728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Independence › Times, They Are a'Changin'

Times, They Are a'Changin'

Should You Let Your Children Venture Out Alone?

By Carma Haley Shoemaker

Pages:  1  2  3  

The majority of today's parents can remember a time from their own childhood when their neighborhood was filled with children playing in the streets, walking to friends' houses or even visiting the corner store without parental supervision. The time was as carefree as the children were and parents gave kids a limitation of blocks or even miles, not fences.

According to the National Safety Institute, the age at which a child is given unsupervised freedom to venture into his own neighborhood has increased from age 7 in 1980 to 12 in 1999. In addition, the area over which children are allowed to travel without supervision has decreased an average of 75 percent, from one mile to two city blocks. The NSI reports that these changes may be due to increased media coverage of crime, increased awareness of crime, as well as an increase of violence itself in local neighborhoods and schools.

One common myth is that occurrences of violence against children only happen in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles or Miami. In reality, city lines do not bind incidences involving children. A 1998 report from the NSI states that violent crimes against children are just as common in rural areas as in urban or metropolitan areas. Carrie Myers Smith, a freelance writer from Landaff, New Hampshire says, "We live on a very rural road -- no sidewalks -- and the traffic speeds by. People here always think 'it' won't happen in these small, quiet towns. Truth is, that's the perfect place for it to happen because we think it won't."

Practices of "safe houses" or neighborhood watches, which helped parents feel secure with letting their children play unsupervised, are still active, but at a much lower rate than in previous years, according to the NSI. In addition, the Federal Housing Authority and National Home and Housing statistics report that the number of families renting homes in place of buying has increased approximately 36 percent over the past six years resulting in frequent relocations of families in and out of various neighborhoods. The increased number of families relocating tends to decrease the number of participants in neighborhood watch programs. Sherry French, a college instructor from Ontario, Canada says, "People know fewer of their neighbors. Neighborhood watches used to be an automatic thing, kids knew people in so many of the houses on their street and the parents in these houses also knew the kids. Now, even though neighborhood watches are set up, a lot of people on your own street wouldn't know your children or that something wrong was happening right before their eyes."


Pages:  1  2  3  


Want to see more?