Is the World That Dangerous??

*Another book review.  I know.  I've been into non-fiction lately and the library has so many options to choose from!  Let's get started!

I started this book on Friday, finished it yesterday.  It was a pretty quick read.  For anyone that remembers, the author of this book was under a ton of public scrutiny in 2008 for letting her nine year-old son ride the subway...alone.  He made it home without any problems.

The main argument of this book is that the world really isn't that scary of a place.  Crime is down for one and some safety worries are largely hype.  Does she say that we should allow our children to completely roam free without any supervision or guidance?  NO!  However, much of the independence that children used to have (walking to school, playing outside unsupervised, etc) is largely non-existent nowadays.  This creates a fear hysteria of sorts that even our children catch onto.  And if you do happen to let your child do these things independently then you are criticized by other parents out there for not thinking about your child's safety.

Now, I was raised in the era where parents everywhere feared that child abductors lurked behind every corner.  There was a stranger-danger mindset that any stranger was a bad stranger.  I remember when my sister was missing at our house for about 20 minutes and my parents were freaked!!  Turns out, she had gone outside our fenced in front-yard to play in the truck-bed of one of our Studebaker trucks in front of the garage.  We were both lectured for about the potential risks of going beyond that gate without supervision.  At the time, the Nancy Shoemaker kidnapping case was the hot topic in our city.  Did the bogey-man grab my sister? No.  Did anyone even approach my sister?  No.  My sister is stubborn enough that no one could probably take her against her will without the whole world knowing about it right then.

I am not saying that is was right that she didn't inform mom and dad where she was.  That's just responsibility.  However, the actual reality of her being abducted? Very slim to none.  Do I blame my parents for the over-zealous protection guard? No, that was/is the attitude of our society, we believe all the media hype.

Here are the points I took away from this read:
1.  The media likes to hype the bad.  This makes it seem that a very unrealistic event is occurring all the time and could happen to everyone.  True, you could be abducted, but look at the statistics first.  The media is out for what?  Ratings!
2.  Halloween- not that dangerous as the world would like us to believe.  There has actually never been a documented case of a child being poisoned from a stranger's candy given out trick-or-treating.  There have been cases, but further investigation showed that is was a family member who attempted to cover it up.
3.  Children need to play outside!!!  Damn the video games! Okay, I enjoy the Wii as much as Asher, but there needs to be limits.  Unsupervised play helps promote independence, self-confidence, and other wonderful traits.  I used to play outside when I went to a sitter, I even played outside the first year we moved up to Manhattan.  After that, not so much.  But still more than today's average child.

I recommend this to anyone, whether you have children or not because it provides an interesting view of our society.  I'm not planning on turning my children completely loose, but maybe I can give them a little more independence.