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"We'll have to agree to disagree here. 7 is too young to be unsupervised.
The legal age to leave your kid home alone is 14, & I know of many parents that don't follow that either.
And since we're not talking about my kids, it doesn't matter what my cutoff age is now, does it?"
Not in my state. There is not legal age to leave a child home alone. It is up to the parents view of how responsible the child is and if they are able to stay home alone.
I agree with everyone else who has said that teaching your child to defend / protect themself is a better idea than never letting your child out of your sight. Despite your best efforts, your child WILL be out of your sight at some point (how about Dad at the mall with daughter... won't she have to pee at some point?).
My other comment was that some people are saying to teach your daughters to protect themselves, etc... please don't forget that boys go missing also. I taught all my kids to defend themselves and run away, not matter what their gender.
Well I don't live in a tiny town. So maybe its a good thing, in a huge city to have a law like this.
And I do agree- teaching them how to defend themselves, & also be aware of their surroundings is imperative.
I can understand how this turned into a debate over what the mom did "wrong". The kidnapper's wrong. End of THAT story. Now what?
Letting your 7 year old wander off in Wal-Mart? WRONG.
Wait for it...
Letting your 7 year old go an aisle or two over from where you're at, knowing where she's headed because she asked you first? Normal.
At least where I live. But I live in a small town. You have to consider that kind of stuff, along with the personality of your child.
As for how smart or brave this girl was, I'd say VERY. Not all kids are going to make a scene, even (or should I say ESPECIALLY) when they're scared. Who knows why. Maybe they fear the kidnapper will hurt them right away if they yell or something. But it isn't a given that a child will act as she did.
I can understand how this turned into a debate over what the mom did "wrong". The kidnapper's wrong. End of THAT story. Now what?
Letting your 7 year old wander off in Wal-Mart? WRONG.
Wait for it...
Letting your 7 year old go an aisle or two over from where you're at, knowing where she's headed because she asked you first? Normal.
At least where I live. But I live in a small town. You have to consider that kind of stuff, along with the personality of your child.
As for how smart or brave this girl was, I'd say VERY. Not all kids are going to make a scene, even (or should I say ESPECIALLY) when they're scared. Who knows why. Maybe they fear the kidnapper will hurt them right away if they yell or something. But it isn't a given that a child will act as she did.
I agree with your entire post completely. Re: the bolded. I actually do worry about that. I have a 7 year old DD. I have talked to her about what to do in a situation like that. I just don't know for sure what she would do in that situation. She is a scrappy one and isn't afraid to stand up for herself, but who knows how anyone ESPECIALLY a child would act in that type of situation.
Really?! You are going to blame the parents? How sickening
Quote:
Originally Posted by believe007
No, there isn't more to it than that. How many kids go missing every year? Look it up. There is no excuse for stupidity. I don't care what the kid wants. Either the parents are smart & know where they are at all times or they are inexcusably stupid. I see a lot of stupidity, & I personally detest it.
Every time there's a new missing kid, I wonder if the parents were actually neglectful, by allowing the kids to run off, in the store....with no supervision.
And the comparison doesn't hold water. People shopping are really not paying attention, whereas in a park more than likely the kids are the only thing to pay attention to.
There are way to many naive parents out there. I work in a large department store and I often see small children wander around by themselves. 4,5,6 year olds. Parents are in the fittingroom trying stuff on. I once had to page a mother for a "lost" little girl. We paged her several times and eventually she came, very irritated that she had to leave the fitting room to pick up her 5 year old daughter.
No, there isn't more to it than that. How many kids go missing every year? Look it up. There is no excuse for stupidity. I don't care what the kid wants. Either the parents are smart & know where they are at all times or they are inexcusably stupid. I see a lot of stupidity, & I personally detest it.
Every time there's a new missing kid, I wonder if the parents were actually neglectful, by allowing the kids to run off, in the store....with no supervision.
And the comparison doesn't hold water. People shopping are really not paying attention, whereas in a park more than likely the kids are the only thing to pay attention to.
The largest number of missing children are, from most frequent to least frequent:
Runaways
Family abductions
Lost, injured or otherwise missing children
Nonfamily abductions (in these cases, the child is at greatest risk of injury or death).
As we noted here when Today covered the story in 2004, the show claimed that 58,000 American children go missing each year. That is the Justice Department statistic for what it calls “nonfamily abductions.”
But in such cases, as the media rarely notes, 90 percent of “abductees” return home within 24 hours. The vast majority are teenagers running away with friends or romantic partners and over 99 percent are returned alive and uninjured. (Although many teen girls are involved with sexual activity during the time when they are “missing,” the statistics do not distinguish between voluntary and coerced sex because if the girl is under-age and the male is not, she is not considered capable of consent. The majority of the “missing children” covered by this statistic (65%) are female and 59% are aged 15-17.)
This time, Today was more conservative in its estimate, claiming that only 5,000 children go missing each year. While this is an improvement over 58,000, the implication is still that there are 5,000 stereotypical kidnappings, in which a stranger or acquaintance abducts a child to hold for ransom or abuse and kill him or her. According to the Justice Department, there are only about 115 such incidents each year.
7 is old enough to have a little independence. I walked to school on my own, 8 blocks away, from 1st grade on. You may say "but things are different now" but no they aren't. Just more publicized. I wasn't a particularly savvy 7 yr old, I don't know what I would have done if someone tried to grab me, but it would have been the kidnappers fault, not the fault of my parents.
I'm not saying they should be left alone to fend for themselves, but being in the toy isle of Walmart while your back is turned isn't something an average parent should be concerned about. We only are because of a few crazy individuals. And because of those individuals I'm crazy even about my 21 and 25 yr olds but there is only so much the average parent can, or should, do.
I am SOOOO PROUD of that little girl!!! What an inspiration.. She needs to be a spokesperson for some sort of national program to prevent child abduction!!
I have gone over a variety of scenarios, that someone would try to lure my kids, with my 2 kids. Most of their answers were right on.. They can be tricked..
I try to revisit the subject so they know not to let their guard down.. It happens anywhere USA.
We live in a small community.. There is a surprisingly large amount of pedophiles in our area...
It SICKENS me, and I have said that if I get ahold of one trying to make a move on my children, it's not going to end well....
She needs to be a spokesperson for some sort of national program to prevent child abduction!!
No..just no.
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Really?! You are going to blame the parents? How sickening
That story was so sad. They still never recovered the rest of his body.. may he rest in peace
