Are You SERIOUS?!

I just read an article on the internet about "over-protective" parents. Let me just mention that I felt (and still a little bit feel) like my parents leaned toward being over-protective. But wow...

In the United States, there are SO MANY RIDICULOUS rules regarding the safety of YOUR OWN children! And it keeps getting worse and worse. I remember seing a 10 year old girl in a car seat a few years ago... because she didn't weigh over 60 pounds (or however much the weight limit is for not using a car seat). Is it because some gringo kids weight 60 pounds when they're 3 years old or what? I think I would've been 12 and still in a car seat if those rules had been in effect in the late 80's and early 90's... I think I was like 5 when we got rid of my car seat, at the was ridiculously old in 1986!

I remember talking with a friend who raised her little girls here in Queretaro for the first couple years of their lives. Then they moved to suburbia USA. My friend could not believe all the lame safety tips her pediatrician gave on their first visit... ALL cabinet doors should be tied shut (for obvious reasons if you store chemicals in reach of a child, but the cabinet with rubbermaid containers?? Give me a break.) Children shouldn't be left alone in the car while you enter the store until (in one survey I saw) their 16 years old! Wow, I think I stayed in the car alone when I was 6... Can't walk 3 blocks to the store alone until you're 15!! I did that around age 10... My mom had me in what would now be considered illegal child-labor: I went to pick beans and strawberries for an hour or two to earn money when I was 10 or 12. That's child abuse now. I just think it's a good responsible money-earning way to pass time during summer vacation. I remember baby-sitting for an 9 year old who lived in a small town, and I asked him if he wanted to go with me to pick up a pizza. He said no, so I left him home by himself for half an hour while I went, and he was outside playing basketball when I got back. I didn't think anything of it! And I know his parents would either.

I just can't believe some of the stupid things that are rules in the United States now regarding child safety. Makes my parents look like they didn't care about me, and back in the day people thought they were way over-protective. MY kids are going to have the same freedoms that I did when I was little (ok, keep neighborhood crime in mind for taking decisions on what the can and can't do alone). In one of the articles I read, junior high kids were scared to use the stove because they didn't want to get burned, or were scared to walk 3 blocks to the store alone! Move to Mexico, you can ride the subway in Mexico City alone when you're 7 or so... I've seen that happen (no worries, that's even too extreme for me!) Junior high kids here are playing outside with no adult supervision until midnight. And these are the kids who have parents that care about them! Kids need to have a little freedom too!!