Is 5 miles too far to walk to school?

[Fatheroffour]

An Arkansas mother is being charged with a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a minor after she made her son walk 4.6 miles to school in order to “teach him a lesson.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2 ... to-school/

Is this the same? Better or worse?

Why I let my 9 year old ride the subway.

[Outis]

At that age, in that weather, yes.

[justlarry]

Only if it up hill both ways!

I grew up in Brooklyn NY in the 1970's. There were no school buses. Up until you were 10 years old you walked to school. Not 4.6 miles but probably a mile or two the most. Only a hand full of kids walked with parents. 99% walked on their own (with friends) no adults. My Mother took me the first day of kindergarten and never again.

From 11 years old on you took the NYC buses/subways just like every other strap hanger.

[aero_8]

I had a 2+ mile walk to school everyday growing up in Canada. My mother walked me to school the first day of kindergarten, and that was it. I walked my little sister to school for her first day of kindergarten. I had friends that lived further away, and would spend an hour walking to get from school to home. My parents used to give me a ride sometimes when the temperatures dropped down around -35. We usually walked if there was a blizzard, because it was faster. A five mile walk in temperatures at 30degrees is harsh, but it's not dangerous. I don't think I'd make my daughter do it (partly because I think she'd probably get lost), but criminal charges seem a bit ridiculous to me.

[Fatheroffour]

I wonder if moms encounter with law enforcement will increase or decrease the chances the young man will get kicked off the bus again. He clearly didn't want his mom to go to jail so maybe he will straighten up so his mom won't get in trouble for punishing him.

Or he might have discovered he can do what he wants because the state will render mamas threats hollow.

Will need a follow up story in a year.

[defaultuser]

Re: Is 5 miles too far to walk to school?

It didn't used to be. Going to school used to be a privilege that you'd be happy to walk 5 miles for, but now we're so entitled that if we don't take advantage of a free ride to school, its abuse.

[epsilon]

Someone saw a 10 year old boy walking alone and called the police? I find that absolutely outrageous. Endangerment? You've got to be kidding.

I guess our children can never be unsupervised anymore. I must be negligent myself in helping keep all the neighborhood kids safe since I don't call the police when I see kids playing or riding their bikes and there's no adult with them.

Strip away the extraneous info like the school, the punishment, etc, it doesn't matter. You're left with a kid walking alone, a 10 year old at that. It's ludicrous to think anything is wrong with that. And if someone else doesn't agree then they can raise their own kids that way. Not tell someone else what to do.

I also agree with FOF's statement/question that many times authorities undermine parents' ability to discipline their kids. And the kids learn to start telling their parents they are going to just tell someone that they're being abused if the parent tries to discipline them. I've seen it happen.

I've read about the subway story before. I believe that lady now runs the free range kids site. She's right. Nothing wrong with what she did. I hate hearing people say 'in this day and age', or 'this is a different time'. Yes, it is a different time, crime is much less than when we were kids and we were allowed to do much more, and explore farther, and at a younger age.

I think it's sad that parent's don't let kids learn and explore and basically 'grow up'. Isn't that what we're suppose to do?

My boy is 7 and in first grade. When the weather gets nicer I am going to start letting him ride his bike to school. The only reason I waited this long is because he does have to cross one somewhat busy street. It is just over one mile. I have had a number of people surprised and tell me they wouldn't let their kids do that. That's too bad for their kid.

[hoosier_dad]

From Kindergarten on I walked to school about .5 miles including crossing one or two busy streets. Winters we were only out of school due to weather for one severe blizzard that I can remember, the rest of the winter we made it through all kinds of snow and ice. It was a great feeling of independence growing up. We even had a little convenience store on my walk that all the kids would stop in to get a quarter candy bar after school. Great times. I still remember joining friends ages 8-10 and hopping on the city bus for an adventure downtown at the arcade.

Now I live about 1.5 miles from school and my children would be able to walk through entirely residential streets all the way with the exception of crossing one busy street. Sad that they won't have the same opportunities for independence that I had growing up.

[Trevor]

Any father who might do exactly the same thing as these moms did would likely be excoriated mercilessly, and certainly risk parenting time if engaged presently in a custody battle.

[kmich91262]

I think part of the problem IMO is there are too many namby pamby "adults" that think a child needs to be "safe" at all times. I remember walking many times to and from school about 1-2 miles (depending on which school it was at the time I was attending) in most weather conditions (unless it was brutal weather such as extreme cold like a severe wind chill or if it was downpouring rain). I also remember being simply a kid. Yeah, I had to help my parents with things around the business (aka chores) however we were allowed to join other kids for a bike ride, play ball, or insert whatever activity. I'm not advocating allowing a small child to play with loaded guns and sharp knives when unsupervised, however IMO a kid needs to learn things in order to learn about life in general. Life isn't all roses. Just my opinion though.