A Year In Mill Valley

How Far Do You Let Your Child Roam?

Great piece in the UK paper a while back about how the distance we allow our kids to roam has been drastically reduced over the last 4 generations. I can’t find the article, but this graphic says it all…

p.s. Thanks Rodney (see comments) for finding the original article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=462091

2 comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Rodney Reid January 4th, 2008 9:12 pm

    Hi Frank,

    I found the original article here:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=462091

    This is very intriguing research – When I was 9, my parents would let me wander very far away – taking unsupervised trips to the zoo on public transit (8.3 miles) and museum (2.5 miles) with my friends and younger sisters, in the pre-cellphone days of the mid 70s.

    I don’t see that as much now; realized just typing this that this distance would shock me if I had a kid!

    We’re more connected now than ever. What happened?

    PS: Great blog!

  2. Rodney Reid March 28th, 2008 5:42 pm

    Hi Frank – I keep going back to this post.

    I saw this today which adds a little more light to the question of why don’t kids wander far or walk to school anymore:

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080326161643.htm

    Their answer is “not enough sidewalks”. That’s not the entire picture; although sidewalks have been disappearing more and more the past 20 years.

    Hope all is well,

    – Rodney

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