Riding the subway from Bryant Park to Brooklyn, our train picked up an entire YMCA summer day camp. After living in the midwest, I was immediately impressed that these 20-30 kids' parents were comfortable with them being taken on the subway from point a to b with just the supervision of about 5 counselors, who were probably about 18 years old themselves.

Aside from the city kids who ride their bikes through my neighborhood, most of what I see is typical of the family I witnessed last week at the West Side Market. A toddler is wandering around as her parents and their friends chat, just like toddlers do. Mom reaches out to grab the kid, who is maybe 5 feet away, exclaiming "You have to stay close to us so no one steals you!"

At some point network news must have decided that kidnappings make good tv, and so even though the numbers have actually gone down, there is this immense fear out there that everyone is out to steal children. I think back 20 years, and Mary and I were trusted to walk or ride big wheels around the blocks in her neighborhood without anything more than the standard 'don't talk to strangers' knowledge. I think it comes down to community. So many people have retreated to a world of suburban culdesacs with their doors closed and locked and they don't know their neighbors and don't trust anyone outside their own safe world.

Adding to the differences of these New York kids was the diversity of the group and the fact that only one of these kids was overweight, presumably because you actually have to walk a lot to get around. And even though the noise and chaos was a little annoying, I sat there thinking "This is the kind of environment where I would want to raise my kids." |