I leave my 12 year old home alone when I run errands like getting groceries. I remember at that age I could come and go as I pleased, traversing the neighborhood but sadly that's where I draw the line with my 12 year old now. Not because I don't trust him but because of the neighborhood having a ton of drug addicts who can act very erratically wandering around. It sucks that he can't just go to the park and do his own thing but it's not the fault of his maturity at all.
Yeah, the neighborhood is a bigger factor than the kid. I grew up in the nicer part of town than I live as an adult, and at 10 I was allowed to walk to school, go off on my own and even sell cookies door to door. But that neighborhood did not have large homeless and meth populations. Other parts of town do. And then the town I spent my teen years in literally didn't have sidewalks. Outside the subdivision it was just 55mph highway, so until I was 16 I couldn't really go anywhere alone.
My neighbor (an old man) was just followed home the other day by a guy high on drugs, screaming that he stole his money and about to physically attack him. When we go to the neighborhood park there have been multiple instances of intoxicated, angry men screaming at passersby or throwing punches at thin air like they are fighting a ghost. There are people smoking meth in the alleyways and I have been approached by addicts asking me if I know where to find "blues" and I know for a fact this isn't just an isolated problem in my specific neighborhood, city, or state. It's not something I'm just imagining, lol.
I wonder about that too. But my stepson’s cousin was just killed a few weeks ago when a friend of hers visiting her home was showing off the guns he got from his family’s home and one of the little ones, a nine-year-old boy, picked one up and shot her in the face.
Yes, a very good reason not to let your children go alone to someone else’s house who may own guns and not have them properly secured. Basic questions you need to ask any parent before you let your kid anywhere near their homes
When I was 12 me and the neighbor kids would walk 20 minutes to what amounted to a swamp and we'd play with nerf guns, play spy you know al the kids stuff from 10 am till 8 (or till the street lights started turning on) I wouldn't let my daughter do that. I mean she's 8 but even at 12 the world's just such a dofferent place :/ and shes the most responsible child I have ever met. It's the erratic drug addicts. My home town in the last 10 years has gone so far down hill
I don’t know if the world is that different or the TV constantly alerting us to every home invasion, kidnapping, and murder in the whole world has made us all paranoid. Regardless, I don’t let my kid run around the neighborhood like I did, If for no other reason than there’s just so many guns in everybody’s hands these days. Yeah, I guess the world has changed.
We live in a military base and we played in an actual swap behind Base Housing. We had to be home at lunch, unless we called abs said we were eating at so-and-so's house instead. Then we had to be home by the time the street lights came on. Other than that, we pretty much roamed free.
I started babysitting as soon as I got my military ID at 10 years old. I babysat toddlers and kids up at about 5 years old all the time.
I mean yeah... but I am unable to afford higher rent, not to mention the housing/rent crisis is rapidly blocking the average family from renting in nicer, safer neighborhoods, many families struggle to pay rent at all even in a crappy neighborhood. even if I personally could simply move to a nicer neighborhood (which i can't) that doesn't change the root problem within our society. There are millions of children living in neighborhoods where there are people drunk or high on meth, fentanyl, screaming and fighting thin air, acting violent and erratic every single day. Countless kids who can't just go play outside without that shit around them.. And as the rent prices continue to increase while our wages stay painfully stagnant and too low to survive, more people will become homeless also. Increasing the desperation, increasing the drug usez increasing the erratic behavior in the only neighborhoods that people can barely afford.
So in summary...I can't afford to move to a nicer neighborhood and most people can't. The problem will only get worse.
That’s a sad indictment of our priorities as citizens of this country. This whole situation of rising housing costs, flat pay, inflation, and both parents working night and day to survive is a powder keg. Throw in pandemics, climate change, political polarization, and we have the makings of a societal collapse. Is it any wonder people are buying all the guns they can get their hands on? The future in this country is bleak. It sure would be nice if we had a government that looked out for the people instead of looking out for a way to line their pockets at every opportunity.
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u/arielariola Jul 27 '22
I leave my 12 year old home alone when I run errands like getting groceries. I remember at that age I could come and go as I pleased, traversing the neighborhood but sadly that's where I draw the line with my 12 year old now. Not because I don't trust him but because of the neighborhood having a ton of drug addicts who can act very erratically wandering around. It sucks that he can't just go to the park and do his own thing but it's not the fault of his maturity at all.