Posted on26 Aug 2009
I have always been a worrier when it comes to my kids. I just started letting my two boys 12 and 10 walk up to the park by themselves this summer. Before then, I never even let them go outside by themselves – well, I didn’t really tell them they couldn’t they just never really wanted to after a couple of encounters with some of our local homeless guys drinking beer in back of our house.
We live in a really strange neighborhood. It’s called Ghent, in Norfolk, VA and it’s filled with some of the oldest most expensive houses in the area. We have lots of churches and temples and a strip with ecclectic shops and restaurants. It is also filled with lots of apartment buildings, so you get a very wide variety of people in a very small area. We have lots of churches and temples and a strip with ecclectic shops and restaurants – there are always people out everywhere, it’s a pretty great place to live.
The reason I have been nervous about letting my kids out is mainly because of all the homeless people that hang out at the church down the street. They get kicked out of the mission before the sun comes up and have to find somewhere to go. They hang out at the parks we have all over our neighborhood – you just can’t walk very far without running into a few. Now I know the majority of homeless people would never lay a hand on my kids, but I’m not going to take any chances. I don’t know what the solution for the homeless problem is.
Another reason I don’t like letting my kids out by themselves is because I visit the National Sex Offender Registry on a regular basis and it terrifies me when I see the number of sex offenders in this city. There are 9 registered sex offenders within a mile of the kids school. Needless to say I drive them to school everyday. This year my oldest is going into middle school and it is 2 blocks away – should I be afraid to let him walk there alone? I am. This brings up another issue. I just found out that kids are not allowed to carry a cellphone with them, not even if it is off and in their backback. That is so stupid. But that is a whole other post.
I don’t think that I am over protective at all. It terrifies me to think of my kids in the hand of a sex offender. I tell them they don’t have to be scared if they know what to do – be knowledgeable, find out how these people get to kids and then find out what you can do to prevent it from happening to you. I can just imagine, if there are 9 registered sex offenders within a mile of the school, how many are out there who have never been caught? Have you checked the National Sex Offender registry lately?
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