Great, America

So we took the 3 older kids to Great America on Friday with our neighbors who have a son between Little's and Tiny's ages; it worked out well having 4 adults and 4 children. After a stormy beginning to the day, everything fell into place beautifully. There were minimal waits for the rides--Iron Wolf had no line--and the kids behaved terrifically. The only ride we had any wait for was the Yankee Clipper, which is basically the log ride with boats, so I'm not real sure about the purpose of it; maybe it's designed for people who like the log ride but are afraid of logs or plastic log-looking-things.

Anyway...during our wait we started talking about what age to let our kids go to Great America--or anywhere for that matter--without us. We all exchanged stories about how old we were and what the rules our parents had were and all that. And we all came to the same conclusion: it couldn't work that way anymore. I remember going to malls with my mom and having to meet her at a certain place at a certain time. I remember going places with my sister soon after she got her license and going off in separate directions; I was maybe 9. And I remember going to Great America not too long after moving to Illinois, so middle school, and I sure as heck didn't hang out with my mom and step-dad.

Now, Girly is 8 and Little is 7, and no way would I let them go anywhere out of my sight. And it's not because I don't trust them, which I mostly don't, it's that I don't trust the rest of the world. Chuck E. Cheese doesn't even trust the world anymore. If you haven't been to CEC lately, everybody gets a stamp, the stamp has to match the kid's stamp, or you can't get out. I almost got security called on me at one for trying to take my kids home because I met them there, so my stamp was different. I had to have the other family we were with vouch for me, call my wife, and show the pictures in my wallet, along with 2 forms of ID. Kids are safer at Chuck E. Cheese than they are at school or in their neighborhoods.

And there is the problem: the mindset. Kids aren't actually safer at CEC than at school or in their own neighborhoods, but we've been trained now to believe the world is just too dangerous. We now have a term for over-protective-watch-their-kids-all-the-time parents: helicopter parents. When I was younger we simply called them glad-they're-not-my parents. Our playgrounds have done away with jungle gyms and see-saws; some even get rid of swings. Our schools have locked doors and cameras all over. Our mindset has changed from fostering growth in our youth to protecting them as long as possible. And I'm no better. I'd like to not be over-protective, to do things the way my parents did, to revert to the old mindset, but it goes back to the conclusion we reached in the only line we had to wait in: it can't work that way anymore. So, I don't know when the right age is to let them meet at a certain place at a certain time or go off alone and check in, but I do know that I'm glad we didn't wait in any other lines, as the rest of the day was a blast--next post topic.