The other day I was reading a lamentation about the rise of team sports for kids. Little league, etc. Before that you could just put a group of kids in a park and they would make up their own game. It was a creative process.
Now you tell them exactly what to do -- and it's totally rigid and even a bit jingoistic.
Another related issue is the lack of safe open public space in which children can play. With the rise of subdivisions and a general downturn in neighborliness the only way to get access to open play space is to join a 'team' or club sport of some kind.
As a parent I also fear sending my kid down to the park on their own honestly, even in my relatively safe neighborhood. Which is sad.
Are public spaces really that unsafe though? Or, at least, less safe than they have been in the past? Honest question.
I've read a bunch of articles (that I cannot look up right now) that argue that this decrease in safety is mostly perception, and I'm inclined to agree.
I grew up in the 'ghetto' of my hometown, and then from 8 tot 17 I lived in what was considered a dangerous, third-world country. Still, my parents mostly raised me as any kid in earlier times: be home before dark, don't go too far, but do whatever you want the rest of the time outside of school.
By and large, my experience has not been too different from other kids I know in safer environments, and I've had few 'scary' experiences involving other people. Most 'dangers' involved general kids-being-stupid things: crossing streets without looking, or climbing things at the risk of falling down on the pavement head-first, egging each other on to do something stupid, etc.
My point is, I can't really see the danger, and would like to know what you consider 'lacking'. Kidnapping is rare, sexual harassment is vastly more common in family circles, playgrounds have mostly become safer (and less fun, IMO), and violence of any kind by adults to children is (I think) relatively uncommon too. Even in dangerous areas.
Of course, I am no parent. And I admit I present no actual supporting evidence (right now) other than my own experience. But I'm not really trying to prove something, just interested in your take on this. Maybe I'm missing something important that I would be aware of with some context, or with the experience of being a parent
A park with no other people in it is / sensibly percieved to be unsafe.
Yet put a regular soccer game there, add in seats so that lunchtime workers sit down for a sandwich, encourage adults to take lengthy actions that simply involve bein there and the place both becomes safer and feels safer.
It's human nature to feel safer in a well lit, public space
The space is rarely the issues - it's the lack of other people
Blame the car culture firstly, blame bad architects next, blame atrocious town planners mostly
If we want to feel safe we know how - have adults outside.
Interesting. I can see how architecture plays a role in this.
My experiences were mostly in large towns and cities, where the architecture was sufficiently 'open' and 'organic' to perhaps make the areas safer than the ones you mean (even despite the 70s / 80s ugly and depressing concrete-everywhere approach that needs little more than some graffiti to look like a ghetto.)
One important aspect is density; Another is to have relatively mixed usage blocks with lively things like storefronts or entrances near the sidewalk as often as possible, rather than a street-facing brick wall on three sides, or expanses of lawn or parking lots.
* "You may got to the park, as long as it's with your friends". Predators can't feasibly attack a group of several children, especially children armed with cell phones.
* Support big sidewalks in urban areas: with enough eyes on the street, busy places become remarkably safe places to be once children learn the basic rules of navigation
What's different is awareness. Child abductions, police brutality, etc. are now far better publicized.
Even so...
A girl was grabbed on her way to my son's elementary school and later found dead on a secluded beach, having been violated.
It's hard to not freak out. I absolutely was an over protective father. Intellectually, I knew the risk to my son was infinitesimal. But why chance it?
By comparison...
A classmate of mine was grabbed, but broke free, on her way to school. We were all freaked out about it. But parents didn't start driving their kids to school en masse.
Now you tell them exactly what to do -- and it's totally rigid and even a bit jingoistic.