This has been bothering me.
My street, though in an urban area, is mostly tidy single family homes. There are two 3-family houses, but they are owner occupied. It is rather ethnically diverse, mostly Portugese, but also has Irish, Spanish, Cape Verdean, French, etc. The street has tons of young children living on it, and they all seem well cared for and do not run wild. All are closely supervised.
Just around the corner on the other hand, is like a third world country. People seem to be camping on the sidewalk in one spot (it is along side the fence of a parking lot). Last year, they actually had a camper set up there for 2 months! Mind you the people doing this live at a house with a double lot. They do this out of choice. Kids and adults just roam around in the middle of the street there like it is part of their yard.
This while annoying is not the worst part. Just up the street from the "campers" right near a busy road, toddlers have been running wild. In that particular area, there really aren't any yards for them to play in. That does not excue what I have seen though. About a week ago a little girl ran in front of my truck. Luckily, I drive rather slow around there, as I know many children live there. I watched in amazement, no frantic mom came out running after the child. The little girl ran to catch up with a little boy, only a year or two older than her, at most. Was that her supervision? I rolled slowly along, trying to see any adult who might at least have an interest in what these kids were doing. I saw woman talking her phone. She hollered over to the kids, as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. I don't know what she said. It was a language which I don't speak. The kids there always seem to be poorly supervised, but this was ridiculous. I decided to pay closer attention, to the goings on at this corner from now on.
Two days ago, my husband and I drove past. This time a little boy ,about 3 , was standing outside buck naked. I normally wouldn't have thought much of it, even chuckled at the little character, but I saw it differently now. It irritated me that the adults with him didn't seem to want to bother to take the little guy in and put some bitches, or at least a diaper on him.
This is a cut through used by many drivers in the area, so I fear one of this toddlers will get injured or even worse. Calling authorities seems pointless, since they would only see this stuff if they were to show up at the right moment. The kids look well fed, and I have seen no reason to think they are being harmed in any way, although perhaps neglected.
As an older mother, who has sadly been to the funerals of young children, I know I am a little over protective of my own daughter. She means the world to me. I just don't feel toddlers should be roaming around by themselves. Do you think I am over-reacting to this? Do any of you see this stuff, too? Thank you for letting me rant.
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Culture can be tolerated, but life and death danger is definitely worth knocking on a front door about. Maybe I'm the boldest hussy in four counties, but I'd be standing on the stoop of Cell Woman's house apologizing for the intrusion but expressing my concern for her children's lives. She might not be aware that other people talk distractedly on their cell phones too - while driving near her small children. I couldn't change her parenting style, but I could make her aware. I might be scorned, or yelled at, but rather that than a maimed or dead child on MY conscience. Maybe she'd be so pissed at me she'd pay attention to the danger of her children more often. Any attention is good attention, in this case.
As awful as it might sound, maybe they won't understand how much they need to look after the kids until one of them is severely injured or killed. Sometimes people just don't understand until something happens to hurt them.
My almost 7 year old son is not allowed to cross the street without my permission. To let young children do it!
Honestly, it makes me so angry I'm glad there are authorities to intervene. They are far more calm when they knock on the neighbor's doors than I ever could pretend to be.
Last summer a 14 yr old girl was crossing the street with her little brother. He got across first and a little black car sped through the intersectioned.... slammed into her hip. She flipped in the air and landed on the cement and he KEPT GOING! The boy and girl both tried to describe the car but all they saw was a little black car and a guy driving (apparently she looked up and met his eyes in his mirror). Never caught who it was. She's okay now... but I'm surprised it doesn't happen more because there are a lot of kids in this neighborhood. Though most of the kids don't play in the street.... except for the few that don't watch their kids!
My youngest was hit by a car a few months ago. I know the dangers of kids and cars...
I didn't call the police because it was 1 incident but if this is happening continually - kids riding into the street, no parents watching over them at that age, I would.
Very sad that the parents aren't watching. I watched my son go down the street until he was 8 and then he told me that he was embarrassed when his mom sat on the driveway while he played. I stopped.
What a sad story. I have a young one and he runs around in just a diaper. It is hot in the summer.