I was on my own at 17-18 in the early 2000’s and i felt wholly unprepared, even though i had been raised with a lot of relative freedoms. I can’t imagine how much worse off i would have been being more closely monitored by my parents.
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Reminds me of my mom’s irrational fear of Detroit. Her fears are rooted squarely in racism, though, not from believing the incredibly stupid and obviously fake balloneyshit that circulates through Wastebook*.
(*I will never sign up, but Mr. Kidd sometimes shows me teh stoopid that waltzes through his account.)
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It takes a village.
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Well i’m sure the people of Detroit are nothing to fear. But then… you know… there’s the physical location of Detroit.
*j/k. Kind of.
Through my work I interact with NY offices of child welfare, and holy shit, they are constantly terrified to the point of psychosis about backlash from the public. ACS has had some pretty high profile abuse scandals in the last decade. As you point out, all or most of those cases are abusive parents who already have an (overworked and underpaid) social worker. It’s so bizarre that it translates into this stranger danger bullshit.
Men definitely dominate the world of internet driving trollies in both viciousness and volume, BUT if you ever do want to see female internet trollies on full display, visit a parenting forum. I guarantee you will be threatened with a CPS call within minutes from both sides of the issue.
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Well that’s far too reasonable to get mad about on the internet, I’m going to keep believing the 16 years old thing.
The kid in me looks at that rubble pile and thinks, “so many adventures to be had.” The adult in me fears tripping and falling into a pile of used syringes.
Then again I was given a lot of freedom as a kid. From about 11 or so I would walk or use mass transit to go to school or friends’ places unsupervised (and my best friend lived in a really sketchy neighborhood although at the time that didn’t register with me) and it was no big deal. I definitely had some scary things happen to me but for the most part it was all part of growing up.
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I likely would have been happy to hang out in such a dilapidated lot as well as a kid, me and my friends would often go on hikes and scavenge for building materials to make a tree house/fort. I’m sure my parents would have been mortified to know what i was up to some days but for the most part i didn’t get into much trouble. Definitely have a lot of fond memories of my childhood and i have a hard time imagining what it’d be like to have that freedom taken away from me as a kid.
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“Everyone has a duty to report a situation in which a child may be at risk.
Seems like someone should have a duty to see to it that parents aren’t persecuted due to false reports where there was no risk. The very concept that we need a bureau of Adult Protective Services specifically to protect adults (and their children) who are at risk from Child Protective Services is so absurd and Kafkaesque…
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And in Korea … hordes of unattended, unsupervised children in every subway station.
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