RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone

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CoeurdeLeon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:02:38 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: benelchi quote: ORIGINAL: CoeurdeLeon quote: Well, the question was asked, so I don't think it's wrong in this case to make our statements and judgments concerning her parenting decision. Okay, I'll go along with that. I guess I just look at it as I'd rather make a statement about what I would or wouldn't do rather than say someone else is wrong for doing what they do. To me, it's the difference between.. "I wouldn't do that" and "She was wrong to do that" Does that make sense? There I times when "I wouldn't do that" is the appropriate response, and there are times that "She was wrong to do that" is the appropriate response. In this case I would lean much more towards the latter response. Perfect! You said what you would do. You didn't tell me I was wrong for not doing the same. That is exactly what I'm trying to get at.

Auben -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:04:19 AM)
I'm coming late to the game but I'll give my 2 cents. Any child who's not responsible enough to carry a cell phone and not lose it most of the time is usually not responsible enough to take the crosstown bus or subway. Accidents will happen on occasion but if junior or little miss can't keep track of it then I personally would take that as a sign that they are not ready to step things up to the next level. Attention to detail and keen observational skill are necessary when moving around in a big city. I'm not known for being an overprotective mother. I'm inclined to let them be little crazy. Sometimes small injuries teach them more than me telling them something over and over. My 9 year old walks his 4 year old brother home from school every day and crosses one of the busier streets in our small town doing that. He and his buddy roam through the woods occasionally. I'm very confident in his ability to do that. At 7/8 I was taking the public bus in Milwaukee to our Catholic school and making sure my 6 year old brother made it back and forth as well. It was at least a mile. Occasionally my brother would lose his dime and we would have to guess-walk our way home (since we couldn't count stops then or ask the bus driver). IMO we were too young for that even though I was very mature and we always made it home ok eventually. Maybe I just grew up in a different place, but my first thought of a child alone on bus or subway is not that they will be abducted or molested but that they will be pray to immature teens. Young girls are often felt up on public transport if they are alone (small family groups or friends tend to be safer). Young boys can be the focus or severe teasing from teen boys or even pushed around a bit. Porn is sometimes pulled out to 'educate' them. Sometimes they are pressured to leave the bus before their stop or pushed out the back door at a stop. I've seen all of those things and none of them were reported. None were noticed by the busy bus driver. I personally would not want to leave my 9 year old alone in that. Not at that age. I agree that 9 year olds need more independence than their younger siblings but I would much prefer it be incremental. The ability to walk to a friend's house alone, bike to the corner store, or run inside Dad's work to fetch him. At 9 most children are not prepared for the sustained harassment when they are alone and can't move away from their attackers. Not all bus drivers care or are able to notice. Saying 'if he looks confident he'll be fine' is not true in all situations. I'm not judging the woman. Sometimes situations dictate that your child has to grow up faster in one way or the another, but if I can choose I'll always choose to let things happen incrementally and in a way which protects my child until I see that he can protect himself.

benelchi -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:05:27 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom quote: ORIGINAL: benelchi quote: ORIGINAL: CoeurdeLeon quote: Well, the question was asked, so I don't think it's wrong in this case to make our statements and judgments concerning her parenting decision. Okay, I'll go along with that. I guess I just look at it as I'd rather make a statement about what I would or wouldn't do rather than say someone else is wrong for doing what they do. To me, it's the difference between.. "I wouldn't do that" and "She was wrong to do that" Does that make sense? There I times when "I wouldn't do that" is the appropriate response, and there are times that "She was wrong to do that" is the appropriate response. In this case I would lean much more towards the latter response. Since she has essentially written a public confession, do you think she should be prosecuted or some other action taken against her? That is an overreaction! Just because she did something very stupid, doesn't mean we should bring criminal charges against her. If we made stupidity a criminal offense, we wouldn't be able to build enough jails to hold all of those convicted. People can really make wrong choices without rising to the level of a criminal offense.

