Comments on: The Bus Stop Conundrum: To free-range or not to free range

By: Sunny

Sunny — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:04:26 +0000

I think today’s parents hover even more because the world is a dangerous place.. I’d rather hover than have my child get abducted or hit by a car. I can’t imagine having that on my heart for the rest of my life because I was trying not to “hover”. It’s a different time and place!
-Sunny

By: Confessions of a Mean Mommy » Blog Archive » Mean Mom’s Question Time: How Much Do You Meddle in Your Kids’ Friendships?

Mon, 17 May 2010 13:04:36 +0000

[...] Charlie, was The Tormenter of the Bus Stop. (I recall that I actually mentioned our old bus stop in this old post about kids and bus stops, but I’d forgotten Charlie’s name.) Anyway, my sister said to Charlie’s sister, [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:05 +0000

Glad to see you echoing Lenore’s Free Range Sanity. Hopefully our culture will catch on to how irrational many fears are that most people harbor.

If you visited our city and tried to judge how many children lived here by the number you saw riding bikes on our 20+ miles of paved bike paths, you’d decide this was a retirement community – and most of the residents were probably too disabled to walk or bike. And I’m talking about a bike path totally set apart from auto traffic dangers.

By: Denise

Denise — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:39:39 +0000

Esther,

Thank you so much for your comment! And getting names right is not a minor quibble — I appreciate you pointing out the error. I actually did think it was Albel based on how his family pronounces it, but when I asked his mom last year the meanings of her children’s names (I love that stuff) I do recall she said it was the name of a mountain. So I suppose I mis-hears.

Happy New Year! And I hope you keep reading.

Denise

By: Estherar

Estherar — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:33:03 +0000

Yes, we Israelis tend to be more ‘free-range’ than Americans. Also, the fear of a child being kidnapped isn’t really uppermost in most parents’ minds.

My kids live close enough to the school and are old enough to walk there themselves when the weather permits, but I wouldn’t be waiting outside for the school bus with my 6-year-old much beyond the first few days of school if she were to ride there.

I really like your blog and am looking forward to reading more!

(By the way, a minor quibble: Is it possible the baby’s name is aRbel and not aLbel? Hebrew names, especially modern ones, usually have meanings. The former is the name of a mountain north of Tiberias; the latter is gibberish.)

Esther @ Mainstream Parenting Resources (and a fellow mean mommy. Just ask my kids!)

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:36:16 +0000

My son just started kindergarten in the same school both my husband and I went to school in – a small town in rural Iowa. This year, a note went home that K-1-2 kids that ride the bus will not be left at their homes unless an adult is present when they are dropped off. The bus will take them back to school. I can remember very well getting dropped off by the bus at home and waiting the 30-60 minutes until my mom came home in the afternoons. Each parent and each child need to determine their comfort level and each parent should try to encourage independence in their child.

By: Fighting for the Right to Bike to School «

Fighting for the Right to Bike to School « — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:48:47 +0000

[...] about 115 children are abducted by strangers each year, some 250,000 are injured in car crashes. Many parents get this, and some are wondering: If schools and districts are so obsessed with the [...]

By: Denise

Denise — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:16:20 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts, Stefanie — and good for your for letting your 9-year-old play with the big boys! Living in a similar area to you, I hear you on the car thing. No one drives slowly on residential streets anymore — and EVERYONE seems to be on the phone! It’s like we have to train our kids to be alert to new and different dangers then we had when we were kids!

keep reading,
Denise

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:14:22 +0000

I’m enjoying this discussion. I live in Plainview and my son is 9 years old. I’ve read about Free Range kids and for the past year have been gradually giving my son more freedom. He plays ball with neighbors outside on the lawn without me spectating and refereeing from a nearby lawn chair. I used to monitor all street traffic with a verbal alert system and retrieve all items that went in the gutter. I have gotten myself to where I can stay in the house and only glance out the window from time to time. It probably helps that the other kids are a little older and very respsonsible but after a while you get to trust that your kid is not going to run into the street after a ball without checking for cars. I just wish he’d remember to bring home his baseball glove.

We’ve been bicycling together – in the street! I definitely got looks last year when I chose the street rather than the rare sidewalks in our neighborhood but what little drivers see is in the street not on the sidewalk. I’m not quite ready to let him do this on his own since we’re around the corner from a road where drivers believe the 40 mph limit is a low-end suggestion and in the other direction there are unprotected corners where the nicer car gets the right of way. Eventually my son will get a better feel for this on his own but but for now at least he is learning safety habits from practice. Maybe next year.

By: Streetsblog New York City » Fighting for the Right to Bike to School

Streetsblog New York City » Fighting for the Right to Bike to School — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:37:43 +0000