That it's national news when a nine-year-old rides a train alone says something about how frightened and weak Americans have become. A few weeks back, I blogged about parents not allowing children to be children, and instead infantalizing them by monitoring their play with other kids, shuttling them to and from school, making them don Evel Knievel-like protective gear before taking a simple bike ride, anesthatizing them with video games, etc. Ironically, this is a sure-fire way to raise a sucker ripe for exploitation by world-wise predators. Kudos to Lenore Skenazy, a mom who rebelled against this parental Big Brotherism by giving her nine-year-old son a Metro card at Bloomingdale's in Manhattan and telling him to find his way home. "It's safe to go on the subway," the New York Sun columnist explains. "It's safe to be a kid. It's safe to ride your bike on the streets. We're like brainwashed because of all the stories we hear that it isn't safe. But those are the exceptions. That's why they make it to the news. This is like, 'Boy boils egg.' He did something that any 9-year-old could do."

I agree with the basic sentiment of this post. But what if the boogeyman is a level 2 or 3 sex offender driving around neighborhoods noticed but, pretty much, left alone by the authorities?

This is not the way I grew up, but it's a more lenient and sick world out there today so greater caution needs to be exercised.

I think Mrs. Skenazy's point is that it's not a sicker world today then when you grew up if you grew up in the 1970s or '8os, particularly in her hometown of New York City. We are more aware of pathologies today, but that does not mean they're more prevalent. Additionally, there is something perverse about assuming every stranger a pervert (or murderer, or thug, etc.), which is a way not to live life. This doesn't mean kids should trust strangers. It just means that parents should raise their kids in a manner in which they can trust them.

With all due respect, I’m glad that Mrs. Skenazy thinks that way and is brave and secure enough to not have those reservations. But I think she’s wrong and we do live in a more dangerous world in general and a more dangerous society in particular and that greater precautions need to be taken.

When I grew up, violent sex offenders were not arbitrarily released from jail by a weak judiciary and defended by a legal system motivated by victimhood and politically correctness where law enforcement, in many cases, had their hands tied. I also didn’t grow up where large numbers of criminal illegal aliens could perpetrate crimes and walk away or get drivers licenses (or not) and mow people down or cause traffic accidents with impunity.

I also don’t remember my peers in high school dressing up in black and gunning down classmates and I don’t recall groups of elementary school kids premeditating a murder plan to bludgeon, duct tape and knife a school teacher.

So, if she thinks things are the same as when she grew up, Mrs. Skenazy must have grown up in a more tough and chaotic place than I did.

Bottom line is I don’t teach fear, but I do teach caution. And when the police send notifications out that there is a level 3 sex offender lurking (true incident) around a place where there’s a middle school, a private Catholic all girls high school, and a day care school, I don’t let my kids walk home.

I agree that we need to let children be children and allow them to deal with their own problems. My method of doing so would not be to let my 9 year old ride a Subway alone in New York City.

P.S Manhattan isn't particularly dangerous, but that doesn't mean that New York is safe. Shes lucky he didn't hop on the wrong train and end up in the South Bronx.

I agree Ben. I'm all for letting kids ride a bike without knee pads, but letting a 9 year-old kid ride the subway alone is completely irresponsible. Perhaps it's my farm upbringing that makes me anxious of large cities.

Subways are public places packed with people, not pedophiles. Just out of curiousity, Ken, when did you first shoot a rifle? I never shot a firearm until I was in the Marines, but met many men therein who had been shooting since not long after they could walk. Many city people have phobias regarding firearms the way many rural people have phobias regarding subways. My sense is that many rural people who view nine-year olds on the subway as over the line probably started shooting around that age.

I live in Boston. I wouldn't let a 9 year old on the T alone.

I took the "T" with friends starting around the fifth grade, and I took the 77 bus with friends a little before then. I don't recall having to take the train alone for any reason until I got a job at Fenway but I do remember going into Harvard Square on the 77 bus alone a couple times in 7th and 8th grade (once to buy an LP record of Morrissey's Viva Hate, I think my last vinyl purchase). On my first trip on the train with my friends in 5th grade some older kids conned me out of a dollar, which was a valuable life lesson.

Yeah, "when I was a boy", I walked and biked everywhere and took subway and bus lines regularly. I even took a bus into Eggleston Square everyday for close to a year, which has never been a nice place for people of my ethnic persuasion. And I never had to worry about much by way of danger. But, if I were a kid today, I might rethink those adventures.

Where I grew up (as was probably the case most everywhere), there was an "evolution" in crime and an escalation in weaponry. Within about ten years, it went from fists, to fists and clubs, to fists, clubs and knives, to clubs, knives and guns. Today, it’s mostly only guns but they're more powerful and deadly ordinance.

Just sayin’: things are different with some new rules that need to be observed.

I think I was 11 or 12 when I first fired a gun. I understand your point, but the difference is that when I began shooting, I was very closely supervised by a parent or grandparent. I wasn't just given a gun and allowed to wander around the farm.

Needless to say and for obvious reasons, there is a huge difference between gun interest and ownership in urban and rural locales. The closeness of a city makes it more difficult to carry or use one but you can shoot just about anywhere in the burbs or country.

I grew up in an urban environment around many guns. My Father and Uncles had brought back an arsenal from various WWII ToO's, Korea and a few were cops. So, guns were around but rarely discussed and always kept away from the kiddies unless one of the adults allowed for handling or shooting.

So I shot targets with a .38 in my basement with my Dad at around the age of seven and continued to target shoot throughout my teens. But, it must have been the nonchalance of my family with regard to weapons, as I never got the bug and have zero interest in guns.

If I needed to, I could use one. But only absolutely positively if I needed to.

I live 20 miles west of a major city. It's amazingly sedate. Yet the majority of parents drive their children to school. It's an odd sight , that of a single winding line of cars waiting patiently to drop the kid six feet from the school door.......What are these parents thinking?! Six feet is plenty of room for a sexual predator to dash in between the school and the car and SNATCH the child away!....

Honestly though , not being a parent , I don't know if the children MUST be dropped off at the door for liability reasons or whatever?... However , as I said , a very strange sight......... Especially since when I WAS A KID I had to.....haha.

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Ya know, it's kind of funny that Rudy Giuliani put a lot of money and effort into making NYC safer, and his RINO successor hasn't backed off that much, to the point where NYC is as safe as Provo, Utah. But some mom decides it's okay to take advantage of that fact, and her attitude is wrong? Does not compute!

Folks, we're talking about a couple of miles on a busy subway line at mid-afternoon on Sunday, then a bus ride of a few blocks, taken solo by a kid who has been riding subways all his life. He gets sent out on an adventure he wanted with backups if he makes mistakes, even taxi fare, and is probably within sight of more than 100 people every step of the way. YMMV may vary for your own kid, in fact it should, but to me this shows a parent with enough skill to let the boy think he's taking a big step alone when in reality mom has made it hard for him not to succeed. Kudos to her.

It's her kid. Let her do whatever the hell she wants. I wasn't being necessarily critical of her. In her world it works. I just think that in my world, I wouldn't do the same.