Kids safety

[Glock 40]

I don't feel an 8 year old is able to be responsible for themselves, and sure dosen't have skills to make decisions regarding their safety and well being. That is what you are asking someone that is going almost a mile from home to do. As for tracking. First thing a bad guy is going to do if they are any good at being bad is find any electronics, remove and destroy them.

First job as a parent is to protect child. This is until they are 18 which imo they still have no clue how to make good decisions or be responsible for themselves.

 

[golddigger14s]

Different kids have different maturity levels. I got my PADI SCUBA certification at 12 and had my own dive service at 13. Had use of my families 17 foot deep V boat with a 70 HP engine.
Check this tracker out:
https://www.gpsapb.com/products/1pc...nzgnNxuJxOSpXywkCsH99ARHPwLa_N94aArsdEALw_wcB

 

[CHenry]

Let them be kids.
Probably close to 99% of all child abductions, molestation, accidental death and abuse happens in the home or by someone they know (babysitter)
On the street, it just doesnt happen at any kind of alarming rate.

 

[kroberts2131]

My 9 year old daughter isn't even allowed to play outside in the front without a parent outside . We are the minority in our neighborhood tho. Most of the kids just rinning around as they please. Just my parenting style but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Plus I keep the beer in the garage so it's a win win.

 

[SPDguns]

Ain't no way by me. I have four grandkids, 8,6,4 and 1. The oldest three like to play at a park one block from my house. I can watch them walk to and from but I NEVER let them go alone or play by themselves in public.

 

[DRC458]

If they were my kids, no way in hell. If I knew they were with a group of kids, some of them older (and responsible), it might be OK. Maybe. An 8-year-old is not responsible, and it is totally unfair to ask them to be responsible for another child. Tracking device at the very least, but that may not be any help at all if they are abducted or otherwise become victims of foul play. Mom and Dad might not like it, but they would be hearing from me exactly how I felt about it.

 

[1911master]

If they were my kids, no way in hell. If I knew they were with a group of kids, some of them older (and responsible), it might be OK. Maybe. An 8-year-old is not responsible, and it is totally unfair to ask them to be responsible for another child. Tracking device at the very least, but that may not be any help at all if they are abducted or otherwise become victims of foul play. Mom and Dad might not like it, but they would be hearing from me exactly how I felt about it.

Trust me they did. And then I promised I would say no more.

 

[John6185]

Rather than live with the guilt if something did happen to the kids, I think I might find a cop who would work with me on this, pick up the kids and drive them home and lecture the dad. There are creeps who would nothing more than a small child and these children are too small to fight back.

 

[Ethan N]

Let them be kids.
Probably close to 99% of all child abductions, molestation, accidental death and abuse happens in the home or by someone they know (babysitter)
On the street, it just doesnt happen at any kind of alarming rate.

This. People vastly overestimate the risk of abduction and other threats to children. Is it a risk to send them to the park alone? Yep. Is it an unreasonable risk? I don’t think so. I think it’s a fairly small thing.

This is a loooooong response, but as a parent it’s something I care about greatly, so here it goes…

Children need unsupervised play for healthy development. People these days are raising a generation of snowflakes who, when they head off to college on their own for the first time, whenever they have problems they just call mommy and she’ll take care of them. Got a bad grade? It’s okay. Mommy will call the professor (yes, this actually happens, and yes, I’ve heard of it first-hand). Most kids these days are given very few opportunities to solve problems for themselves without adults around to help them, and that’s stunting their development into responsible, capable adults.

A few people mentioned an 8 year old is not mature enough to go to the park unsupervised or look after a 5 year old. There’s no reason why the average 8 year old can’t be taught to handle that situation safely for short periods of time (depending on where they live…Norman? Yes! Probably not most of Tulsa ). No, not everything is appropriate for every age and parents do need to take seriously what their kids are capable of handling responsibly based on their age and individual development, but people infantilize children by underestimating their potential. When I was 8, I was perfectly capable of safely going 10 blocks from home and looking after a younger sibling. Was I some special extra mature kid? No. I was capable of this because I was taught to be. My parents’ expectations demanded that I be able to look out for myself from a young age, and they prepared me for it. I learned how to be aware of my surroundings, recognize unsafe situations, size up suspicious behavior, and politely avoid strangers. When I was 8 I had taken multiple first aid classes and sat in on CPR classes. We were homeschooled so that’s just the kind of thing we did as a basic part of our education. I knew how to pay attention to where I was, where I was going, and where I came from, to find my way and not get lost whether in a city, suburb, or the wilderness. All of this was natural to me because my parents allowed me from a young age to encounter situations where they weren’t around to solve all my problems, and they gave me the resources to learn to handle those situations. Children are capable of much more than we give them credit for and at a younger age than you’d expect. As long as you let them grow and give them the knowledge and skills needed, they’ll constantly impress you.

