None of my business, BUT....

I am really scared for 2 boys in my neighborhood. They are both 4 and one is almost exactly Thomas' age. They are at the park ALONE almost everyday. One lives in the house right next to the park, but the other is across the street. Sure, their parents could be watching from a window but they are still too far away to stop anything bad from happening. Last year a boy was molested in the walking trail close by and he was much older. And the one who lives across the street has walked in the street in front of both Mike and I in the last week - we had plenty of time to stop but the boy didn't even look. The other day we were at the park and both boys were there and one boys parents were actually there too and we were talking. The mom got distracted with her older kids and went home to deal with them and a couple of minutes later the dad left too. He had been pushing the boys in the baby swings, so when he left the boys were alone and stuck in the swings! Mike offered to get them out and they said no, but he ended up pushing them for a few minutes. Finally one of the mom's came to get them. I'm not sure what they are thinking?!?

Wow, how ironic. As I'm typing this, I'm watching the news and there was an attempted abduction (not sure if it was a child or adult) in another neighborhood in my town. Nice!

Anyway, this has got me thinking about when I'll actually allow my boys to go outside alone. I know when I was younger I went out fairly early, but things are different now. I'm not even comfortable with them being in my fenced in backyard alone. I'm thinking they can go to the park alone when they are 18 ;)