parenting

Take a look at present-day suburbia—what do you see? Neighborhoods filled with children, most of them playing indoors, usually by themselves. When they do engage in activities outside the home—soccer, baseball, martial arts, music lessons—today’s suburban children get shuttled from the house to the playing field or studio by their moms or dads in the family car. They return home the same way, once they have finished their structured activities, and after eating dinner with their parents, they do their homework, often in front of a computer, and then go to bed. They mingle very little on a daily basis with their neighbors’ children, and their tight after-school schedules set aside no time for spontaneous play.

Free time remains at a premium for parents, too, in modern suburban families, although they may ordinarily take a moment before or after dinner to catch a glimpse of the TV evening news. And the broadcast will routinely lead with another disturbing story of a missing child or headline the latest release of a sexual predator from state prison: Is he in your neighborhood?