IonMoon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:11:08 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom Since most kids are victimized by those they know and not creeps on a subway This is because most kids (esp those under 10) don't ride the subway alone... Most of their time is spent with people they know. Now... do you have the stats for the likelihood of kids who ride the subway alone being hurt or injured doing so versus kids who don't? And AGAIN, being abducted or molested is a RARE occurance, and those of us who think this was foolish have stated that it is the many other possible problems that would stop us from doing this. An interesting note: the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's #1 bolded statement for protecting your child when walking to and from school (which, IME, is a time when there are usually a lot of safe adults around- crossing guards, parents with other kids, etc, so much lower risk then just a random day in the city): Always take a friend. All of the things that the OP hoped to teach can be taught without leaving children to fend for themselves and WITHOUT instilling a sense of fear. Tara P

IonMoon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:12:52 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom Since she has essentially written a public confession, do you think she should be prosecuted or some other action taken against her? I don't think I have read anyone say she was being abusive or neglectful, just wrong/foolish. Tara P

benelchi -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:17:23 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Auben I'm coming late to the game but I'll give my 2 cents. Any child who's not responsible enough to carry a cell phone and not lose it most of the time is usually not responsible enough to take the crosstown bus or subway. Accidents will happen on occasion but if junior or little miss can't keep track of it then I personally would take that as a sign that they are not ready to step things up to the next level. Attention to detail and keen observational skill are necessary when moving around in a big city. I'm not known for being an overprotective mother. I'm inclined to let them be little crazy. Sometimes small injuries teach them more than me telling them something over and over. My 9 year old walks his 4 year old brother home from school every day and crosses one of the busier streets in our small town doing that. He and his buddy roam through the woods occasionally. I'm very confident in his ability to do that. At 7/8 I was taking the public bus in Milwaukee to our Catholic school and making sure my 6 year old brother made it back and forth as well. It was at least a mile. Occasionally my brother would lose his dime and we would have to guess-walk our way home (since we couldn't count stops then or ask the bus driver). IMO we were too young for that even though I was very mature and we always made it home ok eventually. Maybe I just grew up in a different place, but my first thought of a child alone on bus or subway is not that they will be abducted or molested but that they will be pray to immature teens. Young girls are often felt up on public transport if they are alone (small family groups or friends tend to be safer). Young boys can be the focus or severe teasing from teen boys or even pushed around a bit. Porn is sometimes pulled out to 'educate' them. Sometimes they are pressured to leave the bus before their stop or pushed out the back door at a stop. I've seen all of those things and none of them were reported. None were noticed by the busy bus driver. I personally would not want to leave my 9 year old alone in that. Not at that age. I agree that 9 year olds need more independence than their younger siblings but I would much prefer it be incremental. The ability to walk to a friend's house alone, bike to the corner store, or run inside Dad's work to fetch him. At 9 most children are not prepared for the sustained harassment when they are alone and can't move away from their attackers. Not all bus drivers care or are able to notice. Saying 'if he looks confident he'll be fine' is not true in all situations. I'm not judging the woman. Sometimes situations dictate that your child has to grow up faster in one way or the another, but if I can choose I'll always choose to let things happen incrementally and in a way which protects my child until I see that he can protect himself. I agree. Additionally, I too was allowed to do things as a child that when I look back on it as a parent cannot believe I was ever permitted to do. From the time I was 13 I used to spend a week backpacking in Yosemite alone, while my family was camping. I had little back country experience (my parents didn't backpack), and there were times I got caught quite unprepared in bad weather. I was lucky that I made it through OK and I value the experience, but even though my children are far better prepared than I was as a child to survive in the back country, I would never intentionally place them in that situation alone.

