I have a question Disney Dad........do you allow your kids to go trick or treating at night without you? Are they allowed to go anywhere they pretty much want to go?
Are they allowed to rip into those bags of candy without your even looking at them?
Are they allowed to go at at 9:00am and return at 9:00pm without calling, texting, emailing etc?
We have electronic signs over our highways here in FL (which are relatively new) and while they have many uses...warnings of road closures, traffic advisories etc.....one of their uses is to alert motorists of AMBER alerts so that they can be on the look out for car models and plate numbers and alert the police.
As for whether it was worse in the 80's.....tell that to the parents who were just informed that their little girls body was just found.
For their age group, my kids are allowed to do pretty much the same thing I did at their age. My son is 10, and my twin girls are 7. They walk to and from school by themselves (about a 20 minute walk) unless the weather is bad, then our nanny gives them city bus tickets to go the two bus stops to school.
When I have tickets to the Toronto Bluejay games after work (once or twice a year), I give my son a bus ticket and ask him to meet me at the subway station. It's one bus, so no transfers are needed, and he knows where to wait for me. It's a 20 minute bus ride, but he's fine doing it.
I let them play outside by themselves, and come in when they are tired. In the beginning they wanted Daddy out with them, and I was more than happy to oblidge. But now when they want to go play and I'm dealing with other things, I allow them to grab my keys and go (the keys are needed to get into the lobby door to our condo).
As far amber alerts, any child that disappears is a tragedy, and I wouldn't for a moment minimalize the pain and suffering that both the child and the family goes through. But last year there were 117 stranger child abductions in the US, or roughly a 1 in a million and a half chance that it will happen to your child. Of those 11 were killed. Compare that to 1,274 death do to car crashes, and you can see that "Stranger danger" isn't nearly as prevolent as we feel it is. I'm not for a moment saying that these lives lost aren't horrific, it's just that "stranger danger" or tainted candy should be put in their proper perspectives. Stranger danger happens rarely, and candy tainting NEVER has.
And as for trick or treating, my kids INSIST I go with them.Not because they are afraid but because they like seeing me in my Fantasia Mickey outfit. The only candy looking I do with my kids is for stuff I like.
