Quote From: shelly_80Oh, you took the works right out of my mouth!!! As I'm sure everyone knows, NYC is by far one of the the craziest cities on the map. I love it there as far as historical marks but even I was nearing a mental breakdown and I was with a group of people.
One of my personal experiences on a NYC subway, I was with my family riding just to see some points of interest and as you know you can walk car-to-car. It was night time and a lesser than desireable man walk into the car we were in. I am in no way passing judgement because he could not help his outward appearance but it looked like he was completely covered with leprosy. He was steadily prophesying on how everyone was going to be damned to hell if they didn't turn their life around and live the way he was talking about. It scared me to death, I just knew someone was going to whip out a gun and we were going to get caught in the crossfire. Luckily, I was wrong. I've never been so scared in my life! That's why I can't imagaine a woman DELIBERATLY leaving her son there ALONE with nothing but $20 a SUBWAY card and a map. You're absolutely right, that's child abuse in every since of the word! Anything could have happened, like you said. I am constanly asking the "what if" questions. It's sad that people don't have anymore smarts than that. This mom isn't "just irresponsible," she's down right stupid!!!
I raised a free-range child. She has gone into stores alone since she was 8 or 9, took trips with friends' families that I knew when she was in first grade, rode the local streetcar down our mountain to get ice cream when she was 12. From the time she was 2 years old, we were preparing for her independence. When she said "I can do it," I usually let her show me. We had extensive discussion and teaching about abuse and personal safety.
We have traveled extensively, and she feels safe and capable in every city we've visited. She navigates well on foot and when driving (she is 20 years old now). She makes her own standards for herself and is a responsible, high-achieving college student.
I applaud the mom who sent her son home with a subway map and $20. She knew his capabilities, he was willing and ready, and she let go. I have visited New York City many times and would have done the same with my daughter, had she grown up there. It was daytime, there were lots of people everywhere the boy went, and my experience has been that people will unfailingly come to the aid of a bullied or abused child.
