{"id":7153,"date":"2009-12-15T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7153"},"modified":"2009-12-15T12:49:13","modified_gmt":"2009-12-15T17:49:13","slug":"spreading-the-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7153","title":{"rendered":"Spreading The Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kids today have it tough.<\/p>\n

Not so much on “life is difficult” front, of course; compared to life in the Depression, for kids who were going to grow up and go off to World War II and spend Christmas of 1944 in weather more or less like this sitting in foxholes in the Ardennes, kids today have it pretty OK.<\/p>\n

But on the “adults are scary and stupid” front?\u00a0 Kids today have it rough.<\/p>\n

School counselors have been reporting a wave of…timidity?\u00a0 Kids don’t socialize as much today as they used to; school counselors note the amazing, depressing numbers of children that head directly home after school, watch television\/do homework, and rarely if ever get outside without direct adult supervision.\u00a0 Part of the problem is the epidemic of single-parent homes, most of whom are headed by single mothers.\u00a0 Parents’ styles are as individual as they are, of course – but one of the reason God, biology, remorseless fate or whatever you do or don’t believe in made families with mixed-gender parents is because different genders bring different traits to the table; mothers are stereotypically “nurterers”, and more risk-averse; fathers are, again stereotypically, the ones that imprint adventure and risk-taking on the kids (and no, feel free not <\/em>to flood my comment section with stories of what an exception your mother was; I know, already). And so, with no male in the house to model behavior from, the kids become…nurtured.\u00a0 And overnurtured, as the case may be.\u00a0 It’s not the only <\/em>explanation – but then, this post isn’t about explaining things.<\/p>\n

Lenore Skenazy at Free Range Kids – a blog that is\u00a0going on\u00a0my blogroll today –\u00a0writes<\/a>\u00a0about a letter to the editor she got:<\/p>\n

Dear Free-Range Kids: My name is Shaylene Haswarey, and I want to share a story with you today.<\/p>\n

This morning, my doorbell rang, and two police officers were present.\u00a0 They asked me if I am the mother of my children, and I said yes.\u00a0 They said someone called them because my three oldest kids (ages 9, 7, and 6) were walking around our GATED town-house complex, unattended.\u00a0I said, \u201cThey found a cat, and I let them go out and feed it.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…I told the officer I am from Idaho, and kids play outside like this all the time.\u00a0 He said my kids are too young to be out, \u00a0because we do not have a yard, and this is a complex.\u00a0 He also told me there are predators around here.\u00a0 He finally told me if I let my kids out again he will have to call social services because I am endangering my children!\u00a0What is wrong with this picture???<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mitch’s answer – which is one reason why I don’t do a blog on parenting – is “they’re prepping your kids for the hyper-feminized school system, where uncontrolled risk-taking is actively squelched”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back to Skenazy’s letter:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Is it against the law to go out in the rain in your pajamas?
\n2.\u00a0 My kids know how to watch for cars.\u00a0 They were following the cat and feeding it.
\n3.\u00a0 There are NO predators in my neighborhood. I looked on Megan\u2019s Law, and there are only 6 in our whole city, and none are in my neighborhood.\u00a0 I live in\u00a0Aliso Viejo, CA.\u00a0 Aliso Viejo is a small city in between\u00a0Irvine\u00a0and Mission Viejo.\u00a0 These cities rank #1 by the FBI for the safest cities in America with a pop. of 100,000+.\u00a0 Therefore, Aliso Viejo is safer than the city I grew up in in Idaho!<\/p>\n

After the police officer asked for me and my husband\u2019s name and birthdates, I freaked out!\u00a0 I am NOT going to let my kids go outside without me again! \u00a0I don\u2019t want social services knocking on my door.\u00a0 What do you think I should do if anything, about this?\u00a0 My husband\u2019s family is from\u00a0India.\u00a0 They have a big house there.\u00a0 I am thinking of going to their village\u00a0this September\u00a0and staying there for a few months, so my kids can be normal kids. \u2014 Shaylene<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lenore writes back (emphasis added by yours truly):<\/p>\n

Dear Shaylene: Isn\u2019t it incredible that you are living the \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d \u2014 a house, four kids, nice town \u2014 and longing for the kind of childhood a kid can get in a much less affluent country<\/strong>? Meantime, I put this question to readers: What can this mom do to prove to the cop that she\u2019s not off base? How can we she convince him (and other cops and other neighbors) that being outside is normal and healthy for kids? Should we all call the police department there? Start a petition? Any ideas? \u2014 Lenore <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, you heard the lady<\/span> ladies.\u00a0 Let’s cough up some answers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kids today have it tough. Not so much on “life is difficult” front, of course; compared to life in the Depression, for kids who were going to grow up and go off to World War II and spend Christmas of 1944 in weather more or less like this sitting in foxholes in the Ardennes, kids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-law","category-pc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7204,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions\/7204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}