Comments on: Safe Routes to Soccer http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/20/safe-routes-to-soccer/ Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:29:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Lenore Skenazy http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/20/safe-routes-to-soccer/#comment-6676 Lenore Skenazy Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:50:43 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=737#comment-6676 So I'm a grouchy old-timer, too. Researching my book I learned (as I could have guessed) that the majority of us parents walked to school as kids. What percentage of kids walk to school today? Ten percent. Part of the problem is super spread-out suburbs, another part is the lack of sidewalks, but another part is parents too afraid to let their kids leave home without a security detail. To be a "good" parent these days is to be a paranoid one. Anyway, my other favorite safety/kids/traffic factoid is that of all the kids injured by cars near their schools, HALF are injured by cars dropping off OTHER kids. So if MORE kids walked to school, FEWER would be injured. Chew on that! And meantime, kudos for the really cool blog and congrats on the book. Hope some of your karma (carma?) rubs off on me! Lenore Skenazy author, "Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry," due out next month!!! freerangekids.com So I’m a grouchy old-timer, too. Researching my book I learned (as I could have guessed) that the majority of us parents walked to school as kids. What percentage of kids walk to school today? Ten percent. Part of the problem is super spread-out suburbs, another part is the lack of sidewalks, but another part is parents too afraid to let their kids leave home without a security detail. To be a “good” parent these days is to be a paranoid one.
Anyway, my other favorite safety/kids/traffic factoid is that of all the kids injured by cars near their schools, HALF are injured by cars dropping off OTHER kids. So if MORE kids walked to school, FEWER would be injured.
Chew on that!
And meantime, kudos for the really cool blog and congrats on the book. Hope some of your karma (carma?) rubs off on me!
Lenore Skenazy
author, “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry,” due out next month!!!
freerangekids.com

]]> By: Rob http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/20/safe-routes-to-soccer/#comment-6633 Rob Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:14:42 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=737#comment-6633 Wow... That seems rediculous, It brings up the whole thing about percieved risk though. People see a child walking on their own and assume that they are lost/going to get abducted/hit by a car etc. It doesnt say much for the police though, I mean it really seems as though there should have been one question "Where are you walking to son" I'm only 25 but if I got shoved in a cop car and taken home every time I was walking around my suburban area on my own as a kid, I would probably be living in a foster home because my parents were so "negligent" Im wondering if there will ever be a return to sanity. Wow…

That seems rediculous,

It brings up the whole thing about percieved risk though.

People see a child walking on their own and assume that they are lost/going to get abducted/hit by a car etc.

It doesnt say much for the police though, I mean it really seems as though there should have been one question “Where are you walking to son”

I’m only 25 but if I got shoved in a cop car and taken home every time I was walking around my suburban area on my own as a kid, I would probably be living in a foster home because my parents were so “negligent”

Im wondering if there will ever be a return to sanity.

]]> By: Andrew http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/20/safe-routes-to-soccer/#comment-6632 Andrew Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=737#comment-6632 Only 20% ? That and the annoying fetish for mo' bigger cupholders. Only 20% ?
That and the annoying fetish for mo’ bigger cupholders.

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