Free-Range Kids

[6Pins]

It is statistically much safer for our children than it was for us in the 70s & 80s. We've managed to let the media and the 24hr news cycle convince us we live in a very dangerous world. The Times of London did a study last year assuming that you actually wanted your son to be abducted, to determine how long would you have to leave them, outside, unattended.

"It would take 200,000 years. And then you'd get them back within 24 hours. If you wanted them to be taken for longer you'd need to hang about for around 600,000 years. Because in any one year the average child stands a 0.0005 per cent chance of being abducted by a stranger and a 0.00016 chance of not being recovered alive within 24 hours"

The US population is larger, but the per capita numbers for kidnappings are about the same. It would take approx. 750,000 years for a child left outside, unattended.

Any child that is killed is a horrible tragedy. But when the numbers are about 50 kids in a country of 300 million, it’s also a very random, rare event. It is far more rare, for instance, than dying from a fall off the bed or other furniture.



http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4418620.ece

 

[nargun]

Why all the stories and fear about ‘stranger danger’ when the greatest threat of child sexual or physical assault lies within your circle of friends or family.

My daughter started travelling by suburban trains alone at 13 (and through some pretty tough suburbs) and I see a number of kids daily catching suburban trains at the age of 8 or 9. Admittedly, these are all commuter trains

People look after kids in these environments. A person touching up one of those kids would be confronted at the very least, and probably physically restrained until the police arrived.

Mobile phones are a great security, as well as a little bit of common sense in explaining how to act. At 11 my daughter caught an interstate flight all by herself and had to wait an hour for the rest of the sporting team to arrive. At 15 she travelled overseas; she escorted the other 2 kids travelling with her through customs and immigration at both ends.

The problem I find is how to create the right balance; to let them loose on the world with an understanding of their vulnerabilities but not to be so scared that they cannot enjoy the freedoms that self reliance brings

There was some research a few years ago conducted in Australia where the researchers asked people elderly people whether they had been sexually assaulted as children. The responses indicated that the rate of sexual assault was almost identical to that reported today. I think this mirrored the results of UK studies

 

[Jacket]

That's why you gotta explore while they're young. That way they'll be losing their minds sitting around your house just like you :sombrero:

So true.

 

[autoxrs]

My parents have 2 kids, I am the younger by 6 years.

As a lad my brother was coddled, he was after all the first born. By the time I came around my parents had learned by trial and error.

Long before age 9 I was walking back and forth from school which was around 2 miles away (in a third world country, nonetheless). If my parents went anywhere we were left home alone. We survived, and unless what parenting experts will say we both grew up to be reasonable adults.

The over protectiveness towards my brother meant he simply can't survive outside 4 brick walls and away from telephones and so forth. He is in his mid 30s and to date hasn't even been able to spend one night camping in his own back yard in the middle of sprawling suburbia. On the other hand I try to spend as many weekends camping as I can. Through rain, snow and even blazing summer weather. A car, a map and a tent is all I need, and yet when I go somewhere with my brother he needs a multistar hotel while I'm ready to camp out.

So, I give kudos to the mother who let her kid learn discover responsibility as we seem to have lost some of that in modern times.