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[xinie]

Kids today are just as safe as they were in the '70s, says "Free-Range Kids" author Lenore Skenazy, and what's really distressing is an alarmist culture that refuses to let them grow up.

Or that they grow up too fast. Please, someone make up my mind.

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[xinie]

Friends who have second graders in my town usually let their kids walk to the bus stop, where, to their consternation, some other overprotective parent drives about three houses with their monster SUV with TVs, and invites all the kids in to watch TV til the bus comes.

The two big pro-driving or walking your kid to school is the "together time" that a lot of working parents don't get with their kids. The other big pro-driving point is that you get to leave the house 30-45 minutes later than if you walked or took the bus- so if you are a night owl family, you all get to sleep in longer.

The bus stopping every few blocks with for little kids is, I think, because you can't trust younger kids to dodge the distracted cell-phone-wielding drivers for a longer walk or to cross a busy road.

Back when I walked to school, I walked to a neighborhood school- not a long walk, with a group of kids of all ages, and past houses where everyone knew each other and an adult was present at most houses. Now, all the grade K-2 are at one school across down, so it's a much longer walk (on a busy road that doesn't have sidewalks, which blows my mind), there aren't older kids to walk with, and the few adults who would be home at that time are mostly strangers.