The Free Range Child

Thank you for enlightening me.

By that standard, I think you have to be American to understand US politics, write for a newspaper to understand journalism, and play for the NFL to discuss football.

Regarding the mom who let her kid ride the subway: I saw them interviewed somewhere, and after 30 seconds you could see why she allowed it. This was a city kid who rode the subway with her every day, she took him on multiple test runs, met him at the other end...he was extremely savvy and independent. He just wanted to try it... seemed like a lot of fuss over nothing, actually.

 

Well, I lost the over/under on that response.

I had you pegged at less than fifteen minutes for that bit of predictability.

 

My district does not allow students to ride their bikes to school.

Not saying that is good or bad, but I am just stating the fact.

 

And what's the stated reason?

Safety? Liability? Theft?

 

jr---If 'you wouldn't understand' is the best you can do, the least I can do is not exceed your penchant for the predictable. Wouldn't be fair.

Off to work, cheers.

 

We live about a mile from a private school we briefly considered. 90 percent of the parents drive their kids to the school, which creates quite a line of cars.

I asked if my son could ride his bike (he could get there going through neighborhood roads) and they looked at me as if I had two heads.

 

I'm not going to get into this pissing match, but I know plenty about baseball and football from watching, reading, playing etc., but you can't learn to be a parent from a book or a TV show. At least I couldn't, can't speak for everybody.

 

The school buses that pull into the school lot across the street from me are never more than half full because of the steady stream of adults driving the kids to school. Nice use of fossil fuels, that.

So I just pull out in front of the cars in my truck.

 

I'm a parent and I completely agree with 21 on this topic. Of course there are families on both extremes but, as with most things, the extremes are just that. There's a huge majority that falls right in the middle, trying to find the right balance for their kids in a far more complex world. You can't raise your kids in the '60s or '70s anymore. Those days are over.

 

So what am I going to do with those bellbottom pants?

 

Hold on to them. Unlike parenting, clothes styles keep coming back.

 

Safety and liability.

A kid on a bike getting clipped by an SUV or bus in the parking lot is a potential nightmare.

A kid hopping on their bike at 11 a.m. and leaving school is no fun either.

When you load a bus, you also have a little more control over where the child is going after school. You can say that the child was delivered to xxxx address at xxx time thanks to the GPS systems on school buses now.

You also are pretty sure they are not meeting the abusive, divorced father if they ride the bus.

Oh, parents driving their kids to school everyday is very maddening. Go to a ritzy school 15 minutes before classes dismiss and watch the parade of SUVs outside the school. Johnny does not like the bus? Tough. Dealt with it. It's part of life.

And then those idiots try to get their kids 20 minutes before school ends so they are not bothered with the buses on the road.