Sunnymom -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:23:36 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: rainbowtvp quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom Since most kids are victimized by those they know and not creeps on a subway This is because most kids (esp those under 10) don't ride the subway alone... Most of their time is spent with people they know. Tara P And also because predators place themselves in positions of trust and authority over children. There are too many factors to make hard and fast rules about what kids should and should not do, because we know of at least two girls (Lunsford and Smart) who were taken out of their beds/homes, but who is out there making sure that there are bars on all bedroom windows? No one- because home is still considered reasonably safe, in spite of the fact that kids can be and are victimized in their homes. I am not advocating carelessness, but rather pointing out that we tend to focus on the devil we don't know rather than the devil we do know. We don't want our kids to be victimized at school or at home or at Aunt Polly's house. It is easier to believe that they are more vulnerable 'somewhere else'. Stella made some good points, and so did Memaw- there are lots of kids who walk to school alone, ride buses and subways, ride bikes, etc... just as there are kids who use farm equipment, whose parents own guns, .... are parents who have a pool going to be labeled as wrong/foolish?

IonMoon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:36:00 AM)
We live in a world that is dangerous- no matter what part of it we are in- and that requires reasonable precautions. quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom but who is out there making sure that there are bars on all bedroom windows? But it is certainly just cause for following safety recommendations to lock windows at night- something many people do not do. That is a reasonable precaution. quote: I am not advocating carelessness, but rather pointing out that we tend to focus on the devil we don't know rather than the devil we do know. We don't want our kids to be victimized at school or at home or at Aunt Polly's house. It is easier to believe that they are more vulnerable 'somewhere else'. Again, though, this is a bit of a sidetrack, because most of us have said this is not the most pressing concern in this situation. quote: Stella made some good points, and so did Memaw- there are lots of kids who walk to school alone, ride buses and subways, ride bikes, etc... just as there are kids who use farm equipment, whose parents own guns, .... are parents who have a pool going to be labeled as wrong/foolish? I would say yes if, as in this situation, they are allowed to do these things unsupervised at a young age without reasonable precautions. And what those would be vary depending on the situation. But, for instance, if they had a pool without a locked gate and young children- yes, that is foolish or allow a child to swim unattended, yes that is foolish. In this one, at the very least, the child should have been with a buddy. I was also one of the parents who let me kids do a lot. It would be a stretch to call me over-protective, though I did always take reasonable precautions to prevent harm. Tara P

benelchi -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:41:18 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom quote: ORIGINAL: rainbowtvp quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom Since most kids are victimized by those they know and not creeps on a subway This is because most kids (esp those under 10) don't ride the subway alone... Most of their time is spent with people they know. Tara P And also because predators place themselves in positions of trust and authority over children. There are too many factors to make hard and fast rules about what kids should and should not do, because we know of at least two girls (Lunsford and Smart) who were taken out of their beds/homes, but who is out there making sure that there are bars on all bedroom windows? No one- because home is still considered reasonably safe, in spite of the fact that kids can be and are victimized in their homes. I am not advocating carelessness, but rather pointing out that we tend to focus on the devil we don't know rather than the devil we do know. We don't want our kids to be victimized at school or at home or at Aunt Polly's house. It is easier to believe that they are more vulnerable 'somewhere else'. Stella made some good points, and so did Memaw- there are lots of kids who walk to school alone, ride buses and subways, ride bikes, etc... just as there are kids who use farm equipment, whose parents own guns, .... are parents who have a pool going to be labeled as wrong/foolish? You say you are not advocating carelessness, but you seem to be advocating that we as a society can not define carelessness. There is a big difference between a parent who owns a gun, or has a pool, and a parent who allows a child to play with a gun unsupervised, or to swim in a pool unsupervised. In the latter examples, a parent can be prosecuted and jailed if something bad were to happen as a result of their stupid decision.

