Kristy's Book-Part 2
Hey, guys! Sorry this took a while. I actually like this book, but it isn't that easy to snark. I've also been busy studying for my midterms. But I got around to writing more. Enjoy!
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Lucky. When I was a kid, my younger brother got the same permissions. I didn't get to do things until he was old enough.
Still Sam, at seven, is allowed to walk to a friends house on the next block by himself. Shows how different the times were. My mom barely let do that when I was eleven or twelve, let alone seven.
I just looked up the distance from the house I was in when I was 6, and the school I went to. 0.6 mile. In first grade, I was expected to walk to school. At 10, I was allowed to take the city bus with friends to the mall, which was 2.6 miles away. In the 80's and early 90's, it was still common go leave in the morning and not come home until the sun was going down, hot and sticky-itchy from playing all day. Most of today's kids are missing out.
My neighborhood is mostly retirees or families with kids mostly aged 10 and under. My street is a long cut de sac, and the kids play outside without adults staring at them. The youngest kid in the group is now 3, and she's always with her sisters who are 6 and 7. My daughter is 7. The kids who aren't homeschooled walk to the school that's 0.8 mile away. No one worries.
And in case you're wondering what the cops would thing, we've got a cop living eight houses down from us. His daughter is one of the kids.
The way it is here is the way it used to be, where neighbors know each other. It feels more dangerous (feels aren't facts and stats) when we don't know who our neighbors are.
3) Go to and from school alone- Sam and Charlie shouldn't even be allowed to do that, to be honest, they're only seven and nine.
It was normal in the 80's and 70's. The dangers really are a lot lower than most people realize. Statistically, children are more likely to be kidnapped by people they know and trust. Kids are actually SAFER with strangers than their own families when it comes to the risk of abduction.
4) go to a friend's house after school without coming home first- since this is before cellphones, all three kids should really come home first-- what if Liz wonders where they are?
We either had to have arranged this first, or call home as soon as we got to a friend's house to let our mom know.
5) Play at the playground without an adult watching- again, very decent rule and Sam and Charlie really shouldn't be able to do that either.
We were allowed to play at the neighborhood park unattended at those ages. In fact, it was closer than the school we walked to and from by ourselves. It was normal, very, very normal, and safe.
One day after school, Kristy notices Charlie and Sam aren't coming straight home. They're going with friends to watch a soccer game at the middle school alone, which they really seem too young to do, and then getting driven to the movies and staying there alone. Am I the only one who thinks they're too young for that too? Seven and nine year olds alone at a movie theater just doesn't seem like a good idea in my opinion. They may not have proper movie theater etiquette yet, they can get lost, lose their money, probably talk throughout the movie, and a whole bunch of other things.
Arranged with parents ahead of time, this was also normal. Also, we weren't allowed to go to the movies alone unless we could prove to our parents that we could be quiet. They'd sit a few rows behind to see how we did without them right beside us. And then they'd take us to the theater at the mall, walk us to the theater we were going in, and then they'd go to their movie, and we had a meet-up point. This started when I was about 7 or 8. Kids were expected to not be little shits. That was back when kids were routinely spanked for intentionally being little shits, and there was less concern about self-esteem issues stemming from using negative phrases like "don't do that," "don't talk through a movie," or "don't tip port-o-potties."
This is why five year olds shouldn't be trusted to walk to friends' houses alone, even when they're right across the street.
When I was a young kid, I was too afraid of being in trouble to not go where I said I was going.
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