Protecting the Free-Range Kid

[Montegriffo]

Really? So you didn't use the words snowflake or precious? Well done you. You must be a very good mum with the patience of a saint.

[Smitty-48]

That said, I can't help but cringe when I read about the 9 year old riding the NYC subway alone.

What's the big whoop? I started riding the public transit to and from school on my own, when I was younger than that, nobody ever bothered be, and there were plenty of adults around ayways if they ever did.

There was only one 9 year old kid in my neighborhood that ever got kidnapped and murdered, Sharon Morningstar Keenan, but she was taken from the little park right accross the street from her house, in broad daylight at 4 in the afternoon. The subway would not actually be the place to try to do that, quite the opposite, as it's high traffic, high visibility, heavily policed, and under constant surveillance.

[Montegriffo]

Yeah but even at 9 I bet nobody dared to look at you in a funny way eh butch? Some kids not so tough.

[Smitty-48]

Yeah but even at 9 I bet nobody dared to look at you in a funny way eh butch? Some kids not so tough.

Nah, I wasn't tough when I was nine, I didn't get toughened up until my parents got divorced and my mother moved to just accross the wrong side of the tracks from the ghetto. When I was nine I lived in a WASPy bourgeois wealthy neighborhood and went to school in Jew Town. It was only when I started crossing the tracks into the Hood, that I learned that I had to be ready to stand and deliver, lest I'd be somebody's bitch therein forever.

[MilSpecs]

That said, I can't help but cringe when I read about the 9 year old riding the NYC subway alone.

What's the big whoop? I started riding the public transit to and from school on my own, when I was younger than that, nobody ever bothered be, and there were plenty of adults around ayways if they ever did.

There was only one 9 year old kid in my neighborhood that ever got kidnapped and murdered, Sharon Morningstar Keenan, but she was taken from the little park right accross the street from her house, in broad daylight at 4 in the afternoon.

In NYC? I know it's safer today than it used to be, but there's no way I would have been allowed on the subway at that age by myself. My mother didn't even go on the subway by herself - she took the bus or went with someone. It wasn't safe to ride the subway alone. Too many muggings back then and too many mentally ill people living in the subways now. It's not like you're going from Point A to Point most of the time any way - you often have to transfer to get from place to place. Buses are safer for kids than the subway even today.

[Montegriffo]

Ah, poor Smitty,tough life, always the same with psychopaths.

[Montegriffo]

That said, I can't help but cringe when I read about the 9 year old riding the NYC subway alone.

What's the big whoop? I started riding the public transit to and from school on my own, when I was younger than that, nobody ever bothered be, and there were plenty of adults around ayways if they ever did.

There was only one 9 year old kid in my neighborhood that ever got kidnapped and murdered, Sharon Morningstar Keenan, but she was taken from the little park right accross the street from her house, in broad daylight at 4 in the afternoon.

In NYC? I know it's safer today than it used to be, but there's no way I would have been allowed on the subway at that age by myself. My mother didn't even go on the subway by herself - she took the bus or went with someone. It wasn't safe to ride the subway alone. Too many muggings back then and too many mentally ill people living in the subways now. It's not like you're going from Point A to Point most of the time any way - you often have to transfer to get from place to place. Buses are safer for kids than the subway even today.

On the other side of the coin I have a mate who's kid was driven into town to go play Warhammer with the other nerds till the age of 16 because Mummy didn't want precious on the bus. This is rural, arse end of nowhere and if someone's milk bottles get knocked over it's on the front page of the paper.

[Smitty-48]

Ah, poor Smitty,tough life, always the same with psychopaths.

Wot, psychopath, me? Please, I'm an overflowing cup of human empathy, nothing if not fair, with my heart ever upon my sleeve.

[Montegriffo]

Ah, poor Smitty,tough life, always the same with psychopaths.

Wot, psychopath, me? Please, I'm an overflowing cup of human empathy, nothing if not fair, with my heart ever upon my sleeve.

Silly me, I always seem to forget that. Wonder why?
Must be old age creeping up on me.
Should get myself checked for dementia next time I'm at the doctor's.

[Smitty-48]

That said, I can't help but cringe when I read about the 9 year old riding the NYC subway alone.

What's the big whoop? I started riding the public transit to and from school on my own, when I was younger than that, nobody ever bothered be, and there were plenty of adults around ayways if they ever did.

There was only one 9 year old kid in my neighborhood that ever got kidnapped and murdered, Sharon Morningstar Keenan, but she was taken from the little park right accross the street from her house, in broad daylight at 4 in the afternoon.

In NYC?

I walked around on my own as a kid in NYC, when NYC was supposedly dangerous, never had a problem, heck, I stood and watched a mugging as it went down, but the muggers paid me no mind, because they knew I didn't have any money, the muggers were after the nicely dressed parading up and down the promanade, not the little urchins playing in the streets.