This comes from the "Just When I Thought I Had Seen It All" file. It is sure to promote a discussion, one way or the other.
Lenore Skenazy is a contributing editor at the New York Sun and founder or FreeRangeKids.com. I don't want to give her any press, but this was completely outrageous, IMHO.
Lenore left her 9-year-old son in Bloomie's in New York a few weeks ago. She did this on purpose so he could find his own way home. She says this fosters independence. She says she did not fear her son would be abducted. She feels happy with herself that she gave him a subway map, a transit pass, $20 plus several quarters in case he needed to make a call (on the public telephones that hardly exist anymore due to the existence of the cell phone she did NOT give him).
OK. I know they live in New York City, and City kids are a bit more worldly and cosmopolitan, but what in the name of God was she thinking?! The child is NINE! He is a CHILD! I think of how little my very-tall-for-his-age son looks and shudder to think of what could have happened to her son.
Skenazy's reasoning was basically that "overprotectiveness is a danger in and of itself. A child who thinks he can't do anything on his own eventually can't." Uh, yeah, but shouldn't the kid be a little older before he braves the wilds of the world without someone watching over him a little bit?
Is it me or did I completely miss something this time?
You can read the story for yourself here:
http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.content=%2FMAIN_REP%2FArticle%2F2008%2F04%2F18%2F1919570
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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2 comments:
I completely agree with you. What the hell was she thinking? I could maybe understand if her child was a little older - say 13 at least but in this day and age anything can happen - and anything could have hapened. Very irresponsible.
Wow, our world is too scary. Maybe when we were growing up but not now.
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