CoeurdeLeon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 11:48:29 AM)
The thing is, we all have different limits. What I would let my kids do would turn someone else into a basket case. And what someone else would allow, would make me nuts. So who is right? Who determines the outer limit? Each parent with each individual child? Or me?[8D]

SD456 -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 12:31:22 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sideways quote: ORIGINAL: Kat_D Your asking the wrong person, Sunnymom. I am the Mom who wouldn't let her girls walk to school until they were in the 7th grade, and then they had to call me the minute they got there. I am the Mom who broke her neck to get home every day to ensure that they never came home to an empty house after school until they were in high school. We also never let anyone babysit them except family...I could go on, but you get the drift. My daughter was recently in New York and went for a run in central park. She got lost and said it was a pretty frightening experience...and she's a adult. Yes, I was extremely overprotective...I admit it, but if the "better safe than sorry" motto ever applied in my life...it was with my children. Do you think your over protectiveness helped to cultivate an adult daughter who was frightened when she got lost in New York? I think parents who give their children age appropriate challenges help to create confident young adults who can handle being alone, lost, etc. I went into downtown Chicago alone when I was 22, and I did find myself alone at Grant Park about half an hour before sunset, but I got out of there and handled it fine. My grandmother was terrified and amazed that I would go into Chicago alone like that. I don't know if I'd sent a nine year old off alone on the subway, but a child who lives in a major city had better be able to handle themselves and at a pretty early age. I think "better safe than sorry" can have long term, negative consequences for children. Not always, some over protected children turn out just fine, but some are severely handicapped long into their adult life. I totally agree. Overprotectedness usually causes children to grow up into frightened adults. I think the mother was right to do what she did. I would have been more like that with my kids if I'd known what happens when you're overprotective. My sons have ended up being way too cautious about everything because of my overprotectiveness when they were young. Not a good thing. Child abuction by strangers is extremely rare. We only hear about it because it's plastered on the media. It's much better to teach your children at a young age to be independent. I don't think 9 years old is too young. The boy did it and felt great about it.

Kat_D -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 12:44:52 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: CoeurdeLeon The thing is, we all have different limits. What I would let my kids do would turn someone else into a basket case. And what someone else would allow, would make me nuts. So who is right? Who determines the outer limit? Each parent with each individual child? Or me?[8D] Absolutely correct Lion, and these choices highly depend on where you live, how your were brought up, etc. Every parent just has to do the best they can and make the choices they feel comfortable with. When all is said and done, no one else but you are raising your kids and no one else but you will reap the consequences when you err. Personally, I will always err on the safer side where my kids are concerned. P.S. - Don't know if this has been addressed yet, but just wondering what might have happened to the Mom in the OP if the outcome wasn't as good. What if her her child had been abducted or hurt after she made the choice to set him loose in the big city without a cell phone? Do you think she could have faced some sort of child endangerment or other criminal charge?

CoeurdeLeon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 12:52:05 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Kat_D quote: ORIGINAL: CoeurdeLeon The thing is, we all have different limits. What I would let my kids do would turn someone else into a basket case. And what someone else would allow, would make me nuts. So who is right? Who determines the outer limit? Each parent with each individual child? Or me?[8D] Absolutely correct Lion, and these choices highly depend on where you live, how your were brought up, etc. Every parent just has to do the best they can and make the choices they feel comfortable with. When all is said and done, no one else but you are raising your kids and no one else but you will reap the consequences when you err. Personally, I will always err on the safer side where my kids are concerned. You're right, Kat. I especially liked the bolded part. quote: P.S. - Don't know if this has been addressed yet, but just wondering what might have happened to the Mom in the OP if the outcome wasn't as good. What if her her child had been abducted or hurt after she made the choice to set him loose in the big city without a cell phone? Do you think she could have faced some sort of child endangerment or other criminal charge? I don't know but I bet she wouldn't have written an article about it.[;)]

Memaw. -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 12:58:44 PM)
quote: What if her her child had been abducted or hurt after she made the choice to set him loose in the big city without a cell phone? Do you think she could have faced some sort of child endangerment or other criminal charge? Oh great. Now Congress will enact a law that all children will be required to carry cell phones.[8D] DISCLAIMER That was a joke.[:D]

