Today I was thinking back to when I was a kid and how I would spend hours upon hours outside playing with my friends. We’d ride bikes, play 500, freeze tag, etc. There would be absolutely no adults outside with us, yet we always knew to look both ways to cross the street, how far into the neighborhood we could ride on our bikes and exactly when to come home each day (usually when it got dark and the street lights turned on). We also, *gasp, went door to door selling boxes of candy for our sports teams.
I wouldn’t DREAM of allowing my kids to do any of that right now. My kids are six and nine. They play in the backyard alone and if they are in the front, I am there. They don’t cross the street unless I am standing right there making sure a car isn’t coming so they can run and get their ball. They have boundaries as to how far they are allowed to ride their bikes. I’d like to let them ride around the block, but it scares me. I’d probably be holding my breath the entire time, freaked out that it was taking them too long.
So many times I hear people say (and I say the same thing), “times have changed”…but have they? Or is the media talking about all the horrible things we hear, more often? I didn’t research anything, but I would be willing to bet that some of the bad things we have happening now like kids being kidnapped, etc happened just as much then as they do now. We just didn’t hear about it as much.
As I thought about it some more today, I started to wonder something else. I think kids back when I was a kid were much more mature than kids now. For instance, at nine years old, I was allowed to go riding on my bike without my mom right there. But I was mature enough to go where I was allowed, stay out of the street and come home when I’m supposed to. I don’t know if I could trust my kids in that way.
I do think that the statement, “we are living in different times”…is true to an extent. I think the media sensationalizes things so much and gives so many details that it also gives crazy people ideas. So I think that’s why we see so much more of the same thing.
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