Most of the time, if a child is abducted, it is the other parent in a post-divorce situation, rather than a kidnapper / molester. But we do see stories about those occasionally in the national news, so most people are "aware of the danger".
Ditto, I suppose, for CPS getting called by an over-reactive neighbor upon seeing a child wandering around without supervision. These types of stories also make the national news, for whatever reason, so most people are "aware of the danger".
And thus, we live in a climate of fear. Yay!
For the record, I spent some parts of my childhood wandering around in the woods alone (or with friends) where I could have: fallen down a hill, drown in a stream, fallen out of a tree, etc., etc., etc. without a reasonable possibility of timely rescue (no mobile phones back then). And I somehow survived. It is a shame that most kids in urban or suburban areas won't get a chance to do this anymore.
The movie M by Fritz Lang has one of the most fascinatingly alien endings of any movie I've ever seen. A serial killer who preys on children is brought to trial. Before the final sentence is announced, the shot cuts to the mothers of the children crying. One says "One has to keep closer watch over the children. -- All of you"
The moral is basically "You can't depend on people not to murder your children. You can't bring back dead children, we all need to protect our children." Watching M for the first time was incredibly strange. M was filmed in 1931 and the plot could have been written yesterday. I'm a huge proponent of letting kids explore the world (both literally and figuratively) without adult supervision.
I'm extremely thankful that my parents instilled such a strong sense of self-reliance in me. So many people who I grew up with are afraid to do anything without somebody there holding their hand. When I was a child I was allowed to go pretty much anywhere as long as my parents knew where I was going, when I'd be back, and if there was an adult I could contact in an emergency.
Other parent's used to ask my mom why she let us ride our bikes to school alone. (Always my mom, never my dad.) They'd ask "aren't you afraid of what could happen?" My mom was always insulted by these exchanges, and rightfully so -- the implication always seemed to be she didn't love us enough to protect us. Nothing could be further from the truth. My mom is pretty neurotic, and I know for a fact she was incredibly restless anytime my brother or I were out and about without supervision. She let us go because she wanted us to do more than live, she wanted us to thrive.
> I could have: fallen down a hill, drown in a stream, fallen out of a tree, etc., etc., etc. without a reasonable possibility of timely rescue (no mobile phones back then). And I somehow survived.
Among my cohort, no one died in childhood due to an accident. The closest was an older guy due to an ATV accident... after he graduated high school.
Among children / classmates close to my age in my hometown, I'm not aware of anyone who died, due to accidents or otherwise. So our mortality rate was somewhere below 1%, and I don't see anything to indicate we were unusual in that regard.
Huh, did you go to my school? I had the same thing happen. The summer of graduation, even. There were crazy rumors of it not even being an accident. He was actually a fairly close friend of mine and I was away at boot camp.
I also had an aquantance of mine die in 5th grade. Him and two of his brothers drown when the ice broke on a pond they were playing on[0]. But that's it, out of all of the people I know from school and church, all the way growing up, not just my age peers. At least, those that I heard of.
Most of the time, if a child is abducted, it is the other parent in a post-divorce situation, rather than a kidnapper / molester. But we do see stories about those occasionally in the national news, so most people are "aware of the danger".
Ditto, I suppose, for CPS getting called by an over-reactive neighbor upon seeing a child wandering around without supervision. These types of stories also make the national news, for whatever reason, so most people are "aware of the danger".
And thus, we live in a climate of fear. Yay!
For the record, I spent some parts of my childhood wandering around in the woods alone (or with friends) where I could have: fallen down a hill, drown in a stream, fallen out of a tree, etc., etc., etc. without a reasonable possibility of timely rescue (no mobile phones back then). And I somehow survived. It is a shame that most kids in urban or suburban areas won't get a chance to do this anymore.