The Exigent Duality
Safety - 09:54 CST, 5/02/19 (Sniper)
This was an interesting read. During childhood, my friends and I-- born in 1981, or 1982-- were "in between": we bicycled around a bit in groups by ourselves, but individually we were helicopter-parented until maybe age twelve. As for "saaaaafety", I've never worn a bicycle helmet even once in my entire life.

I was a bit later in getting my driver's license-- 19-- but almost all of my friends drove at 15 and 16. Which is part of why I never bothered, since I had all of my buddies to gladly tool me around-- which we did, all over the place, almost every day after high school. I had the freedom, without the expense or responsibility, and I definitely did not want to go through the government's mandatory-- for those under 18-- "behind the wheel" training. It made sense for me to just wait and bypass that crap.

Once I did start driving, I quickly became an "enthusiast", and I do credit prolific bicycle riding as a kid, along with increasingly realistic video games like the 3DO's "The Need for Speed", with the early development of spatial judgement and awareness. So I think his observations there are spot-on.

As for my parenting style, I do not let my kids-- 9, and 6-- bicycle around by themselves. And that's not because I'm paranoid or "helicoptery"-- I'm a pretty hands-off parent actually, letting them resolve conflicts on their own before I step in. But rather, it's because today's American communities are flat-out dangerous: there are areas a ten minute bike ride from my house where I won't go as an adult without legitimate worries of harassment. Even in the very early 2000s when I was in college at the University of Minnesota-- not particularly far from my house-- I got hounded by frauds and other fringe elements on pretty much a daily basis. My best friend at the time got mugged at knife-point on the East-West bank bridge.

Yes, there are lots of over-reactive helicopter parents: when I take my kids to the park, I'm the only parent there who isn't literally walking around guiding their kid around. The park itself is rubber-matted, and has signs at each piece of equipment detailing the recommended age ranges! It's revolting.

At the same time though, neighborhoods aren't the same monocultures they were when Eric Peters was a kid. The realm of "this is where I live" has effectively shrunk from a neighborhood to a yard.