Take Your Kids to the Park...

[HelenePA]

My older 3 go to the park together "alone" all the time.. its 5 steps from my back gate to the park and was the #1 reason we bought the house we live in! They usually go with their other friends so they are never there themself.

 

[ardig123]

Heck no...I live in a small community...I had always thought it was very safe and twice in the past 2 weeks there have been attempted kidnapping/assault attempts on an 11 year old girl and a 12 year old girl. Thank God they both got away but they have yet to catch the person so I am going with better safe than sorry!

 

[disney1990]

No helicopter parents or grandparents here. Our granddaughters are 10 and 11 and they go to the park by themselves all the time. They play out in their neighborhood, riding their bikes, walking in the creek and playing hide and go seek. They are no more sheltered than their Mom was 33 years ago.

Believe it or not, there are no more child abductions in 2010, than in years past. It only seems like it because we are bombarded with news everywhere in 2010. And in addition, most children are abducted by relatives.

 

[themilesfamily]

We take a middle-of-the-road approach.

The kids on our street all run around together -- we know everyone who lives on our street by name. The kids are free to play in their friends' yards and at their friends' houses.

There is a park about four blocks away that is in the middle of an apartment complex. We don't let them play there alone because there are so many registered sex offenders who live there (we keep an eye on that list) and I just don't know the people there.

The other parks are about 2-3 miles away. Several times a week one of the parents in the neighborhood drives the whole group down to the park and sits and reads a book or whatever while they play. I wouldn't just drop them off and leave them, because if something happened they would be too far to come and get help.

We try to be middle-of-the-road, but I lean on the side of caution rather than "free-range."

 

[Mermaid02]

Do we have to pick them up?








I'M KIDDING!

 

[mykidsand_i]

It's really funny that this was just posted today- our neighbor boy was brought home by a stranger (dad and his son) because there were two older men at the park sitting and WATCHING the kids playing...they didn't have kids of their own there either. This dad and his son walked our neighbor boy home because he said he would have felt bad if something happened to him when he was there all alone...The dad was actually quite mad and the neighbor boys parents. The dad thought the boy was ours, because we were out in the front yard- he almost started YELLING at us when he was 'walking him home' then, I said- "no he live in that house." and he went over to ring their door bell. The cops showed at the park and HANDCUFFED one of the men and put them in the back of his car! I saw this from our back yard!!! SCARY!!!

ALSO, kids that were picked up late from my girls school today (their parents told them to play on the playground at school until the mother could get them 20 minutes after school got out)...One of them fell off the jungle gym and had to be picked up by an ambulance- because there was no one watching them, one other mom dialed 911 when the kid fell FACE FIRST into the ground and cracked her head open. Now sure- she would have gotten hurt weather her parents were watching her or not- but the mom is THOWING A HUGE fit, because the AMBULANCE was called. She threated the lady who called (a friend of mine was the one who called 911) said she wanted to sue. Now, obviously that's what needed to be done in this case- and if the parent was actually THERE, she could have just brought her herself!

Two times today that I heard of bad things happening JUST BECAUSE kids were at the park with out parent supervision!

 

[krcit]

Do we have to pick them up?








I'M KIDDING!

 

[aprilgail2]

From what I saw on the news, she's talking about kids 7 and up. I think that is a recipe for disaster not to mention against the law according to a lawyer on a local news program. 7,8,9 even 10 to me is too young. .

My daughter has been going to the park with friends since the summer before 4th grade- she was 9. They walk over and all hang out there together and play. They all have cell phones and can call if needed. No need for them to have mommy hovering about them every minute of the day. She is 10 now and rides her bike or scooter 12 blocks over to her friends house, they walk up to the main road to go for ice cream or pizza together. My god some people are saying they don't let their 13 year olds go places- that is HIGH SCHOOL age...I can not imagine telling my high school aged child that they can't walk to the park!! If she didn't have a cell phone she would have less freedom than she does but I am comfortable with her going out with friends without mommy there to hold their hands.

 

[PatsGirl]

IMHO it's all about the "buddy system". I allowed DS lots of freedom when he was younger. By the time he was 10 he was riding his bike all over town and going fishing at the local train bridge, started swimming/boating at the pond down the street at 12 But, he always had to be with someone!

The same goes for DD13 although she doesn't like to stray far from home and is content to hang out here with Mom When we've camped and she brings a friend, they have always been able to go explore, TOGETHER!

And I agree that violence against children hasn't increased just our awareness has but I don't think scaring our children and overprotecting them has benefited anyone. Would I drop my kids at the park as part of this program? Probably not that day but any other day, lol, just because I wouldn't want to involve my kids in any movements that are so extreme.