Something as simple as the morning walk...

My son very recently became a "car rider" and no longer takes the bus to his elementary school.  Truly, we live 4 minutes away by car - why should the poor kid have to sit on a bus for 45 minutes every day because he's the first one on, and the last one off?  So, he and I as of this week - start our days together on the road.  The 4 minutes actually becomes a little longer, because I must have my Dunkin Donut's fix - and there isn't another one on my commute, so we go to the one closest to the house before heading towards school.

On our way this morning, I noticed something that struck me as rather interesting.  Not one child could be seen walking to school; not even down the street that the school is on.  There were lots of buses - and cars - but no children.  So I mentioned to my son how different it is today from when I was a kid.  Back then (we rode dinosaurs to school….wore paper on the bottom of our heels instead of getting new shoes…) we walked to school.  You'd see groups of kids walking to the elementary schools.  You could start off walking by yourself, and you'd almost never end up at the school door alone.  You'd see some people and yell "hey, wait up"…start chit chatting and then, of course the obligatory "can I walk with ya" (yes, we said "ya" because after all - I am from Boston!)

Seeing no kids walking anywhere within the town is an interesting commentary of our society today.  This is not a world where we as parents feel that it is safe to let our kids out of adult supervision, for any length of time -- at least not until they're old enough to drive themselves it seems.  And while this is definitely true of how I feel -- it still was sort of sad to see the streets themselves so quiet.  I used to love walking to school, it was a great way for me to spend extra time with my friends.  Maybe one of us would be inspired to go over the other's house after school to do homework or something, maybe even have dinner at someone's house. 

Those days are gone now.  It's all chaueffered, chaperoned, coordinated and communicated. The free spiritedness and impulsiveness of being a kid is gone.  The innocence of life is much smaller now because of the sick, twisted psychopaths knowns as pedophiles not only live in our own backyards - but they're reaching out to our kids via every means of communication possible. MYSPACE, AOL, Facebook and every other online chatroom in the world are the breeding grounds for these people to encroach upon our precious children.  We see them on Dateline NBC, and we as parents know that they are trying really hard to be creative, and cunning in their efforts to ditch the law and feed their addiction to preying on children -- without getting caught.

Hmmm.  Nothing like saying how I really feel.

I get that this isn't 1955 -- or even 1985. Back in those days, you just were supposed to be afraid of strange men offering you candy at the playground - or luring you to see a puppy in their car or van.  I know the world is a dangerous place, as it's always been.  I just wish it wasn't so in my face all the time.  I liked my childhood growing up; I loved being able to play with my friends, and not have my parents (who were insanely strict and overprotective in comparison to my other friend's parents) be overly worried about me.   And funny enough, something as small and subtle as not seeing any children, or hearing any laughter on a residential street of an elementary school really drove that point home for me today.