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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

Aside from getting run over by a car, are there that many places a kid isn’t safe in the US? Yes, there are rough neighborhoods - I’m asking about normal suburbs and white collar neighborhoods?

The school drop off line is absurd in my neighborhood. The school complex (K-12) is on a shared property. It’s less than a mile from my house. No road crossings at all to get there. Yet the kids bused or driven.

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> , are there that many places a kid isn’t safe in the US?

It depends on what you mean by "safe".

In most of US "normal suburbs", your kid isn't likely to get like, murdered. But if they leave a bike unlocked and unattended for a few hours (the way the parent poster describes Switzerland), then yeah, it's going to vanish, even in many "nice" US neighborhoods.

The "unlocked kids bike" is a pretty good way of testing a neighborhood over time.

Maybe, but that shouldn’t preclude the kid walking places instead of being driven.

Speaking from personal experience I would do that more for the local busybodies than out of any real fear for my child's safety. There are a ton of older people in our area who never had kids but feel like they can police how you parent.

Is it more disturbing to sacrifice a child's development by isolating them 1) due to irrational fears, or 2) merely to satisfy the local busybodies?

Well when the busybodies spread rumors about you you end up isolated either way.

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