Spring has sprung! As I look out my front door I’m comforted by the new blooms on the trees, the flowers beginning to shoot up, and the warm sun blanketing every surface. I love spring! I love all of the four seasons, especially when they start to blow in.

My quiet neighborhood is also buzzing with children on bikes, scooters, roller blades, you name it!  Some are outfitted with helmets, shoulder pads, the works.  But that’s not my primary concern.  What nearly all of thee kids were missing was parents!  There is no adult supervision.  That’s fine for most kids, but I just can’t comprehend letting a group of 5 year olds roam the streets.  I’m familiar with some of the faces, and I’m aware that many of them live as far as 10 blocks away.
I live in a great neighborhood.  It’s situated on the border of a city, and only a few blocks from semi-rural living.  I love living here, but…

Maybe I am just an over-protective worrier.  Maybe it is because I have a Down Syndrome sister and have always viewed the world as “dangerous” in relation to her.  Growing up only a few miles from the house I now share with my husband, we were only allowed to play in our neighborhood.  And by that I mean on my parent’s block.  My older sister and I, as well as the many kids that lived in the surrounding houses, played on the front lawns.  We couldn’t take off on our bikes without someone’s parent until we were about 8 or 9.  And after 7pm, we had to be in “shouting distance” of our house — close enough to hear mom yelling for us.

Don’t get me wrong — my parents weren’t super-protective!  By age 9 my best friend and I could ride our bikes to the park, roller blade to the ice cream parlor, take off for an hour.  But after an hour had passed we HAD to check in with someone’s parents.  On the rare occasion that we “forgot,” we were met by our mothers, hands on their hips, standing on the corner of our street.  Never a good sign.

I guess I’m just shocked to see little kids (again, 5-6 year olds) riding around the streets at 7 o’clock at night — without an adult in tow.  I am aware that most of their parents work full-time and have other things to do outside of following their kids, but shouldn’t someone be with them?  Why not restrict their adventures to the block on which they live?  I’ve heard some parents say “Well, they just won’t stay on the block.  They just take off on their bikes.”  WHAT???  My parents would have killed me!  I knew my boundaries — which, until I was 5, were “Mrs. St. Maurice’s hedges and Anne’s driveway.  Go beyond that and you’re little behind is in the house for the night!”

I’m worried about some of these kids — am I overreacting?

A good idea or a case of mind your own business?

A new Illinois state-sponsored program called “Be a Buckle Buddy” — seriously? — provides a hotline for folks to call if they spot a fellow motorist that doesn’t have their kids properly restrained in the vehicle. The owner of the car is then tracked down and sent a warning and pamphlets on child safety:

“The intent is not to be punitive in any manner,” said Chris Franciskovich, regional communications manager for Children’s Hospital of Illinois. The Peoria-based hospital, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Department and Peoria-Area Safe Kids Coalition started the program in 2004.

Franciskovich pulls messages off the hotline once a week and faxes information — ideally, the license plate, kind of vehicle, location of incident, date and time — to the appropriate departments. If a caller gives just a plate number, he gives it to Tazewell, which covers for the entire state.

The police do not tell Franciskovich’s hospital where any offenders live and since the call is routed through the hospital’s switchboard, Franciskovich does not even see the area code from which the reporting person is calling.

The packet contains a brochure about car seat safety; another brochure, about car seat safety for children with special needs; and an IDOT brochure about Illinois’ Child Passenger Protection Act.

Of course I completely understand the importance of safely buckling kids into the car, but doesn’t this seem a bit creepy? To get some envelope in the mail out of nowhere that essentially says, “We’re watching you!” seems a bit much to me, and I’m torn on the subject. What do you think? Is this level of busybody-ness warranted?