Kat_D -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 1:06:04 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Memaw. quote: What if her her child had been abducted or hurt after she made the choice to set him loose in the big city without a cell phone? Do you think she could have faced some sort of child endangerment or other criminal charge? Oh great. Now Congress will enact a law that all children will be required to carry cell phones.[8D] DISCLAIMER That was a joke.[:D] I only mentioned that, Kimmie, because she made the choice not to give him a cell phone because she was afraid he'd lose it. Which, just as I was typing this made me think of something else...she couldn't trust him to not lose her cell phone, but she could trust him to make his way home on the subway in NYC?...things that make you go, "Hmmmmmm" [8D]

CoeurdeLeon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 1:08:02 PM)
That's the one thing I don't get at all. Maybe it was a company phone and not hers. I dunno. <shrugs>

Memaw. -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 1:13:07 PM)
I'll bring this response back for that. quote: ORIGINAL: pbaribeault I think the cell phone thing is a red herring - obviously a cell phone can fall out of a boy's pocket, or he can leave a backpack behind. It is unlikely that the boy himself will fall out of his own pocket on to the sidewalk, or sit down and forget where he left himself! The cell phone is not about to get on the appropriate transportation and go home! She never said, "I don't want him to have a cell phone in case he gets kidnapped, then I would be sad that my cell phone was lost too." She just thought that while facing a challenge in getting himself home, it would be unfair to also burden him with the responsibility of keeping track of a valuable item. She does not care more about the loss of a cell phone than the loss of a child. It's unfair to vilify her that way. She just thinks that a child is unlikely to be kidnapped - but he is likely to loose track of what he is carrying during his adventure. It would be just as false to say that because you don't send a cell phone to school with your child, because it is expensive, probably unnecessary and might get lost or stolen... that you care more about it than your child, who might need it if he is bullied or abducted there. It's a silly assertion.

Auben -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 1:28:47 PM)
And yet being able to take care of a phone, remember to put it in an inside pocket and use it appropriately CAN BE indicative of how much responsibility a child can handle. If a child is constantly loosing everything and isn't visually observant I probably would assume they need a year or two before they are responsible enough to notice which bus they are on and whether they are in a safe situation. It's a part of knowing your child. I don't think anyone has vilified the mother as much as pointed out the inconsistency. If he's too irresponsible for a cell phone how is he responsible enough to act independently? In most families a person is responsible first for his own things and for shared or borrowed items before he or she is allowed independent action. We prove ourselves responsible before moving on to new and bigger responsibilities.

manda59 -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 1:44:20 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: CoeurdeLeon That's the one thing I don't get at all. Maybe it was a company phone and not hers. I dunno. <shrugs> Then all she needed to do was buy a cheap phone for him to use on such jaunts. Because I presume since she let him do this the once, he will be doing it again.

1love1God1way -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 2:12:52 PM)
My biggest problem was: The only reason she did this was to experiment and see if he could. This was no emergency situation where it was required. She did it for fun.

CoeurdeLeon -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 2:17:38 PM)
But an emergency isn't the time to see if he could. In an emergency, you can't chose your conditions, either.

garsyt -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 2:25:57 PM)
See tho - it was controlled then. In a strange sort of way - He had been begging to do so. To me it was obviously a trip they had taken together many times. He was aware of what was around him, knew the dangers. I guess what I'm saying is - is that I would MUCH rather my child do something a few times without their FIRST time being because there was an emergency. I would much rather send my child into a situtation, going somewhere or whatever and learning that they can indeed do so, than to put my child in an extremely stressful, emergency situtation the first time they had to make that trip. But that's just me. There really isn't enough information given for us to really know how many times the two of them had made this trip together, how she had trained him and taught him the route, what she had taught him about keeping himself safe, who to go to if there was a problem. Now I likely wouldn't have done it without my child having a buddy with them - but then my children have grown up in itty-bitty no -wheresville and not NYC and the things I allow and don't allow sometimes has other parents wondering what planet I came from. Blessings, Garsy

