How do you know? Just because nobody in your neighborhood got arrested while you were there means nothing. They could have been arrested elsewhere and then moved to your neighborhood. Which is what happens today too, except today you can check if that's the case with a website but back then you had absolutely no way of knowing.
Had every neighbor been living there since their own birth? If not, how do you know that they weren't simply like today's predators except with no website to check on them? Predators today get convicted, serve time, and move to a neighborhood where nobody knows them and start over. Except today there are websites that let you check on that. Back then, you didn't have (or rather, your parents didn't have) any way of knowing if the neighbor had a conviction in his past. So the simple fact that you witnessed no arrests makes no more difference then than it does today.
Or you could just control his internet access so that he can't log on while you aren't home, if you're worried about his making some sort of stupid move on the internet while you are away for an hour.
Yes, school work is the one and only place where today's kids have more responsibility. Somebody actually wrote a whole book about how bad an idea that is (something about parenting by the Torah, title escapes me). That today's kids have very little freedom or responsibility in any area of their life except for one: academics. And in that one area they are tasked with a crushing burden of schoolwork that may actually get in the way of their development in other areas. It's all so one-sided. It's as though they are given precisely one goal for their entire childhoods- get into a great college- and nothing else matters.
And prior to that, children were raised to be in mortal fear of polio (with good reason) and other infectious diseases. But even with the fear of infectious disease spread, parents still managed to raise their kids without all the restrictions of where they could play and how well supervised. Even though they were in nearly constant danger of getting some crippling or fatal infectious disease.
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Sabina
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
Fear is not dicating my life, Iam doing what is right for the sake of my children and their future.
I dont feel my 10 year old is old enough to be home alone, it has nothing really to do with fear, but what I have decided is best for him.
Sabina
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
Sabina
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
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