Where Are The Parents? Rant Alert!

3/09/2008

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Comments: 5 readers have left a comment

I was crossing a very busy road yesterday. The corner of Ennis and Grange in Rockingham. There are traffic lights there, but drivers fly along at 100ks an hour (it's an 80 zone but...)
And it was scary. Four lanes of fast cars coming from every direction.
Now I am no country hick road-crossing novice - I am a city girl through and through.
I got to the other side and breathed a sigh of relief. Imagine my surprise to see very young children - about 6 years old crossing the road on their own on the way to school!
ARE THEIR PARENTS THINKING? At all?

Now you can get all "oh but they have to learn to cross a road on their own". Yes it's true. But when their age is still in single digits they should not be crossing a four lane highway (just about!) on their own.
We all know how easily distracted children are - one mistake and they're gone. Forever.
Where are the parents??

And while I'm having this rant, another thing - I go to the park with my children a lot. And there are always loads of children there but never any other parents. Why is that? Where are they? Is it safe to to allow your 6 year old to the park on their own? I think not. As the only adult there I get called upon to fix sore knees when they've fallen off their scooters, sort out arguments when kids are being mean to each other and talk. Just talk. It's amazing the children who will come over and just want to chat. About school. Life. Anything really.
But where are the parents?

My husband has been trying to train our non-sporty 10 year old for the upcoming cricket season. The minute he gets to the oval he is swarmed by other boys who want to play with him. It's nice - but sad. Because again - no other parents.

Where are they all??

Reader Comments

mark b

04/09/2008 at 16:46

I imagine many of them are at work or at home on the internet or anywhere but where at least one of them should be.

It is one of the great modern tragedies, the casual neglect of children by their parents. Admittedly this is often because they are both flat out trying to keep their heads above water and paying all the bills.

If ever there was a perfect example of how our 'modern' affluent society has lost its way, it is in the way we treat our children. As the famous saying goes, "It takes a whole village to raise a child". Nowadays many children are lucky to have one strong adult role model in their lives.

And the result of this state of affairs? Beautiful kids being starved of attention from the people they need it from the most. The same people primarily responsible for providing them with a moral compass and a sense of who they are in this world.

Linda

16/09/2008 at 16:33

Well put mark b.
Because of these 'absent' parents, the kids are left to sometimes make decisions only adults should have to make.
And suffer the consequences, if they make the wrong decision.
Lucky for some, this lady in the park opens her heart to the children there. It really does take a community to raise children. And she is just one shining example.

Linda B

17/09/2008 at 20:12

Lucky the lady is nice, and not a sick predator after the children.

mardi

02/10/2008 at 11:14

My husband grew up in Maylands in the early 60s, and tells of how he and his sister, and mates would play for most of the day in the swamp lands for most of the day in the holidays. They were expected home by tea time. If he came home to dirty he was given the strap. His mum had the entire day to herself. I grew up on a farm but we did pretty much our own thing during the day unless of course we we helping with farm chores. On holidays we would go to the beach, fish and so on often without a parent but always in a group. We would come back to the holiday place to eat, and were not allowed out at night, not that we ever wanted to as we were pretty tired after all the activity in the day.
I found that I had a lot less freedom as a parent than what my husbands and my parents did. I worked part time and my kids pretty much in primary school were always supervised, with occasional unsupervised park outings in a group (late primary), with specific time/place instructions.

IN

13/11/2008 at 11:52

I was a police volunteer for 15 years. One training I never forgot was about childhood accidents and disappearances. Children between ages 6 and 10 are often trusted by parents to cross streets alone, go to school and parks alone, but until age 10 have NO CONCEPT of death applying to them. That is the range of ages for the greatest danger of accidental death.
Add in hat children seldom play in large groups now and you have a recipe for trauma.
Perhaps we need to educate parents more?