To Grandmother’s House He Went: Busybodies Alert Cops to Boy, 8, Walking Alone
Yet here’s a news item a reader sent in from the local paper in Belmont, MA (a close suburb of Boston, one town west of Cambridge):
Belmont Police log, Nov. 13 to 18:
Sunday, Nov. 18
4:35 p.m.: Officers were waved down by two adult women who said they saw a young boy walking in Belmont Center by himself. They were concerned for the child. Officers observed a small boy in the area of Royal Road and Common Street. He appeared to be alone. He was approximately eight years old. Officers asked if he was ok and he said he was walking to his grandmother’s house. They asked how he got to Belmont Center and he said his father dropped him off because he wanted to walk to his grandmother’s house. The grandmother confirmed he likes to walk from Belmont Center to her home on Poplar Street, although it may be too far for him to walk by himself. Officers spoke to the parents about the dangers of letting a young child walk alone by themselves for such a long distance.
The reader who sent this to us added that the distance from Belmont center to Poplar Street is a bit under two miles.
Can we please stop:
1 – Assuming this generation of kids can’t do anything earlier generations did without a second thought?
2 – Calling the cops when we see a child who is competent and happy on their own?
3 – Telling parents about “dangers” of letting kids exercise (literally) some independence, while not telling the parents the dangers of driving them everywhere (the No. 1 way kids die is as car passengers) or of expecting them to stay “safe” indoors all the time (courting the dangers of obesity and anxiety)?
If you’re fed up too, why not do what Let Grow co-founder Jon Haidt and I are doing? We’re organizing a Let Grow MeetUp now moved to Sunday, Dec. 9, at a popular park. When the other families arrive, the kids will go off to the playground and the adults will hang out elsewhere in the park, RENORMALIZING the idea of parents taking their eyes off their kids.
Or if you want your city or state to become “Free-Range” — i.e., guaranteeing that parents can give kids some independence without being arrested or investigated, here’s a packet of info to share. (Though, happily, the parents were not arrested in the case above, just admonished.)
We are trying to change a culture that automatically sees independence as danger, and trust as neglect. Fight this dark, dystopian belief! – L
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