"What's happening to the world?"
There have been so many bad things in the news lately that it’s got my mind racing again.What’s the deal with all the school shootings?
There are many questions that I ask myself when I see these stories:
Where are the kids getting the guns?
Are the parents responsible for their kids actions?
Why didn’t someone see the signs and do something before it happened?
Is there anything that really could have been done to prevent it?
Do you feel there is anything that, as a parent, you need to do to keep your child safe in his/her school?
I’m sure that most moms ask themselves some of these same questions.
There have also been a rash of children being run over while crossing streets, etc. Why?
Kids have always crossed streets. Is the media just reporting it more or are the number of accidents going up?
After hearing about some of the recent stories of children being run over, I wonder how old a child should be before he/she is allowed to ride his/her bike in a neighborhood (assuming it has sidewalks). My son is 7. I let him ride to his friends’ houses every once in a while. Is that too young?
Boys are just so independent. I know when I was 7 I rode all over the neighborhood. Have things changed too much?
Update: I've answered my own question about whether a 7 year old was too young to ride his bike to his friend's house. My son was found last night about 7 blocks from our house crying and screaming my name. He was lost. Thankfully, a nice lady noticed him and brought him to me. If you're reading this Mrs. Wallace, thank you!!!!!! Thanks also for telling him to never ride with strangers, LOL! Needless to say, my son will not be riding his bike to his friend's house for a while. I knew there were dangers, but it never crossed my mind that he could get lost going around the corner. What is the appropriate age for that?
Read comments and leave yours HERE.
Labels: guns, kids, parents, responsible, run over, shooting, street, world
posted by Melissa Swanson at 2:15 PM
Melissa is a student, a working mom, and the mother of 4 boys (ages 4, 7, 8, and 10). She is costantly fueled by the tenacity of her boys and their ability to make her laugh! What they say is true, "Laughter is the best medicine!"
4 Comments:
I think 7 is that age where they want to start exploring. When my son was around that age, I let him ride to friend's houses that were withing seeing distance of our house only. The rule was that if I couldn't see him, he was in trouble. If he wanted to go to a friend's house further away, I would drive him or follow him on his bike there. I think a child should be at least 10 before they drive around the neighborhood.
Well, I told my son tonight that he could no longer drive out of my site. I told him that if he wanted to go to a friend's house further away, he would have to call him first and see if I could drive him over there. We're definitely not taking anymore chances. It scared me to death!
My son started high school this year and my oldest daughter starts middle school next year. It scares me to death with all of the shootings that are happening. We live in Bossier and the schools practice lockdowns for incidents like this. I really don't know how you prepare children for such violance. I tell them to report anyone who talks about shooting someone or killing someone to the school principal and us immediately. I pray that my children never have to experience this. My kids have all led very sheltered lives and I often worry how they will handle violance, drugs, alcohol, sex and peer pressure. Is there such a thing as overprotecting them? We talk to our kids about all of these things constantly and would like to think that they will come to us if they have problems, but will they? I guess that is the big question.
As far as riding the bike issue. The 15 yr old can ride around the neighborhood unsupervised but that only started 2 yrs ago. Our 9 & 11 yr olds are only allowed within seeing distance of our house without an escort. As I previously said I am very protective of my kids. We live in a good area and on a dead end street but you just never know.
I normally was very protective of my children also. I guess that I noticed that my son's friends were riding around on their bikes, so I thought I'd let him give it a try. I'm kind of glad he got lost (and not hurt) because it showed me that he wasn't old enough to do this. Since this is my oldest child, I'm learning as I go. I'm just thankful that nothing bad happened to him. You're right......you never know!
Post a Comment
<< Home