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Are there places in America where things are not this extreme? I am looking for a career in IT, so coming to the Valley might be something I am going to do in
by Radle 10y ago
Are there places in America where things are not this extreme?
I am looking for a career in IT, so coming to the Valley might be something I am going to do in my career.
But I would want my kids to grow up in a different, more independent way. Like I did in my home country.
(If I was in America now and thinking about getting children, this article would be a 100% reason to go back to my home country, it totally gave me the creeps.)
- sotojuan 10y agoWorking class immigrant neighborhoods.
- svantana 10y agoWell, to begin with, find a state where laws are more relaxed: http://www.freerangekids.com/laws/ http://www.freerangekids.com/laws/ Moral judgements from people in your community can be bad enough, but it's a whole different ball game when you run the risk of getting arrested!
- noddingham 10y agoMy advice would be to look at smaller towns and neighborhoods. I grew up in a "city" of 30k, with many smaller towns of 500-10k within the county. We roamed every inch of the neighborhood. All the neighbors within 5-6 houses in any direction knew our families.
- lubujackson 10y agoSuburbs are the worst. I grew up in a small town and had pretty much free reign early, walking a mile home from school at 4th grade, do whatever in the summers, etc. My wife was driven from friend's house to friend's house and never was outside alone until she was 16 and could drive. I'm not sure how much it's changed in small towns, but now I live in SF and notice that it is closer to small town behavior than the 'burbs. I routinely see 10 to 12 year old kids walking around in groups to school or taking the bus. They are rarely alone but aren't accompanied by an adult. It is much different than my childhood, but they seem to have good sense of independence which seems way better than a car-based childhood in the suburbs.
- maxxxxx 10y agoMost likely those neighborhoods will be less affluent. In affluent neighborhoods you almost don't see anybody outside ever, certainly no children.
- tbihl 10y agoWell, I grew up in a small town of 20000 in Virginia, and I don't think things are, or were, like this at all. When I go home, I see children arrive at the YMCA to play basketball unaccompanied. They also arrive at the library alone. When I worked at the town pool as recently as 5 years ago, our most common swimmers were kids who showed up alone on their bikes or skateboards. Thinking back about 10-15 years ago when I was younger, I'd walk the 30 minutes to school alone if I didn't want to ride the bus. My younger brothers did likewise. The four of us would have firework battles in the yard; in hindsight perhaps someone should have come out to discourage us on that last activity. In the early 2000s, at age 7-10, I would spend most summer days down by the creek with a friend or two. We'd set off by bike after summer swim team in mornings, take our lunches, and spend most of the day there. I guess that's all a decade in the past, but I would wager that it's media portrayal that's more likely to have done most of the recent changing, not crazy people. There have always been crazy people, but it seems like they all organized to abuse CPS together suddenly over the last 10 years.
- SmallDeadGuy 10y ago20000 is a small town for you? I guess I've never lived in a small town, only in tiny villages between 300-900 people or cities of 100000+ but my nearest town is ~20000 and I've always considered it pretty large with lots of disconnected communities and areas.