# May 21 is national "Take your children to the park and leave them there" Day! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 10, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447 "2011-05-10T22:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/21 "2011-05-11T16:04:09Z")
Which park are you leaving them at? The one in downtown Metropolis or the one next to the elementary school in suburban Springfield? That’s my major question. ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/22 "2011-05-11T16:22:41Z")
I think they can find their way home from the park. I was planning on blindfolding them and driving a couple of hours away before I dumped them. Chaining them to a log might help, too. (Can you tell I have teenagers?) _twitch_ ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/23 "2011-05-11T16:35:46Z")
An old man and a little boy are walking in the woods when the little boy looks up and says “I’m SCARED!” The old man says “You?! What about ME?! _ **I’m** _ the one who has to walk out of here alone!” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/24 "2011-05-11T16:58:38Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > It drives me crazy that so many people, especially parents, believe that crime is way up and the opposite is true. Crime is way, way down! Yeah man, so is tuberculosis. No more vaccines for me!! ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/25 "2011-05-11T17:06:26Z")
??? So you think that we can ‘vaccinate’ children against crime by having them never go to the park by themselves? That makes as much sense as ‘vaccinating’ them against bullying by having them never interact with other children. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/26 "2011-05-11T17:06:39Z")
If you think about it, the reason that any child abductions make the news is because they’re so rare. I have no dog in this fight, not having any children or plans to have children, but I have this feeling that the world is going to eat our modern cocoon-raised children alive once they’re actually allowed out of the cocoon because they have no clue how to live in the real world (I have a couple of nieces being raised like this). Or maybe they’ll just stay in the cocoon for the rest of their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/27 "2011-05-11T17:11:55Z")
I’m leery about taking him an leaving him at the park… Mainly because I doubt there will be other kids there. It’s always abandoned it seems. Instead I let him cross the street by himself and play with the half dozen kids in the central area of the townhouses, pretty much every day. Does that work? My rule: he must be close enough to hear me yelling for him and to answer me back. For some reason I’m the black sheep parent in the neighborhood… ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/28 "2011-05-11T17:13:45Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > ??? > > So you think that we can ‘vaccinate’ children against crime by having them never go to the park by themselves? > > That makes as much sense as ‘vaccinating’ them against bullying by having them never interact with other children. Or, for that matter, vaccinating them against tuberculosis, which we don’t do in this country. :smack: Honestly, I know what you were going for, **ZipperJJ** , but you couldn’t have picked a \*worse \*example. Vaccinations are the introduction of very but not completely safe solutions containing particles of a bacteria or virus which challenge the immune system to produce an immune response so that, later on if the child is exposed to a greater amount of the active agent, their immune system knows how to handle it. Quite similar to how exposing a child to a very small sample of very but not completely safe freedom teaches their body and mind to produce appropriate responses, so that later on when they’re exposed to greater freedom, they know how to handle it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/29 "2011-05-11T17:25:01Z")
Swear to God, I had a co-worker whose son begged to bicycle to school, and she allowed it, but she drove slowly behind him in her car the whole way. The kid was 12, she has another 10 year old, and she won’t let them go unsupervised for a second. All these kids are in for a very rude surprise when they get on their own, and their parents aren’t doing them any favors by all the hovering, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/30 "2011-05-11T17:39:17Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > ??? > > So you think that we can ‘vaccinate’ children against crime by having them never go to the park by themselves? > > That makes as much sense as ‘vaccinating’ them against bullying by having them never interact with other children. What I was going for was that if crime (against children, I presume you meant?) has gone down it could be a result of children being less vulnerable to crime due to parents being more protective than previous generations, when crime against children was more prevalent. I compared it to vaccines because people say “people don’t get [vaccinated disease] anymore so I don’t have to get vaccinated!” Well if everyone stopped getting vaccinated, guess what would come back? The comparison has nothing to do with vaccines per se. I just can’t think of another example. I also have no dog in this fight tho. I have no valid opinions on playgrounds or vaccines. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/31 "2011-05-11T17:41:01Z")
I thought we were doing this to convince others that all the adults had been raptured(May 21 is the end of the world day that has been floating around). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/32 "2011-05-11T17:48:12Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > If you drive the kids to the park and leave them there alone for 2 hours, the most dangerous part of the equation, by far, is the drive there and back. Yet we take that kind of a risk with their lives every day. Why are people okay with the large risk of driving the kids in a car and not okay with the tiny risk of leaving them in a park for a time? “Mommy mommmy please I don’t wanna use my booster seat…it’s all the way in the garage/daddy’s car/I spilled milk on it” “Ohhhh okay…” People respond irrationally to the very low tiny of child abduction while they think nothing of tossing their 5 year old in the back seat without a booster seat which is by far the riskiest thing they have to endure in their young lives. It’s about the illusion of control because they are \*with \*you. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/33 "2011-05-11T19:54:34Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > Which park are you leaving them at? The one in downtown Metropolis or the one next to the elementary school in suburban Springfield? That’s my major question. I rather think that’s gong to depend on where each person lives. Mine are going to Himmel Park in the center of Tucson. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447/34 "2011-05-11T22:15:02Z")
The one next to the Catholic church rectory? With priests watching over them, what could go wrong? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21-is-national-take-your-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day/581447.md?page=1)