the tides are changing

How many parents still let their children walk the three or four blocks to school alone? Do you really see little kids under the age of ten playing alone at the park?

My sisters and I were reminiscing about the "crazy" things our parents did when we were young. When I was seven, and my twin siblings were 10, they sent us alone to England. That was not the original plan, but when my grandma kelly became very ill they felt it best to stay with her and send us on our way. Really, it was only an eight hour journey to a foreign country! Then my oldest sister Danielle recounted a time when she was in grade two or three and my mom sent her on a bus downtown... where she told the busdriver which stop my father would be waiting at. My mother and I were also having a debate a few months back about the distance I walked to and from elementary school. We were close to our old neighbourhood, so we drove from our old house to the school and clocked the distance. It was about one kilometre one way, which my mother said "see, that wasn't too bad." Considering we walked home for lunch, I was clocking four kilometres a day... and when you're six, your legs don't move too fast! The only upside to walking to and from school was the clandestine stops at the macs store after school to buy candy. My brother invented a genius way of making money... charging kids 25 cents to watch him eat an ant. I jumped on that bandwagon when I saw the dough rolling in.

However, the children of the next generation aren't privileged as we were to come and go throughout the neighbourhood as they please. Parents who would send their young child on a bus downtown alone would now be considered neglectful or "stupid." My sister's local school is chock-full of cars in the parking lot at the end of the school day, and all the kids live within walking distance.

Is the world more dangerous or are we just more cautious? There is likely no official answer... but I do want to hear what other "crazy parents" did when you were growing up.