Where and when don't we allow children to wander around the city by themselves?
In many large cities, kids are expected to use public transit to get to/from school. It's not unknown for parents to send kids on errands. And, how does the kid get to the park?
This "kids can't go anywhere alone" idea is very new.
My Mom complained that the one route that I never used to go to/from school is the one that she showed me.
It seems to be a recent development in some larger American cities.
I work in a company in Berlin that has job applicants from many different countries, including the US. Common question during the process (we generally require relocation at this point) are:
- "Can my 12yo children go somewhere alone? I'm from Portland/similar and this is not the case here and it's why we're moving."
- "We've been looking and it's really hard to find an apartment in Berlin. We have this ground-floor option, but they just shot the ground-floor windows in across the street here again this morning. Is ground floor safe in Berlin?
I'm no longer surprised when it comes up, but it's quite sad.
That's because they're from Portland. There are only a handful of cities in the US where people do not feel safe to let their kids run around, and Portland is one of them. Even there only certain neighborhoods are unsafe. Your view of America is the same as an American who believes that women can't go outside without being sexually assaulted in Germany because of the 2015-16 New Years attacks, i.e. incredibly out of touch.
