Would you let your nine year old ride the tube alone?
post a comment | posted May 8
Click here and read this small article to understand what I am about to rant about.
Independence gone too far?
I have a four year old and I now live in London with a massive metro system. I ride the metro almost daily and I see that yes most of the time it is safe. Is it safe enough for a nine year old to ride alone? Probably not. My reason for this is as in any city there is good and bad parts of town, I admit I agree with the author of the previous blog linked above that chances are your child is not going to meet a homicidal pedophile on the way home. I think chances are more likely that your child may appear to have money and is an easy target for robbers.
People today do not allow their children to have independance, but too much is just as bad as not enough. My daughter knows which tube stops we frequent and even when to stand, where the escalator is, doesn't mean even when she is nine I will let her ride alone. Nine is just too young even when your child seems to be responsible enough to handle the task.
Extreme Measures
I think nine is old enough to walk a short distance home with friends. I think nine is old enough to have a savings/checking account to balance and understand where his allowance is going and how to budget. That is a skill needed later in life, maybe stop your child early from going into debt. Maybe I am not sure nine is even old enough to ride your bike to a small store and buy your favorite candy, or to Blockbuster to rent the latest video game.
I think nine is too young for mature video games, most parents allow children to play the most violent and bloody games thinking, ok it's just a game. Your child's brain and how he percieves the world is still developing. You can see how obsessed a child can become over a movie character such as Captain Jack Sparrow. So why let them play with violence.
I see what this mother was trying to accomplish by giving her child some freedom he has been asking for. Allowing him to feel independant in a society that smothers their children and never uses any dicipline. Which is the very reason children are so hard to handle now. Our generation has learned to coddle to their children's every need and I feel that is what the author of the article did. This was more about the child asking repeatedly for this, and her eventually giving in. Most parents now eventually give in. I don't know about you but my daughter always asks to help cut the vegetables for dinner, she asks daily and I say no daily because I am not prepared to give her the sharp knife and see whether she gets her finger cut off. Get tough, letting a nine year old ride the subway wasn't a test of independance, it was a show of ok I am tired of him asking let's just give in.