Discussion: Fear of Playing Alone Outside

On CNN's website, there's a poll up now that asks, "Is it safe to let young children play alone outside?" They don't define what "young children" are, but of the 71,000 people who have responded so far, 77% of them answered No.

I grew up in New England and walked to school every day with other children when I was less than 7. Then after school I played outside and explored the nearby woods for hours on end with my friends, only coming in when my mother called us in, sometimes after dusk. Although I didn't get a chance to try orienteering until I was 22, it was just an extension of all that.

When my stepdaughter was able to orienteer without a shadow, I was so proud of her and she couldn't have been happier. She is the exception, however, because parental fears today (justified or unjustified) and the lack of unstructured time in kids' lives make it very hard to find a path to expanding our sport to juniors. Scouts try it once and get their merit badges but their parents probably couldn't conceive of letting Johnny and Mary out in the woods alone regularly.

This all makes me think that we should focus on high school students and above. Of course we will always want to support the younger juniors who come our way (usually through parents) but it's probably an unwise investment of our money and volunteer time to focus much attention on young juniors today.

O in School programs sound good, but if the kids aren't going to be allowed to play in the woods when school is out, we're better off using our resources for something (like Vlad's HPP) that may actually yield some concrete results down the road.

Wow, sad how times have changed, however I think I'm safer in the middle of the woods than in my own backyard.

When I tell people that I used to be free to run around New York City as a kid people say "yeah, but that was a different time." It sure was! Crime was a real problem there in the 70's. It's much safer now as even a cursory review of crime statistics will show. I thought I would understand the current paranoia about unsupervised kids when I had my own. As much as I love Baby-O, I still don't get it.

True observations according to older generations and statistics. Tell us about TV and movie propaganda. America changed a lot due to the mass media histeria.

At age 12 or so, many of my summer afternoons were, "Bye, Mom" at noon. Bike beyond the edge of town (a full 2 miles!) and spend the afternoon with friends exploring the woods around Bitter Bend Creek. Then home by suppertime. "The birth of an orienteer."

Zan story: She quickly disliked being shadowed, so when Fran was 'half-shadowing' her at Babler, and Fran went straight, Zan intentionally took an 'alternate' route on her yellow course. Lost, she wandered into a picnic area, the dad helped her relocate, and sent her back in the woods. Then he wondereed, "What is a 10-year old doing wandering alone in the woods?" Concerned, he drove, found us, so Fran and I replied, "Thanks for your concern and update. She's not back yet, but all is well." She finished the course and 'the rest is history'.

Dangerous, I guess so. But yes, all the driving to gymnastics and swimming was a lot more dangerous!

There's a good book out now on this: Last Child in the Woods : Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. It points out that this fear is paranoia, not reality. This problem of separation of humanity from the natural world goes very deep and is perhaps the most important and fundamental problem of our times.

There is some obsessive parenting out there. In our town the kids who walk home from school have been branded in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper as 'the walkers' and described as bullies, underachievers and losers. My son simply commented: My grade average is high and I walk to school. What is wrong with this picture?
Something like 60% of the American school children are overweight. Maybe it should fear of sitting at the table. Or fear of watching TV. Or fear to own children as pets.

No, fear of the Car is much more deserved. The Car is the Greatest Evil. All lesser evils can be traced to the Great One. Wars, bad civil planning, resulting societal ills, obesity... pollution and traffic, the observed direct effects, are just minor annyoances in comparison.

I think there is a strong correlation between the ratio (gasoline price / GDP PPP) and broadly-defined success in orienteering for a given nation.

I think you have a point there with the Gas price Vlad. Maybe we need to focus on raising our gas prices if we want to succeed in Orienteering.

I think if that correlation were really true we'd be seeing some killer O-teams from Africa. Perhaps the relationship only holds for "developed" economies?

No omitted variables bias in that equation. None.

How's that dissertation?

Deadline missed. Next deadline July 15. Not so good.

Great. Now you can catch some of the upcoming NE A meets :)

Nah, I've got adventure races to go to. :)

The Africans have established native sports to worry about... marathons, etc.

Ummm... Greece isn't in Africa. Or maybe that's not what you meant by the marathon being a native sport.

Although the car is a great evil (can we get a politician to say this?), television is a greater contributer to the paranoias in the USA. When Sam was in Denmark, she observed how baby carraiges were "parked" outside stores while the parents shopped, and this throughout the winter. No babies were lost.
If gas was $10/g and televisions were $10000, it would be a far different place.

"If gas was $10/g and televisions were $10000, it would be a far different place."

With a campaign slogan like that , you swhould run for Congress!

The current issue of Newsweek has an essay by Carolyn Egan in which she says, "While we encourage dependence in our children by chauffeuring them everywhere, we also encourage in them habits of selfishness and parochialism. Adult maturity is rooted in the unstructured roaming of childhood."

Another book recommendation:

Beyond Ecophobia by David Sobel. Interesting research suggesting that schools mess up ecological education, and that the solution is to get kids into the woods to play. I'm not doing it justice, but it's good. And short. Might help inspire some O-in-or-out-of-schools work.