me of one time she got into it with a neighbor because that neighbor sent OUR children home from the park because it wasn't safe, all the time deriding us as parents for letting our (then) 12, 10, and 8 year olds out of our sight (a whole 2 blocks away) for even a second and threatening to call the cops! Not to mention the fact that there were about 20 kids playing at the park that day. Just ridiculous.
 
Its so crazy because I was just driving through the area that I grew up, with my family last weekend and I honestly didn't want my kiddos to get out of the car. I'm sure its still a nice part of town but its sure looks run down. Being a parent (4 kids under the age of 5) I just want to make sure there always protected and watched over. I was just talking to my wife the other about this same thing. How did my parents let me go there, or stay there without there guidance?

I really think its a personal preference but my kids our still young enough, that I need to be out there watching over them. The only thing that really makes me irritated, is when little kids (age 2-6) our outside playing, riding there bikes in the streets without helmets and no parent guidance. It kind of makes me fell like a mandatory babysitter because some of the kids don't know any better.
 
LogGrad98 said:
I got into it with a neighbor once who threatened to call child protective services because I let my 10 year old daughter ride her bike from my parent's house (in Washington Terrace Utah, if you know the area, a real hotbed of pedophile and criminal activity, amirite? /sarcasm) to the Newgate Mall in Riverdale...gasp..ALONE!! Oh the horror!!!
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If it's 4900 and about 400 W, then maybe. There were a couple in one of those apartment complexes.

But that hill is dangerous, dontcha know?
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
I wasn't looking for a broad answer. I know that society has changed and we must, at times, change accordingly. I was looking for Gameface's answer.
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I don't let my kids do half the **** I did growing up because I was scarred by new media/mom scaring the hell out of me about it all. It's odd recognizing a phobia and not being able to do much about it.
 
Darkwing Duck said:
If it's 4900 and about 400 W, then maybe. There were a couple in one of those apartment complexes.

But that hill is dangerous, dontcha know?
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Tell me about it! Especially 300 W. And I have the scars to prove it from before it even had a sidewalk.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
I'm not questioning your parenting at all but I must ask, why have you not let your 12 year old roam free and be a child per se, unsupervised? Obviously I'm sure you do some but in the manner you spoke, why don't you?
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He hasn't really expressed much of an interest, tbh. I am much more liberal about letting him roam around than my wife, she doesn't want him crossing busy streets by himself. I encourage him to get out and ride his bike around but it's like I have to make him do it most of the time.
 
LogGrad98 said:
I just happened to bring this up with my wife while I was on the phone with her a few minutes ago and she reminded me of one time she got into it with a neighbor because that neighbor sent OUR children home from the park because it wasn't safe, all the time deriding us as parents for letting our (then) 12, 10, and 8 year olds out of our sight (a whole 2 blocks away) for even a second and threatening to call the cops! Not to mention the fact that there were about 20 kids playing at the park that day. Just ridiculous.
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Yep, the only thing that has changed is peoples perception. None of my neighbors would have pulled **** like this when I was growing up.
 
LogGrad98 said:
I got into it with a neighbor once who threatened to call child protective services because I let my 10 year old daughter ride her bike from my parent's house (in Washington Terrace Utah, if you know the area, a real hotbed of pedophile and criminal activity, amirite? /sarcasm) to the Newgate Mall in Riverdale...gasp..ALONE!! Oh the horror!!!
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Spray paint its car my friend. Do it at like 3 to four in the morning thats best time for this kind of thing. I would say to you spray paint inside her mouth if You could have easy gettaway.
 
JAZZGASM said:
Society has changed. Helicopter parenting is the norm. I used to ride miles away on my bike to go downtown and mess around as a pretty young kid. I walked two miles to school when I was six.

A lot of stuff is just not considered OK anymore, and I think the media is largely to blame by showing all of the crap that goes on in this country. Statistically our kids are safer than any time in the past, and I don't think the helicoptering has anything to do with it.
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i agree. but should i not be free how i raise my kids.


we used to go out in groups in the forest. like 8-10 kids. 45 minute card rive away from parents.
they dropped us off and came back i a few days.


sure sometimes it was like lord of flies. sure we had our share of accidents. but thats live.

and if i feel i should leave my kids there, trust them, trust my upbringing. why shouldnt i.

the problem i have is with other people telling us how to live
 
DutchJazzer said:
i agree. but should i not be free how i raise my kids.


we used to go out in groups in the forest. like 8-10 kids. 45 minute card rive away from parents.
they dropped us off and came back i a few days.


sure sometimes it was like lord of flies. sure we had our share of accidents. but thats live.

and if i feel i should leave my kids there, trust them, trust my upbringing. why shouldnt i.

the problem i have is with other people telling us how to live
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I absolutely support giving parents the right to raise their children the way they see fit. The parents are ultimately responsible for their children until they reach adulthood and their children are essentially their ticket to continued genetic existence and frequently people rely on their children once they get old for support. So with so much invested and so much responsibility I think it is only right to give them an equal degree of choice as to how they want to parent.

Now flat out physical abuse and extreme neglect, that's hard to stomach and I don't think a community really needs to sit idly by and let that go. But I think the case should be rather extreme before there is any intervention.
 
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