Yet in Europe I’ve seen kids that are no chance older than this getting on crowded public transport to go where they need.
I grew up with a mom that was way too worried about some bullshit she saw about kidnapping on TV despite living somewhere that at the time was definitely safe to roam around. It wasn’t great. If I hadn’t been at least spared to stay home by myself from around age 10, I’d never learned to be independent.
That's because Europe was predominantly White. A couple more manchette attacks and parents will have to decide:
Having your kid hacked up is "part and parcel of living in a big city” and accept it out of "tolerance."
The world outside your home is legitimately dangerous now and the answer is giving the government more power. To keep you inside your home and raise your children for you.
Yeah, I grew up in a (relatively) very safe part of Aus, and I wasn't even allowed to catch the school bus. Ever. Not even as a teenager. The only way I managed to force my parents to allow me slightly more independence (such as to let me catch public busses) was to simply refuse to allow them to pick me up, walked into town with my friends, and caught the bus anyway, which in turn left them waiting around at the school gates for no reason. And this is like, when I'm 16...
They didn't even leave me home alone overnight until I was an adult (instead, if they had to go somewhere, I was forced to go stay with extended family. Never friends. Only "family"). They also dictated who I could be friends with (as much as they could, such as by losing people's phone numbers when I was younger) and only allowed friends they chose to visit my house.
These things really, really mess you up. Especially when you live in a rural area, and can't even just... Walk to the shops very easily, let alone go see your friends.
Consequently, I'm a terribly messed up adult, but if I ever do get to have children, I would never, ever put them though what I had to deal with.
Edit: To add to this, my parents raided my bank account (with my own earned money in it) multiple times, as a teenager and adult, to the point where I had to change my details at said bank. They also hacked my personal email account and social media. While I was at university. And finally, they would, not infrequently, turn up to places I was staying (uni accommodation, housing, whatever) unannounced, if they hadn't heard from me in say, five days, and demand that I accommodate them. In my dorm room. Interstate...
When I came back at age 23 for my five-year school reunion, we decided, as a group, to go to a bar after the official "event" was over. I had been living out of home for years at this point. But I "hadn't told [my parents] about the change of plans". So my mother drove around and around the relevant city blocks, following my group of friends as we walked down the street, to see what we were doing and where we were going.
I've never forgiven them for that. I didn't even go to my 10 year reunion, surprise surprise...
So when I say "shit was bad", I unfortunately really do mean it...
Anyway, I feel ya. And I'm sorry you went through that, too. But I also just felt like a rant, lol...
Aus seems like the one place where it's legitimately dangerous to exist without a buddy system. Fuck your spiders. And your snakes. And your ants. And your centipedes.
Though ironically, the most snakes and spiders I have ever encountered has been at my parents' house, so eh...
Encountering a goanna (monitor lizard) just wandering around the Uni res in Qld was pretty cool, though! All the girls squealing and cowering in the halls until someone came and took it away. Good times, good times... Lol.
But yeah, the wildlife is very much like Florida (or I guess Mississippi?) but on steroids, ha. Though if you live in the city (and not near bushland), you're rarely going to encounter anything larger than a possum (not the same as the opossum) or a decent-sized huntsman spider!
Edit: in terms of actual "danger", though, the meth-heads usually beat out most of the non-human wildlife. And the drunks.
In terms of the aquatic realm, however? Yeah, the creatures out/in there will seriously fuck you up, without question or prompting, lol...
Yet in Europe I’ve seen kids that are no chance older than this getting on crowded public transport to go where they need.
I grew up with a mom that was way too worried about some bullshit she saw about kidnapping on TV despite living somewhere that at the time was definitely safe to roam around. It wasn’t great. If I hadn’t been at least spared to stay home by myself from around age 10, I’d never learned to be independent.
That's because Europe was predominantly White. A couple more manchette attacks and parents will have to decide:
This is legitimately already the case in parts of Sweden. At least your first bullet-point, anyway. But also the second, to some extent.
Also arguably parts of any of Australia's largest cities. Particularly Western Sydney... And like, South Auckland in NZ.
All for more or less the same reason. And mostly the same "groups", too, lol.
Yeah, I grew up in a (relatively) very safe part of Aus, and I wasn't even allowed to catch the school bus. Ever. Not even as a teenager. The only way I managed to force my parents to allow me slightly more independence (such as to let me catch public busses) was to simply refuse to allow them to pick me up, walked into town with my friends, and caught the bus anyway, which in turn left them waiting around at the school gates for no reason. And this is like, when I'm 16...
They didn't even leave me home alone overnight until I was an adult (instead, if they had to go somewhere, I was forced to go stay with extended family. Never friends. Only "family"). They also dictated who I could be friends with (as much as they could, such as by losing people's phone numbers when I was younger) and only allowed friends they chose to visit my house.
These things really, really mess you up. Especially when you live in a rural area, and can't even just... Walk to the shops very easily, let alone go see your friends.
Consequently, I'm a terribly messed up adult, but if I ever do get to have children, I would never, ever put them though what I had to deal with.
Edit: To add to this, my parents raided my bank account (with my own earned money in it) multiple times, as a teenager and adult, to the point where I had to change my details at said bank. They also hacked my personal email account and social media. While I was at university. And finally, they would, not infrequently, turn up to places I was staying (uni accommodation, housing, whatever) unannounced, if they hadn't heard from me in say, five days, and demand that I accommodate them. In my dorm room. Interstate...
When I came back at age 23 for my five-year school reunion, we decided, as a group, to go to a bar after the official "event" was over. I had been living out of home for years at this point. But I "hadn't told [my parents] about the change of plans". So my mother drove around and around the relevant city blocks, following my group of friends as we walked down the street, to see what we were doing and where we were going.
I've never forgiven them for that. I didn't even go to my 10 year reunion, surprise surprise...
So when I say "shit was bad", I unfortunately really do mean it...
Anyway, I feel ya. And I'm sorry you went through that, too. But I also just felt like a rant, lol...
Aus seems like the one place where it's legitimately dangerous to exist without a buddy system. Fuck your spiders. And your snakes. And your ants. And your centipedes.
And the crocodiles big enough to win fights with large trucks.
Hahaha yeah...
Though ironically, the most snakes and spiders I have ever encountered has been at my parents' house, so eh...
Encountering a goanna (monitor lizard) just wandering around the Uni res in Qld was pretty cool, though! All the girls squealing and cowering in the halls until someone came and took it away. Good times, good times... Lol.
But yeah, the wildlife is very much like Florida (or I guess Mississippi?) but on steroids, ha. Though if you live in the city (and not near bushland), you're rarely going to encounter anything larger than a possum (not the same as the opossum) or a decent-sized huntsman spider!
Edit: in terms of actual "danger", though, the meth-heads usually beat out most of the non-human wildlife. And the drunks.
In terms of the aquatic realm, however? Yeah, the creatures out/in there will seriously fuck you up, without question or prompting, lol...