I hope Im not the only one

mckayleesmom wrote: I love my children more then life itself...but the way violence in this world is excalating makes me so scared that I brought them into the world. I find myself constantly worrying about stuff...stuff that I never worried about till having children...I dread the day that I don[t have control over them and have to send them off into the world.

So far

*they are only allowed to play in the backyard with me watching them
*they will never spend the night at other people we do not knows houses...they can stay at ours....To many reports of men using their children to invite kids over to molest them
*I plan to volanteer at their school alot so I am in there quiet a bit
*they can't go to the park by themselves

Jeesh...these are just some of the future rules we will have...its soo sad

What happened to the days of playing Red Light Green Light, Hide and Go Seek and Mother may I in your own front yard? Its rediculous.

lisar replied: I know how you feel. I have a competly fenced in back yard (privacy fence) and a dog that will protect her and I still dont let her out there unless I am with her. I was watching the news earlier and seen that they found the girl in aruba someone had confessed to killing her and all I could think was my kid will never be able to do things like that cause I wont let her. Dont feel bad you are not the only person that feels that way.

Lisa

Maddie&EthansMom replied: You are far from the only one. I remember running the neighborhood when I was little. Things sure have changed.

My kids aren't allowed to play in the backyard alone, either. We pick Maddie's playdates very carefully, too.

What a sad world, huh?

mckayleesmom replied: Its just sad that what use to be considered over obssesive protective parenting is now a neccessity on a daily basis.

mammag replied: I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one like this. My neighbors and other parents I know act like I'm sheltering my kids to much. The people next door let their little girl run around the neighborhood unattended when she was 6. Her mom is in the house sleeping half the time and someone even robbed their garage once because she just leaves the garage door open so the girl can come in whenever she wants after school but half the time she doesn't go in until it's late. It's ridiculous to me in this day and age. It takes one second and they are gone....I couldn't live with myself if I let them run around and someone took them.

Kristen still doesn't play out front without me and she is 10. Not worth losing her to look like a "cool" mom....

Maddie&EthansMom replied:
I can't believe that mom!!!! It just takes ONE time. ONE mistake and you could lose your child!! How irresponsible of her!!! Scotty and I are so protective. We are definetly titled OVER protective parents.

ITA...I'd rather have that label than "The mom who lets her daughter run the neighborhood while she sleeps." Ha! That's not 'cool' in my books.

amymom replied: I always consider myself overprotective too. When we lived in a bigger city, I didn't allow the kids to ride the school bus, I drove them to and picked them up at school. Since we have moved to a very small town (population approx 900) my son and daughter have gotten some leeway. There are two houses my daughter (8) can go to their yards, to play, but I can see those yards from my kitchen window and if she wants to go inside I need to be told first. She can ride her bike around the block with a friend, but must check in with me after each ride around. So I will know in seconds if she was hurt, AND every house on the block has a stay at home family that my MIL has know for almost forever, and I have know for a year. (My MIL has lived in this house for 57 years and on this block for 63 years.) My son is 14 and he has to be home by 7:30 each night (he hasn't taken advantage of this too much, he stays close to home) and he can go to the library (next door) and the local grocer (one block away) and to his friends yards without telling me specifically where he is, if he is to go indoors anywhere he is to inform me first. I will always know where he is. During the summer I will let him ride his bike to the beach (about 1 mile away) with a friend to spend the day. Sleepovers are very difficult to plan, since I feel I must know the family really well or my kids can invite the kids to sleep here.

I feel uncomfortable with each wing they spread, but know that I am supposed to be raising them to be confident self sufficient adults, not scared children. BUT I still have trouble letting go. It is hard to protect them when I feel I do not KNOW everything they are doing.

luvbug00 replied: It's sad i agree i too was free to frolick as a child. We live in an apartment complex and it shocks me that there are children her age (4) outside with their 7,8,9, year old siblings running free all the time even at 12 am and as late as 2 am. YES, AM!!!! Mya hasn't left my sight EVER. and since i was a wild child she probaly never will.

ions_momma replied: We live on a college campus so there is no way I would let Ion go play outside without me or my DH with him. We usually move back home to where we are originally from in the summer and there he is allowed to play in the back yard without one of us being out there with him because we live in a small, fairly safe town and usually there are other kids outside that we are friends with their parents so they are not strangers or anything. I still go out and check on him about every 10 or 15 minutes though just to assure myself that he is ok.

MM'sMama replied: Oh no you are not alone at all I agree with all of you. It scares me to death that the world has become such a bad place I won't let Brice play in the back yard alone and never let him more then 2 feet away from me. I remember when I was young my friends and I would play outside around our area from sun up to sun down and nothing ever happened it was safe. Things have changed so much it breaks my heart and I agree with you, you never think about these things till you have kids. I hate the way the world is now so much.

Jamielou replied:
Just wanted to say I am totally feeling this way today It really makes me scared because anything could happen at anytime and to anybody. Reading and hearing about all these poor kids being taken from their families its just unreal you cant even let your child play in there own back yard.... Dont mean to bring anybody down with this just feeling a little down today

My2Beauties replied: I'm scared too. I feel bad because when Hanna gets older I know I am going to be so hard on her about where she goes, what she does, who she's with! My parents were overprotective like that - I thank them every day for it practically, but as a teenager I thought they were so lame and uncool! I always had friends stay the night and stuff so I was fine with staying in the house. We found things to do! Kids are creative. I won't let Hanna leave my site, when we take her for walks she can't get 2 feet from me and I'm grabbing her hand back! I don't look away for a second when I take her out anywhere! With Desiree I'm the same way, we always know where she is, the only people she stays the night with are her grandparents and one other friend of the family and her mom's side of the family. Rarely ever does she stay over friend's houses, they always stay the night with her. It's a sad sad world. My dad and I were just discussing this the other night, how bad I am going to be about her. I'll be scared to let her go to friend's houses for fear that their father/brother/uncle who lives with them is some sort of child molester or that her dad will kill her and her friend for coming home late (missing their curfew, referring to that case about the dad who killed his daughter and her friend for mssing curfew) Stupid stuff like that. It's a scary world out there, Louisville's murder rate is really on the rise too!

A&A'smommy replied: Oh yeah and don't forget dating Alyssa will be alloud to go out in crowds when she is 15 alone like movies and stuff and she wont be alloud to date alone until she is 17 there is a lot of things that will be rules in my house and one day I will write them down and discuss them with Jeremiah.

Boys r us replied: I am a VERY overprotective mother! We live in a very small community and I know most of the parents of the kids in his grade..95% of them he can do things with outside of school..but I know the ones whose home I would NEVER allow him into!!!! Thankfully we live in a very nice community of people! Heck, when we go to chuck e cheese, I give Tanner(my 9 yr old) 1 token at a time so that he has to come back to me after each game..like every two minutes I just don't trust this world we live in! And Braedon..when we're are out at the mall and so forth, he's IN THE STROLLER and I keep my eyes on him at all times and when I'm paying for something, the front of the stroller is facing me and my foot is intwined around the front axle of the stroller! If someone does something to one of my children, it will not be b/c of my neglect! I don't think I could live with that!