I was on another blog this morning and the writer was reminiscing about her childhood - playing outside, unsupervised, for hours. I was thinking, she must be a lot older than me. Because even though we lived on a military base, my parents made me check in with them every hour. And I don't mean a phone call from the nearest pay phone or friend's house. I had to physically show back up in front of my mother. And boy, as a kid, did I hate it!
But now I think about that hour rule. It kept me out of a lot of trouble, and while I don't know that my mom was particularly worried about abduction, it was a good rule of thumb. Daniel isn't even allowed to play in the front yard unless I'm outside. He can play out back all he wants, because the whole back side of the house is windows. (no kidding)All I have to do to see what he's up to is look out the nearest window.
At this point, I'm more worried about what he's likely to be doing than that someone might try to take him (after all, his first attempt at running away was when he was three) I think this is a good policy to put in place now. Is my paranoia unwarranted? Read the headlines. I don't think so.
--Misty
Monday, April 09, 2007
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3 comments:
I grew up in the late 50's early 60's. We had a maid everyday and most days we would wake up in the morning and play outside around our neighborhood or in the woods behind our house. We went barefooted all summer and we only came home when we got hungry. We had play huts and hideouts and treehouses. It was great! Once our parents told us not to play back in the woods anymore but we never knew why until years later we learned our maid had been raped and beaten in the woods behind our house by 2 men. We had seen these men, but as innocent kids, did not know of such things. Times are so different now. My children had less freedom than I did and now my grandchildren have even less.
I'm in my mid-20s and I remember being allowed to play outside for hours, so I really don't think it was that long ago that children could play outside without worry.
It's a shame the same sense of safety doesn't exist now.
I grew up in the 70's in rural Florida where we were allowed to play outside all day long. I think they were less worried about us being abducted and more about getting hurt by our rambunctiousness.
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