This is a legitimate and damaging cultural shift for all involved parties and it needs to be addressed.
And that's why most true crime cases of the 70s 80s are children dissapearing. Also in those same decades the average age of first drinking and smoking was 12, 13. Why would that be,I guess?
Guys you are not gonna put a child into the world and just let it do anything it wants and you will have no work to do and not have to watch over them. Come on
The last tweet is literally saying people are having less kids cuz they can't neglect them anymore and they have to, gasp, take care of their kids.
i think the idea here is that neighborhoods used to be safer and you could reasonably expect a gaggle of kids to be able to keep track of each other, and to be able to trust that your kid could go to someone else's house if they needed help, and the loss of this sense of community is the issue that needs addressing
but you're right that whenever you seem to look at older missing child cases, especially from the 60s or thereabouts, it's like a five year old who was sent to get her brother from the park in the evening, or an eight year old skipping school and just wandering around town alone and going missing, so i think there is some survivorship bias and nostalgic idealism as well
but it should be safe to let your kids play outside and the fact that it's not is definitely a societal failure (and ofc the reason it's not is largely bc of male predators although women will snatch babies)
u also make a good point abt that last tweet lol like i think it touches on a good point abt mothers needing a village, needing a support net, bc now they're more isolated than ever but the truth is that when women are given the freedom of choice they choose to have less kids and any other argument can come across as again idealizing this time when women were pressured or forced to have more children
Here's the thing: It is not, in fact, unsafe to let kids play outside. There is less violent crime now that there has ever been since we started measuring it: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/24/what-the-data-says-about-crime-in-the-us/
There is not an epidemic of strangers in white vans snatching kids off the street. The person most likely to abduct a child is that child's non-custodial parent: https://childfindofamerica.org/resources/facts-and-stats-missing-children/
This 'danger' is entirely perceptual and enforced by outside authorities.
Cell phones exist now, and kids are more able than ever to have a way to instantly contact help or be tracked if they go missing, but children and their parents are more surveilled than ever:
Child services to the rescue.
The age that kids start playing ā walking, biking, frolicking outside ā should be up to the parents. But thatās not always the case. A few y
When it comes to walking to school alone, there's no one-size-fits-all rule. But there are ways to determine if your child is ready.
@maria-scariotes the reason most True Crime stories are abducted kids is not because kids were much more commonly abducted - it's because those are stories that viewers find compelling. Kids are STILL starting to become nicotine dependant at 12-13 - they're just far more likely to be vaping now than smoking cigarettes. https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/vaping-is-taking-off-among-younger-children-and-tweens-idUSKBN1YS1EH/
Perpetual supervision is actually very bad for kids:
Community centres for information on learning and development disabilities
This doctor is wants all children to go outside and play. He's asking his state to pass a law allowing kids to play unsupervised.
Studies reveal how risky play can benefit child development. But encouraging it can be a challenge for parents.
