# Most Americans Want to Criminalize Pre-Teens Playing Unsupervised (Poll) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791 "2015-01-02T18:50:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/1 "2015-01-02T18:50:02Z")
> [@](#): > > A whopping 68 percent of Americans think there should be a law that prohibits kids 9 and under from playing at the park unsupervised, despite the fact that most of them no doubt grew up doing just that. > > What’s more: 43 percent feel the same way about 12-year-olds. They would like to criminalize all pre-teenagers playing outside on their own (and, I guess, arrest their no-good parents). > **[Poll: Most Americans Want to Criminalize Pre-Teens Playing Unsupervised](https://reason.com/2014/08/20/helicopter-parenting-run-amok-most-ameri/)** > > "I doubt there has ever been a human culture, anywhere, anytime, that underestimates children's abilities more than we North Americans do today." This is crazy! ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/2 "2015-01-02T19:09:16Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > [Poll: Most Americans Want to Criminalize Pre-Teens Playing Unsupervised](http://reason.com/archives/2014/08/20/helicopter-parenting-run-amok-most-ameri) > > This is crazy! there was a comedian on Sirius I heard a while back (I think it was Alonzo Bodden) who had a bit along these lines. Talking about people who won’t bring their children to see their grandparents because said grandparents haven’t “childproofed” their house. He was like, “Uh, your ass grew up in that house and your parents didn’t ‘childproof’ shit!” ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/3 "2015-01-02T19:19:41Z")
I guess I’m lucky I didn’t end up in jail - at 9, my daughter was a latch-key kid. She was home alone for THIRTY WHOLE MINUTES from the time she got off the bus till I got home from work. Fortunately, she grew up to be a science teacher instead of an axe murderer or something. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/4 "2015-01-02T19:39:26Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > there was a comedian on Sirius I heard a while back (I think it was Alonzo Bodden) who had a bit along these lines. Talking about people who won’t bring their children to see their grandparents because said grandparents haven’t “childproofed” their house. He was like, “Uh, your ass grew up in that house and your parents didn’t ‘childproof’ shit!” Well, that’s not really true. When I was a kid my parents didn’t have huge amounts of really dangerous medications, for example. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/5 "2015-01-02T19:45:31Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I guess I’m lucky I didn’t end up in jail - at 9, my daughter was a latch-key kid. She was home alone for THIRTY WHOLE MINUTES from the time she got off the bus till I got home from work. I used to ride the city bus home from school, make a snack once I got there, and stay by myself for anywhere from an hour to 90 minutes every weekday when I was in the fourth grade-- in Moscow, where I didn’t even speak the language all that well, at least from the start. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/6 "2015-01-02T20:25:27Z")
Cripes, when I was in kindergarten, I used to walk almost a kilometre to school. Along sidewalks, crossing streets (not main ones), the whole deal. I think my mom took me there the first day and then I was on my own. I just googlemapped it: 950 metres. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/7 "2015-01-02T20:38:36Z")
Wow, we were outside playing all the time. Either in my yard or friend’s yards. Never more than a block from home. We were expected to hear out parents calling us inside. So, yelling distance was our limit before we were 11. I rode my bike to elementary school on nice days. Took the school bus on cold or rainy days. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/8 "2015-01-02T20:39:21Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Cripes, when I was in kindergarten, I used to walk almost a kilometre to school. Along sidewalks, crossing streets (not main ones), the whole deal. I think my mom took me there the first day and then I was on my own. > > I just googlemapped it: 950 metres. The path I walked to school and back when I was 11 was 1,955 meters according to Google, and I always walked that alone. And on the rare occasions when I had pocket money, I’d sometimes stop on the way home for a snack at Jack in the Box or 7-Eleven or the taco shop, also unattended. And that was in the early '90s. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/9 "2015-01-02T21:26:28Z")
I was babysitting a newborn at age 11. I was left home with just my 90 year old, blind great-grandmother all day, most days until she died when I was 10, then I was home alone. That is, until my aunt’s baby was born, then it was the two of us. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/10 "2015-01-02T21:44:16Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > [Poll: Most Americans Want to Criminalize Pre-Teens Playing Unsupervised](http://reason.com/archives/2014/08/20/helicopter-parenting-run-amok-most-ameri) > > This is crazy! Yeah, and so are people who sit through 74 question phone polls, instead of just letting voicemail answer for unknown callers. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/11 "2015-01-02T21:58:04Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I was left home with just my 90 year old, blind great-grandmother all day, most days until she died when I was 10… Um… 😃 I wish I knew why America is going insane. The OP is just one example. Seems like people want ‘less government’ but everything I see indicates people really mean, “I want more government for everyone but me.” I guess as God becomes increasingly less powerful we are looking to someone else to take responsibility for us and The Government is the next logical choice. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-want-to-criminalize-pre-teens-playing-unsupervised-poll/708791/12 "2015-01-02T22:27:07Z")
Thanks Obama.