Sunnymom -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 2:54:56 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: benelchi You say you are not advocating carelessness, but you seem to be advocating that we as a society can not define carelessness. There is a big difference between a parent who owns a gun, or has a pool, and a parent who allows a child to play with a gun unsupervised, or to swim in a pool unsupervised. In the latter examples, a parent can be prosecuted and jailed if something bad were to happen as a result of their stupid decision. The law defines careless behavior. Neglect is: Child neglect is the failure to provide for the shelter, safety, supervision and nutritional needs of the child. Child neglect may be physical, educational, or emotional neglect: Physical neglect includes refusal of or delay in seeking health care, abandonment, expulsion from the home or refusal to allow a runaway to return home, and inadequate supervision. Educational neglect includes the allowance of chronic truancy, failure to enroll a child of mandatory school age in school, and failure to attend to a special educational need. Emotional neglect includes such actions as marked inattention to the child's needs for affection, refusal of or failure to provide needed psychological care, spouse abuse in the child's presence, and permission of drug or alcohol use by the child. And here the law states- The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) provides minimum standards for definitions. CAPTA states, "The term 'child abuse and neglect' means, at a minimum, any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm" (42 U.S.C.A. �5106g(2) (West Supp. 1998). This makes 'carelessness' hard to define. I have a friend who left liquid Tylenol out on a counter, and her toddler drank the whole bottle, Was that neglect? Or does neglect have to be purposeful? Is ignorance or stupidity an excuse? And at what point does the judgment of the parent override the remote possibilities- like allowing a child to ride a bike and the child is hit by a car, or the child walks home alone from school and is harmed or abducted. These are hard questions, and I am not sitting here saying that I have all the answers. But before we go off half-cocked and call parents who do things differently stupid or neglectful, we need to think those implications through to their logical conclusion.

Sunnymom -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 3:08:38 PM)
My iTunes decided to update while I was posting this. [8\|] quote: ORIGINAL: rainbowtvp We live in a world that is dangerous- no matter what part of it we are in- and that requires reasonable precautions. quote: ORIGINAL: Sunnymom but who is out there making sure that there are bars on all bedroom windows? But it is certainly just cause for following safety recommendations to lock windows at night- something many people do not do. That is a reasonable precaution. Tara P This is a good for instance, Tara. I would not consider this a necessary precaution. We sleep with the windows OPEN. A noisy ankle-biter and gun are our defenses against anyone who doesn't understand the idea of an invitation and the proper use of the front door.[;)] And what about folks who don't have AC? Should they smother to death just in case some wackjob decides to crawl in a window? And are they neglectful if he does?

Consecrated2God -> RE: Why I Let My 9 Year Old Ride The Subway Alone (4/7/2008 3:09:15 PM)
quote: You say you are not advocating carelessness, but you seem to be advocating that we as a society can not define carelessness. There is a big difference between a parent who owns a gun, or has a pool, and a parent who allows a child to play with a gun unsupervised, or to swim in a pool unsupervised. In the latter examples, a parent can be prosecuted and jailed if something bad were to happen as a result of their stupid decision. Good points. quote: P.S. - Don't know if this has been addressed yet, but just wondering what might have happened to the Mom in the OP if the outcome wasn't as good. What if her her child had been abducted or hurt after she made the choice to set him loose in the big city without a cell phone? Do you think she could have faced some sort of child endangerment or other criminal charge? I think she would have, because she did it so deliberately. This wasn't accidentally leaving a bottle of Tylonel out on the counter. If you leave a child that age at home and your house burns down around her, you will be charged with neglect because you left your child unsupervised. So yes, I think we'd have having a whole 'nuther discussion here if the headlines were, "Child Abducted and Killed After Mom Lets Him Ride the Subway Alone". People would be angry and shocked that a parent would purposely take such a dangerous risk.

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