We are all humans. We grow within our Mothers and are born and begin our development over time outside our mothers. Independence grows over time.
As a young person near Boston, I used to take myself into the Boston Science Museum on Saturdays each weekend. I was not accompanied by another family member. I used the Mattapan High Speed Trolley and Red Line and then the Green Line to get to Science Park. I did this almost every weekend between the ages of 7 and 13.
My Route.
At age 7, I once took my younger siblings with me to see Woody Allen’s ‘Take the Money and Run‘. It was rated ‘M’.
I used to ride my bicycle around Milton, MA until the street lights came on during the summer. At Age 13 I rode my bicycle from Milton MA to North Falmouth MA. Later I participated in Centuries.
The likelihood of violence being inflicted upon any child is very low, but increases when the violence is being inflicted by another child. Bad stuff does happen, and the media does a terrific job of giving us the sordid details, but I’ve never seen them provide an analysis of the likelihood of the event happening to any individual. It’s sad certainly, but do we want to be total helicopter parents and restrict the development of the independence of our youth?
My kids are young people and growing older. They have their issues, sometimes not paying attention to their personal grooming. We had to visit DHS once when my youngest was reported for not changing his clothes and cleaning his nails. We have to pick our battles. Just getting him to bed can be a challenge.
Young people make mistakes. That’s one way that they grow and learn. Kids even do criminal acts. Rather than imprison them or take them away from their parents, how about educating all parties involved. It’s now known that a young person’s brain isn’t fully developed till about 24 years old. Some consideration should be given to young persons and educating them about good behavior rather then reinforcing bad behavior by placing the in Prison .
Recent news show people calling police about a solitary child at the park or taking the subway by themselves. Don’t they remember being children themselves? I do.
Please be Good, not Evil.
God Bless America, Please.
Bernardo de la Paz
Nanny State by Bernardo de la Paz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Holmesivonline 