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I moved a couple of months ago to a neighborhood that I grew up in. I lived out here from 10 - 17 yo.
Today I was out and about in the mid afternoon and found myself in front of my old junior high school... where there was an IMMENSE traffic jam of cars waiting in line to pick up their kids.
When I went to this same school, the only kids to get picked up at the end of the day were kids with disabilities and a few special occasion situations.
The social-economic specs for the neighborhood was straight middle-class when I lived out here as a kid, but is at least upper middle now.
What's the deal? There are no more child-related crimes than there were 30 years ago. Almost all of these kids live within a mile of the school.
Is it like this everywhere?
[yells off camera: 'Hey, get off my lawn!!']
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Interesting. I've been wondering the same exact question. I'm dating a nice gal with a 12 and 13-year old. Both require being driven to school, when it's easily a walkable distance (about 25 minutes). I've no idea why everyone drives their kids. It's an interesting phenomena, though.
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They are whisked to soccer practice, ballet and music lessons.
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My thoughts:
1) Parents are more indulgent (and overprotective, and unable to cut the cord) nowadays than they were in your day. Remember, 6-8 year olds now have their own cell phones.
2) Kids are more spoiled nowadays than they were in your day. Sorry, but it's true. We've become far less likely to hold children (and adults for that matter) responsible for their own behavior.
3) We've become a society where it is looked down upon not to be riding in a car.
4) We've become a society where somehow it seems "faster" to be driving than to be walking, when the converse is actually true.
5) The Nintendo generation would rather be inside playing their PS3 or Wii fit, then to get outside and play ball with the neighborhood kids.
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My kids school is on the other side of town so they ride the bus. I would trust my 10 year old to walk if it were closer but I'm not sure about the 6 year old. She's in her own world a lot of the time. Not very observant of what is going on around her. Shooting from the hip I'd say 8 is a good age to be walking to school if it is close.
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Both of mine go to schools that are miles away.
The youngest gets a school bus both ways, while my oldest carpools with a classmate in the morning and I pick them up at school and carpool them home.
Walking is not an option.
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Out here in the burbs this drives me nuts.
Parents drive to meet their kids at the bus stop that is a block from their home.
Or the bus stops every 100'.
That must be the new "green".
“Art is how we decorate space.
Music is how we decorate time.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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I think there is a fear that something will happen to your child walking to or from school on his/her own.
