A couple days ago I witnessed a father telling his kids (who looked to be between the ages of 8 and 12) that they cannot cross the street except at the corner) and saying that it was
"Too dangerous for you kids to cross right now."
This was unusual because it was an empty street in Toronto's East York suburbia. There wasn't even a single moving car in sight.
Every car on the quiet street was parked and the nearest intersection was a good 45 second drive away at normal suburbia driving speed. This meant the kids had to walk several minutes down to the intersection, cross the street, and then walk back for several minutes.
Plus the father was present. He was right there watching them. He could have easily "supervised" them crossing the street, but instead forced them to walk down to the intersection and cross there instead.
Meanwhile I just crossed the street right in front of them, content in the knowledge that my parents were not morons and they had taught me how to cross a street and look both ways when I was about 4 years old.
Toronto kids apparently are so coddled and afraid of "parked cars" that they have to walk down the intersection. (Also, statistically speaking, aren't people more likely to get struck by a car at an intersection where there is bound to be twice as many cars???)
Ahem.
Then today it happened again. More coddling.
I was at a library and overheard a librarian who was managing a gaggle of 8 kids, all around 12 years old or so. They were making paper snowflakes with scissors and stringing popcorn with needles. (This alone bothered me, because today is November 16th and Christmas Day isn't for another 39 days!!!)
The librarian explained that they needed the older kids to do this, because the younger kids (11 or younger supposedly) might hurt themselves if they were allowed to use scissors or needles.
At which point I got tempted to turn around and ask the librarian
"Seriously, how coddled are these kids that you cannot trust them with a needle?"
But I did not. Mostly because I did not want to cause a scene. They would probably think I was crazy. I can imagine what they would think or say: "How dare that strange man think children might be responsible enough to handle scissors or needles?! He must be mentally deranged or something."
This reminded me of something I saw on Facebook.
A mother had posted photos of her son doing chores around the home. Chores! How dare she?! People were accusing her of child abuse, child neglect, and saying she was an unfit mother because she had taught her son how to:
- Sweep and/or vacuum the floor.
- Pack and unpack the dishwasher.
- Mend clothing.
- Do his own laundry.
- Clean his room.
- Handwash dishes.
- Making simple meals.
Oh my! That is some serious child abuse, teaching her son how to be responsible and actually do stuff around the home.
Meanwhile my parents had trusted me when I was younger with such responsibilities as:
- Walking the dog.
- Feeding the dog and/or cats.
- Using the BBQ to make food.
- Lighting the furnace (and not burning the house down).
- Keeping the fireplace going with more firewood.
- Chopping firewood with an axe.
- Stacking firewood in rows.
- Mowing the lawn with the riding lawnmower.
- Cleaning the pool (without falling in and drowning).
- Babysitting other children.
- Fetching vegetables from the garden.
- Weeding the garden.
- Raking leaves.
- Handwash the sharp knives in the sink and put them away.
Which is to say nothing of any hobbies I had that involved woodworking, welding, or using power tools. Completely unsupervised.
So to answer my question about how coddled kids are in Toronto these days?
Extremely coddled.
To the point that if a nuclear apocalypse happened these kids (and probably their parents) would be doomed because they probably have zilch for survival skills.
In other news Donald Trump is now president elect of the USA. Hell hath clearly frozen over, so I would not be surprised if we were due for World War Three. Call me paranoid, but I have begun brushing up on my survival skills.