Every kid is different. Some are just plain irresponsible or have other challenges. Parents need to evaluate what each of their kids is capable of and care for them accordingly. Let me emphasize that parents need to do this. There’s nothing wrong with grandparents or other family members expressing concerns to parents respectfully. But other than that, everyone needs to butt out unless a child is in imminent danger. Maybe @1911master’s grandkids aren’t prepared to safely handle going to the park alone, but if dad believes they are, then that’s that. One thing concerned family members can offer to do is help teach the kids how to be better prepared for all kinds of situations. Maybe offer to take the 8 year old to a first aid class. Or casually talk about experiences you’ve had where you felt in danger, what you did, and what you learned from it. Kids soak up things like that.

In closing, my kids aren’t at that age yet, but it’s easy for me to imagine my daughter at age 8 being perfectly capable of taking her little brother to the park alone for an hour. Will I worry? Yes. I’ll be terrified. That’s part of being a parent. But I’ll know that they’re doing something that’s good for them, that I’ve prepared them to do it safely, and that I can’t let my natural fear prevent them from having a full and rich childhood. At some point your kids are going to have to go off on their own and do things that scare you. How well prepared for it will they be when that time comes? Help them learn from a young age.

EDIT: Changed “immediate danger” to “imminent danger.”

 

[Glock 40]

Ethan here is my longer response. you give some good arguments and they seem rational and well thought out. My issue is most people aren't as rational as you. If you look at what a child did back 150 years ago they could practically take care of themselves by age 6 and be a major contributing part of a family at 8. Those were different times. Most of them were married as early teens. I think you give a lot of examples of a helicopter parent along with a protecting parent. There is a difference in those. Being protective vs controlling are different things. My wife was a school teacher for 9 years before we had kids. She home-schools my children now by her choice. We both choose to protect our kids from lots of things. Innocence is lost way to early for to many kids. You only have it once and personally I want my kids to enjoy that as long as possible. The world is a big mean ugly place.

I believe kids need to learn responsibility and how to solve problems just as you but I also think its main priority to protect them above all else. If my child gets abducted or something of that awful nature. Its on me for the rest of my life and theirs. My wife has taught in places from Ghetto schools of north and East Tulsa to Country schools in Rural Oklahoma she has seen the gamut of stuff kids get into or have happen to them. Lots of it I will say are unspeakable.

I still think as a parent it is our job to keep them safe. I am not talking about a safe zone bubble where they are special little snowflakes and allowed to have therapy pigs running around the living room. Dealing with hard situations is necessary. Normally bullys grow up to bosses. So you need to know how to deal with an A##hat. I am talking about removing opportunities for bad situations and minimizing threats. Letting my kids play in my yard or Cul-de-sac unsupervised is a risk I am willing to take. Letting them gallivant off on their own down memorial drive in Tulsa to Chick-Fil-A. I am not okay with that.

My son at 10 years old is becoming a very good little marksmen. I have pounded gun safety into my kids before they ever touched a gun. I made them memorize the 10 rules of gun safety. I still always talk to them about safety whenever we are shooting or I have guns out in my home. Even though my son handles guns extremely well. He is always under my supervision when handling one. We have invited multiple friends of his and their parents to go shooting with us. What I can tell you is there are some 10 year olds that just don't have it together enough even at 10 to be around firearms. These kids scare me. Some on the others handle guns better than some of the knuckle heads I see at the range that should know better. I am also coming at this as someone who grew up with guns and then had my best friend die at 16 from a Negligent Discharge.

So I will gladly submit to you that you are probably right its a very low probability that my kids will be abducted in my South Tulsa neighborhood. They are more likely to be run over by a dimwit on her cellphone buzzing through my neighborhood in her Denali XL at 45. Either way my job as dad is to be the enforcer and protect them from all threats not all uncomfortable situations. I simply can't bear the thought of something terrible happening to one of my kids that I could have prevented. I am talking the bad stuff that we should never wish on anyone.