Allison - I don't know if it is illegal to leave a child or animal in the car here, but I know that even with the safety factor that there is no way I would do it in the summer. We see so many stories here of kids killed in locked cars, most often kids too young to get out on there own, infants & toddlers. I remember my mom used to leave me in the car all the time when I was a kid and I could just roll the window down with the hand crank or open the door. So much more complex now with power window, power locks and child locks.
Never leave a child or animal in a car in the summer, or even on hot days in other seasons. The temp inside reaches over 120 degrees in very little time. You may think you're only going for a moment, but things happen. Even if you leave the car running with the A/C on, the car may stop running. I am one of those people who is calling the police whenever I see something like that. Here in Fla. we get a lot of stupid people who don't understand the danger--or if it's their dog, they don't care...
I remember my mom used to leave me in the car all the time when I was a kid and I could just roll the window down with the hand crank or open the door.
I actually enjoyed this. I would turn the car radio up REALLY LOUD and "sing" with it, loudly as possible, like the little ham I was.
"WE ALL LIVE in a YELLOW SUBMARINE ...
YELLOW SUBMARINE ...
YELLOW SUBMARINE ..."
(Which was, accidentally, an absolutely perfect song for a small child to sing.)
And my mother would return & perhaps bestow upon me a Butterfinger bar, for waiting so patiently. Or maybe a Liddle Kiddle, if she'd been in the store a long time.
That was another time & place, as far away from now as Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood was from my own upbringing.
I don't expect either to return. It just won't work now.
I actually enjoyed this. I would turn the car radio up REALLY LOUD and "sing" with it, loudly as possible, like the little ham I was.
"WE ALL LIVE in a YELLOW SUBMARINE ...
YELLOW SUBMARINE ...
YELLOW SUBMARINE ..."
(Which was, accidentally, an absolutely perfect song for a small child to sing.)
And my mother would return & perhaps bestow upon me a Butterfinger bar, for waiting so patiently. Or maybe a Liddle Kiddle, if she'd been in the store a long time.
That was exactly what I would do! Sometimes even that same song. I loved to sing at the top of my lungs in the car. We used to stay at my grandfather's boat shop during the day sometimes and I would choose to sit in the car just so I could crank the radio and sing.
Our reward for waiting patiently was usually an Icee from the local Sing store - the had banana flavor and we loved it.
You are right, that is a time that will never return, for so many reason. And looking back on it now it seems so alien to everything today, like something I just imagined doing. Like my dad driving with a beer in a coozie, or lying down in the back seat to read with my feet sticking out the window because there were no seatbelts or car seats. Or hanging out the open car door while it was moving because I opened it in a fit of "I'm just going to open the door and get out right now" pique over some slight from my mom or my brother.
That was another time & place, as far away from now as Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood was from my own upbringing.
So many things our kids are missing out on. Leaving the house on a summer morning and not returning until dark and NO ONE worried because you were being fed by someone and you were having fun with your friends. I'd walk to the grocery store alone as young as 5 with no worries. I walked to and from school alone starting in kindergarten. Biking without shoes or a helmet. Running around barefoot all summer. Playing numerous games with all sorts of neighborhood kids in everyone's yards (even if they didn't have kids) because no one would get mad at you. Gosh, I miss that. And gosh, my kids missed out on that.
I googled the story about Leiby after seeing this thread too. It is so sad. The worst part is that it said in the article I was reading that it was his first time walking home alone. How many parents now will never let their kids walk home alone from anywhere because of this? And is there really enough risk for it to be justified?
It's kind of a dichotomy to hear on the one hand about how crime levels are so much lower now than they used to be, but at the same time hear all these horrible stories about people kidnapping and murdering children.
For my part, I would walk home from my school bus stop when I was a kid if my parents weren't there to pick me up. I remember walking from the bus stop when I was as young as 7, but OTOH when I was that little my older sister was on the bus with me and would walk with me (she would have been 10). If I was outside playing alone, I was only allowed to go as far as the corner when I was little, then around the block, then anywhere that didn't involve crossing a busy street as I got older. In high school I walked to and from the bus stop alone. My bus stops were about 1/2 mile from my house. My sister and I were always allowed to play unattended in our fenced backyard though, which is something people nowadays don't let their kids do. We were also allowed to play unattended in our "spa" (a hot tub that we used as a pool with cold water), but I think we already knew how to swim by then.
That was relatively strict compared with DH, who would go with his friends down to the local park when they were kids and spend all day mucking around in the woods alone. Then again, there were no woods anywhere near my house in LA.
We lived in the country and were right off a main highway, so there wasn't much around us we could walk to easily. My brother and I (four years younger than me) would walk the 1/2 mile up the road to the store on the corner when I was 10 and he was 6, and he would spend all day playing in the woods with the boy next door and his little brother (2 years older and two years younger than him). My dad would whistle for him when it was time to come home. There was a creek about a mile behind the house down a little dirt trail where people used to come ride their four wheelers sometimes and I would sometimes walk down there. We were never close enough to walk to school from our house, but would wander the neighborhood at both grandparent's houses regularly.
DH grew up in Atlanta and used to have to take public transportation to school because his school system didn't have a bus system. He also used to run wild all over hither and yon with his friends without much trouble, just an order to be home by dinner.
I don't know that we will ever really let DSS go much of anywhere by himself. We are worried about me running a lot of the time and I go to the park more often than not, which is often policed pretty heavily, rather than running on the street. And we are in a suburb with one of the lowest crime rates in the area.
My sister (4 years older) and I used to ride our bikes in our neighborhood, and in summer we didn't have to be inside until the streetlights came on. We played with the children next door. Starting at age 9 I was an occasional (a couple of times a month when mom had to work late) latchkey kid, walking to and from school alone.
Have any of you seen "Super 8"? One of the things I loved about it was the freedom those kids had to bike all over their little town. I feel like towns like that don't exist anymore.
Oh, and about waiting in the car, me too! I used to beg my mom to let me stay alone in the car. No singing for me, though; I've always been a total bookworm, and I wanted to stay in the car to read in peace!
Very sad about the little boy (didn't make our news). Yes there are some predators out there. As well as some people who become temporarily unhinged.
But the biggest killer of children in North America? Being hit by cars.
Do we not let our children ever go anywhere outside alone? Ride a bike without wearing a suit of armour? Go to the corner variety to spend their allowance?Not let them go off their own property? That to me is even sadder.
Why not teach them to be aware and alert but self-sufficient? Educate them about the dangers of life but let them enjoy the pleasures too? Encourage them to rely on us via cell phone but don't lock them up inside their homes/prisons.
RIP Leiby. Your undeserved death was a brutal and tragic one.
From grade 1 through grade 12 my parents never once gave me a ride to school, they weren't being mean, everybody did the same thing. In the winter if it was snowing and very cold I would take the city bus.
PS although I lve in California ,now, I grew up in Minnesota.
