Let the kids alone (to roam) Tom Smith

There’s a little blog0discussion going on about how kids these days are not allowed to roam like they were used to when we were kids, and it’s true.  Some studies also apparently show that kids who grow up without any contact with nature are more likely to be obese, neurotic and politically liberal (just kidding on that last one).  It’s true.  When I was a kid my brothers and I ranged freely o’er the neighborhood, the only place forbidden being a local bowling alley, believed to be a nest of perversion, and not outdoors, either.  The bike was the mode of transportation, preferably a Sting Ray with a banana seat, which were keeno.

Why don’t we let our kids roam now?  Bloggers imply or assert that it’s because parents these days are overprotective and paranoid.  I don’t think so.  Things are different now.  I have no more statistics at hand than do those who assert the opposite, but I suspect the facts will back up the following assertions.  There is a lot more crime now, a lot, than there was in the early ‘sixties when kids last roamed the cul-de-sacs and vacant lots.  Remember, this was before the drug revolution and, probably more importantly, the criminal procedure revolution.  Parents don’t just suspect the world is less safe now; they know it.  It is not a mass delusion, but a rational response to increased risks.  Some risks, such as stranger abduction, are probably overestimated because of the usual cognitive failures, such as the fallacy of vividness.  But others are parents probably estimate about right.  There is a lot more motor traffic which makes biking more dangerous.  Skating is hazardous, and skaters don’t exactly inspire parental confidence; they are at pains not to.  Nor do moms armed with phones stand guard over the hood.  Now both parents are working and kids on the loose are really unaccountable.  When I plowed my stingray into the front of a delivery truck, Mrs. Hartigan was out the door in a flash and my parents were quickly alerted.  Now they would both be at work and you would be lucky if the nanny of the neighbors you don’t know would bother to phone it in on her cell.  You’d much more likely get help from the UPS guy.

I also think we tend to forget the carnage among the kids.  It is rare to hear these days of a child being killed in an accident, but you used to hear it all the time.  At least one kid I knew growing up died in a stupid Scouting related accident, and kids were constantly breaking bones and probably suffering head injuries that went unnoticed except that little Johnny was odd after that one Saturday “touch” football game.  Lots of parents those days were gaily driving back from cocktail parties without seatbelts, and lots of them ended up plastered inside their windshields.  I remember thinking the seat belt activists in Idaho were terrible sissies and blowhards, but you have to admit they had a point, especially concerning kids.