Ride On

I know this idea has been discussed to death, but it really is true that parents are far more worried about their kids playing outside on their own than they were when I was a kid. I’d hop on my bicycle and disappear for an entire afternoon, and my parents had no idea where I was.

I’d be interested to know if there has actually been an increase in child kidnappings—that’s what parents are all afraid of now, I assume—in recent years, or if this is just a matter of advances in technology allowing us to hear about more kidnappings, so we assume that there are more kidnappings even though it’s the same number as it’s always been.