this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
574 points (98.3% liked)
Asklemmy
43835 readers
738 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
When I was younger than 13 on two different ends of the US (Hawaii and New England), I took the city bus or rode my bike to go to libraries, bookstores, and other things in town; walked to the neighborhood pool; and so on. This would have been in 1988-1990.
It weirds me that not only are many parents not okay with that today, but that the schools and police have complied with their anxiety. Do you really want to have to drive your kids literally everywhere?
Suburban dad here.
It’s not so much that I’m afraid of drug dealers or pedophiles, I know the statistics and it’s barely on my radar.
If my (almost) 7yo asked me if he could ride his bike or walk to a friends house, unattended, I’d probably let him…if it were on our street (1 mile long road that ends in a cul de sac) or the adjacent street (since we can cut through our neighbors yard to get there).
But beyond that? It’s literally miles to the nearest bus stop or store. Even to the nearest park or playground. And while most of that is suburban secondary streets…it’s curvey, it’s hilly, there’s no sidewalk, shoulder, or bike lane, and people drive way too fast on it (and usually setting up their podcasts or checking on their pizza delivery while they’re at it, I assume, by how erratic they are).
I’m terrified to walk on it, at nearly 40. I couldn’t consider letting him ride unattended on it.
People are deathly afraid of kidnappers and drug dealers getting to their children, when in reality crime rates are the lowest they've ever been.
For the record, nobody ever offered me free drugs till I was in my 40s.
It all depends on the type of person. You'll see if somebody would possibly be inclined to use drugs and become a potential client.
People stopped asking me if i sell drugs, around the time i turned 30.
Past two decades, my husband gets these offers any time his hair grows to chin length. But, yeah, not as a kid.
I'm afraid of cars, that's it. It's a self-perpetuation circle.