Everywhere. Literally, there are unsupervised kids everywhere and I don't understand it. I know that you are busy; I know that you can't be a helicopter mom, but there are times when not paying attention to your kids borders on neglect.
Every day, when I pick my daughter up from school, we walk home with a gaggle of unsupervised kids, and often, I will be the only adult visible in a sea of anklebiters. True, the apartment complex that I live in is so near to the school that the bus doesn't run there, but in order to get to the school, the kids have to walk along the sidewalk that borders a fairly busy major road. This road always has traffic. Then they have to cross it. In the meantime, on the way home from school, I have witnessed kids pushing each other into the road, kids throwing rocks at each other and into oncoming traffic, and kids reaching out their hands and trying to touch passing cars. And since I am the only adult around, I have to yell at all these kids. The argument could be made that what these kids are doing is none of my business, but seeing a kid get hit by a car, and maybe even killed, would really ruin my day. Forget my day, that would ruin the whole damn year. I may not like your children, but I want them to live, damn it. What's wrong with you that you don't have this same desire?
Another instance of parental stupidity is not knowing what your kid is doing while they are on bikes. You can't be up your kid's ass every second of every day, but you should know their maturity level. Some kids are not old enough, mentally, to take their bikes down the road. They don't have either the knowledge or maturity to follow safe pedestrian rules and guidelines. I don't live in the frickin' country. This is a pretty busy place for kids to be just cruising along well-used roads with no adult in sight. When I can't pick up my daughter from school due to work, she takes the bus to Grandma's, and I walk there to pick her up. Walking back one time we witnessed two girls about my daughter's age crossing the road at the cross walk on their bikes, but they did not have the walk sign. Meaning that oncoming traffic had a green light, and it's a good thing that all those cars had good brakes. One poor woman stopped so close to one of the girls that she could have reached her hand out of the window and touched her. Scary, and the girl got all upset because the woman was very audible in her cussing, but to be honest, I wanted to cuss too. There are times when something you see scares you so much that you just know that you are gonna die a few years younger just because you witnessed the incident. This was one of those times.
Another incident occurred in my apartment complex, when a little five year old took a head dive off of her bike. Blood everywhere, not an adult in site; me frantically trying to figure out where she lives so that I can get her to mommy. If I had known this kid, I just would have taken her to my apartment and patched her up, but having no knowledge of the temperament of her parents, I didn't feel safe doing so, because some people's eyes would just light up in hopes of a fat lawsuit. Or if the child is being abused, and they need a scapegoat.... People can't be kind anymore, we have to worry about getting bit in the ass when we do. Eventually, some older kid who knew her came along, which was a relief, because I don't have a cell phone and was fixing to just start banging on nearby doors in hopes of hitting the jackpot. But how do you let a five year old out on a bike, with no helmet or safety gear, and at least not have an eye out for her welfare? Someone could have totally snatched her, and with all these girls being found years later after having to survive brutal conditions, this should be the concern of any parent with a child.
I let my daughter out to play, so I know things can happen in an instant, but she isn't allowed to go out of earshot of the apartment, and I check on her periodically just to make sure she is not in trouble. This little five year old was crying and crying, and no mom or dad came to rescue her and kiss her ouches. Not good. I really don't like to be judgmental, but this is not good parenting. Like I said, you have to let them learn to do things on there own, true, but they also need to be the right age and have the right maturity level. Your kid shouldn't be walking home from school unsupervised if they are of the mentality where pushing another kid into a busy road sounds like a good idea. It's not a good idea. Be a parent.
Every day, when I pick my daughter up from school, we walk home with a gaggle of unsupervised kids, and often, I will be the only adult visible in a sea of anklebiters. True, the apartment complex that I live in is so near to the school that the bus doesn't run there, but in order to get to the school, the kids have to walk along the sidewalk that borders a fairly busy major road. This road always has traffic. Then they have to cross it. In the meantime, on the way home from school, I have witnessed kids pushing each other into the road, kids throwing rocks at each other and into oncoming traffic, and kids reaching out their hands and trying to touch passing cars. And since I am the only adult around, I have to yell at all these kids. The argument could be made that what these kids are doing is none of my business, but seeing a kid get hit by a car, and maybe even killed, would really ruin my day. Forget my day, that would ruin the whole damn year. I may not like your children, but I want them to live, damn it. What's wrong with you that you don't have this same desire?
Another instance of parental stupidity is not knowing what your kid is doing while they are on bikes. You can't be up your kid's ass every second of every day, but you should know their maturity level. Some kids are not old enough, mentally, to take their bikes down the road. They don't have either the knowledge or maturity to follow safe pedestrian rules and guidelines. I don't live in the frickin' country. This is a pretty busy place for kids to be just cruising along well-used roads with no adult in sight. When I can't pick up my daughter from school due to work, she takes the bus to Grandma's, and I walk there to pick her up. Walking back one time we witnessed two girls about my daughter's age crossing the road at the cross walk on their bikes, but they did not have the walk sign. Meaning that oncoming traffic had a green light, and it's a good thing that all those cars had good brakes. One poor woman stopped so close to one of the girls that she could have reached her hand out of the window and touched her. Scary, and the girl got all upset because the woman was very audible in her cussing, but to be honest, I wanted to cuss too. There are times when something you see scares you so much that you just know that you are gonna die a few years younger just because you witnessed the incident. This was one of those times.
Another incident occurred in my apartment complex, when a little five year old took a head dive off of her bike. Blood everywhere, not an adult in site; me frantically trying to figure out where she lives so that I can get her to mommy. If I had known this kid, I just would have taken her to my apartment and patched her up, but having no knowledge of the temperament of her parents, I didn't feel safe doing so, because some people's eyes would just light up in hopes of a fat lawsuit. Or if the child is being abused, and they need a scapegoat.... People can't be kind anymore, we have to worry about getting bit in the ass when we do. Eventually, some older kid who knew her came along, which was a relief, because I don't have a cell phone and was fixing to just start banging on nearby doors in hopes of hitting the jackpot. But how do you let a five year old out on a bike, with no helmet or safety gear, and at least not have an eye out for her welfare? Someone could have totally snatched her, and with all these girls being found years later after having to survive brutal conditions, this should be the concern of any parent with a child.
I let my daughter out to play, so I know things can happen in an instant, but she isn't allowed to go out of earshot of the apartment, and I check on her periodically just to make sure she is not in trouble. This little five year old was crying and crying, and no mom or dad came to rescue her and kiss her ouches. Not good. I really don't like to be judgmental, but this is not good parenting. Like I said, you have to let them learn to do things on there own, true, but they also need to be the right age and have the right maturity level. Your kid shouldn't be walking home from school unsupervised if they are of the mentality where pushing another kid into a busy road sounds like a good idea. It's not a good idea. Be a parent.
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