When I think about my childhood, many of my memories involve playing outside. We got our first TV when I was around 7. My parents decided that we just would not engage in "Of course I have finished my homework and can watch TV" discussions, so the TV was off limits during the week. In the 50s, there were no video games or other electronic distractions; after school, I was right out the door to play. On Saturday morning after breakfast, I would head off on my bike - - and might end up in the woods building a fort, or down the street climbing the tremendous old apple tree (which was frequently a space ship for me... ), or playing soccer, or working on building and flying giant kites. My suburban neighborhood was expanding, and I particularly enjoyed climbing around the houses under construction, and sitting in the driver seat of the various pieces of big yellow construction equipment. I was outside until supper... and then outside again until near dark, when all of our parents would call us home.
Today I live in a suburban neighborhood, not very different from the one where I grew up. About two blocks from me there is a playground, and one side of the playground rises up into a wooded hill. We rarely see kids go by our house without a parent. In the morning, each corner has children waiting for the school bus .... each child accompanied by a parent, or watched by a parent in a nearby parked car. Only the high school kids walk down to the end of the neighborhood to catch their school bus.
I have noticed similar cautious behaviour in the ladies' room, where a mother and daughter will stay together, squeezing into one stall. For those moms, even standing directly outside the stall is apparently not safe enough, not close enough, not careful enough.
Over the past few years, there have been so many stories about abductions, rapes, murders of children. I don't know if there are *more* child-related crimes now, or if omnipresent media coverage has just made us all more aware. I do understand why the parents are worried. I also grieve the loss of freedom for our children, who are growing up in *such* a different world.
Today I live in a suburban neighborhood, not very different from the one where I grew up. About two blocks from me there is a playground, and one side of the playground rises up into a wooded hill. We rarely see kids go by our house without a parent. In the morning, each corner has children waiting for the school bus .... each child accompanied by a parent, or watched by a parent in a nearby parked car. Only the high school kids walk down to the end of the neighborhood to catch their school bus.
I have noticed similar cautious behaviour in the ladies' room, where a mother and daughter will stay together, squeezing into one stall. For those moms, even standing directly outside the stall is apparently not safe enough, not close enough, not careful enough.
Over the past few years, there have been so many stories about abductions, rapes, murders of children. I don't know if there are *more* child-related crimes now, or if omnipresent media coverage has just made us all more aware. I do understand why the parents are worried. I also grieve the loss of freedom for our children, who are growing up in *such* a different world.
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