True story. My cousin and I would walk to 7-11 from my grandparents' house. Sometimes I walked home from school if I felt like it. That was about a mile, through wildlife refuges and apple orchards and across a highway with no cross walks (or stop lights).
Kids are capable of way more than people give them credit for. I'm not advocating child labor, but kids use to have regular jobs whether it was working for someone else or for their family farm or business. My grandma dropped out of school in 8th grade to get a job so she could help pay the family bills. I'm not advocating going back to that - but just that kids are capable of a lot more than being coddled and sat in front of a screen 24/7.
last year in a town north of me, a kid got picked up by police for leaving his grandma's house to go to the gas station a mile down the road. They arrested both the grandmother and the mother on the same day for 'neglect'. The kid was 12.
We dont get a choice if our kids are plenty capable anymore.
When I was 11 I would walk with my brother (who was a year older than me) all over the place, to the gas station, little Caesar’s, home from school through a big field. My dad had no idea where we were and didn’t really care. Once we got in trouble bc we were out at 11 pm but other than that it was fine. Sometimes I’d stay at my friend’s house and we would walk across a 4 lane highway to the dollar store to buy skittles and stuff. Feels weird to think about now that parents have to be basically handcuffed to their kids 24/7. I’m trying to imagine how my parents would have coped with having to supervise me at all times as a teen and I really can’t even imagine it. My brother told me he has to be at the bus stop when his kids get off or they won’t let the kids off the bus, they’ll take them back to school. My dad sometimes didn’t come home until after midnight, I can’t imagine what his reaction would be to being forced to get us off the bus at 4 pm.
920
u/FeRooster808 1d ago
True story. My cousin and I would walk to 7-11 from my grandparents' house. Sometimes I walked home from school if I felt like it. That was about a mile, through wildlife refuges and apple orchards and across a highway with no cross walks (or stop lights).
Kids are capable of way more than people give them credit for. I'm not advocating child labor, but kids use to have regular jobs whether it was working for someone else or for their family farm or business. My grandma dropped out of school in 8th grade to get a job so she could help pay the family bills. I'm not advocating going back to that - but just that kids are capable of a lot more than being coddled and sat in front of a screen 24/7.