The Pendulum Is Swinging Back!!!

If you follow my blog, you know that I am a believer in the free range kid movement.  I think that society focuses on the rare, statistical anomalies in terms of horrible events - "horrible" defined as kids getting kidnapped, murdered, tortured, neglected, or otherwise treated badly.  Crime rates are down from when I was a kid, significantly down in some areas, and today's kids have a bigger chance to get hit by lightning then  get hurt by strangers.

I noticed something this past week.  The fear mongering seems to be going away.  Yes, the media played up that poor girl in Colorado who disappeared, but people still take their kids to the park.  This past Halloween, I saw several groups of  older kids (8+ years old)  walking around without parents.  For younger kids, the parents dressed up in costume and walked with them from house to house.  No one drove their kid around and no one seemed stressed out.

I hope that this is a sign of better attitudes to come.  I hope that parents will realize kids need to run around outside, that kids need some unsupervised time so that they can learn to manage their own activities.  Kids also need to learn, on a gut-level, that they are okay without their parents.

Has anyone else noticed the shift?