A neighbor emailed the blog with concerns about kids in the street. The issue has been addressed on the blog before but when it comes to safety, I think it's okay to bring it up again. Please let me preface this with the fact that no one is accusing ALL kids of playing in the street. Here's an exerpt of the email we received from the concerned neighbor:
Is it possible to put some sort of a reminder out there for parents to sit down with their children and discuss with them the dangers of walking in the streets? I saw the post of the unfortunate accident of the little girl. That could happen at any point when there is a small child on a bicycle. However I'm actually more concerned about the children that walk down the street in the middle expecting cars to go around them, and also the children that just stop and gather in the middle of the street and give the cars trying to get to their perspective home a dirty look. It seems to be a problem with the older children that by now should know better. It might be that some parents think their children do know better and don't know their children are doing this. I just want everyone to talk to their children before we have an accident in our neighborhood. Nobody wants kids to learn a life lesson by way of getting hurt!
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7 comments:
My kids have actually been told to stay off of the sidewalks because they may hurt yards, etc. to the point that they are afraid of using sidewalks in front of certain houses. My policy has always been that if my kids are in a street - walking the dog, riding bikes, playing, etc - to get to the nearest side of the street when a car approaches. It is their responsibility to watch for cars and to do this, but they are old enough that they understand this.
I hope all our neighborhood children stay safe.
With all due respect, if your kids are old enough to understand that they should watch out for cars, then I don't see why they should be afraid to walk on a sidewalk. I walk on the sidewalks all the time and we haven't encountered any hazards.
Anonymous, Might I suggest that you speak to the homeowners that make your children feel uneasy? The homeowners might not know where your children belong to talk to you to get this taken care of? We live on lot 13 and we have had to replace all of our irrigation heads costing us alot of $$ this summer & also last fall. We are not sure how they keep getting broke, but have asked the children with bikes, skateboards etc to please STAY on the sidewalk and not in the grass areas. We have talked to a few explaining our situation, they are very polite, understanding & learning how to be respective of others property in the meantime. Hope this will be helpful to you and please feel free to stop by anytime to discuss this with us.
Debbie Odden
Respect, unfortunately, is not something that is given freely to children sometimes...(I do realize that this is a two-way street in some cases).
Adults using sidewalks rarely garner disapproving looks from others - whereas children playing around/near certain yards will not often get friendliness, but instead be made to feel like they are doing something wrong by the looks given to them by adults or the comments said to them. My kids would rather just avoid that kind of situation than to back talk and make it clear to those certain people that they are not doing anything wrong by using the sidewalks.
Really in our neighborhood, with using the proper caution on the part of children old enough, there should not be such disdain for children being out playing. It is a family neighborhood with lots of children living here. Obviously, if children are blatantly abusing things and not paying attention to cars needing to get by them, that is something entirely different.
I am positive however that we are all quite capable of using caution while driving in our neighborhood in order to help keep our children safe.
It's very unrealistic to believe that everyone in the neighborhood drives safely, or even cares to drive safely, because there are children at play. Have you seen some of the cars that just fly right through this neighborhood? Come on, why would you not be insisting that your children play on the sidewalk, and out of the street? We have four parks in the neighborhood, and large backyards. Play there!It's safer than being out on the streets. Sadly,I fear, it's just an accident waiting to happen.
I would like to address this issue as an occasional visitor to Grand Firs.
First off, I work at an elementary school. I want to make it clear that I like kids and my first priority at school and anywhere else is that they are safe.
Upon my arrival today, a little girl, probably about 3 or 4, ran out into the street as I was approaching. I'm not ragging on her mom. She was right there. We all know that kids are FAST and can dash/dart in a second.
There were many kids out flying kites on the street! And kids on their bikes. They looked at me like I was doing something wrong by driving on the street to my destination. It's my understanding that streets are for the cars. Sidewalks are for people.
Grand Firs has lovely parks and is also surrounded by a lot of land for flying kites. Use them.
Also, kids riding bikes without helmets? There's a tragedy waiting to happen.
Children are a treasure. No one wants them injured. Please talk to your children about the rules and respect of safety.
In a perfect world everyone would be a safe driver. I think most of the people who live here are pretty cautious. But I've seen some pretty unsafe driving by people who don't live here. People who aren't familiar with the fact that we have lots of kids who prefer to hang out in the street.
Neighbors with kids: no one is trying to point fingers or prohibit anyone from having fun. People have a genuine concern for the kids!
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