5 ms·

I'm not American (thank God!) but I can understand that in the US you need a car if the school is several miles away and there's no serious public transport opt

• toyg 10y ago
  It's not just that. In Italy, when I was a kid (mid-80s), it was normal for 8-year-olds around the "paese" (which in my case was a city borough) to just walk to school. We would meet up on the way, and it was pretty fun. Same for going back, although we were expected to have someone at home. Now people freak out if a child is without adult supervision for 5 minutes, because of pedo-paranoia; nevermind that abuse cases are overwhelmingly done by relatives or close friends, which means the more you ask for an adult to be with kids, the more you're actually putting them at risk. Thanks, fearmongering mass-media and hollywood.
  • Joof 10y ago
    US here. We also walked / biked to school. I lived in suburbs though and can't speak for everyone.
  • 77pt77 10y ago
    > Now people freak out if a child is without adult supervision for 5 minutes, because of pedo-paranoia pedo-paranoia was also a think while I was growing up. I totally remember the talk regarding not accepting rides from people nor candy. My parents deny that they ever said such things because those were "idyllic times", but they sure did.
• Johnny555 10y ago
  several miles away You don't need a car to travel several miles, not even in America My office is "several miles" from home, and I bike to work. And while I live in a mild climate now so weather is on my side (winter temps rarely go below 50), decades ago when I was in college, I biked to campus even in the winter (which included ice, snow and below freezing temps)