Lately, I have been looking for alternate activities to do now that the weather is turning cooler. In the summer we spend our time at the beach, hiking, and generally playing outdoors. Winter activities fail to appeal to me because they lack that spontaneous, outdoorsy feel. Nonetheless, I've been looking for things to keep us occupied over the next few months.
So the other night I took my son to the library and I was struck with the saddest feeling. I will never be able to allow him the same freedoms that I had as a child. I would NEVER leave him in the children's section while I browsed the fiction books on the other side of the library.
It struck home that we live in an entirely different world than the one that I grew up in. My mom used to park me and my big brother in the toy section of Kmart while she shopped on the other side of the store. From about first grade on, I went to the large park behind my house alone for an hour at a time. I couldn't read time so my mom sent me out with a stove timer set for one hour! When my hubby was seven, he used to occasionally go to work with his dad on Saturdays and go to the movie theater or arcade across the street alone while his dad worked. Can you imagine doing any of these things today?
In contrast, I don't even allow my son to play out in the yard alone. I realize that he is only two now, but I don't think that this will ever happen where we live now. Our yard has a lot of traffic because of a nearby park and we share the yard with our neighbors' townhomes.
I realize that the press gives us a frenzied account of what could happen to our children when the actual statistics are quite low, but any numbers are alarming. I wonder how this lack of freedom will affect our kids? This is a really sad way to grow up.
Kelly
So the other night I took my son to the library and I was struck with the saddest feeling. I will never be able to allow him the same freedoms that I had as a child. I would NEVER leave him in the children's section while I browsed the fiction books on the other side of the library.
It struck home that we live in an entirely different world than the one that I grew up in. My mom used to park me and my big brother in the toy section of Kmart while she shopped on the other side of the store. From about first grade on, I went to the large park behind my house alone for an hour at a time. I couldn't read time so my mom sent me out with a stove timer set for one hour! When my hubby was seven, he used to occasionally go to work with his dad on Saturdays and go to the movie theater or arcade across the street alone while his dad worked. Can you imagine doing any of these things today?
In contrast, I don't even allow my son to play out in the yard alone. I realize that he is only two now, but I don't think that this will ever happen where we live now. Our yard has a lot of traffic because of a nearby park and we share the yard with our neighbors' townhomes.
I realize that the press gives us a frenzied account of what could happen to our children when the actual statistics are quite low, but any numbers are alarming. I wonder how this lack of freedom will affect our kids? This is a really sad way to grow up.
Kelly
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