You know the old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child..." blah, blah. I can totally understand where people come from when they say that. Hell, I only have 1 child and I dream of days where I hire a fabulous nanny to the stars to take over when I just don't feel like it anymore. Then, of course she sleeps with my husband and goes all Hand that Rocks the Cradle on me. But I digress.
Enter my new neighbors. We have recently moved to a nicer neighborhood in the past 5 months and I figured all of my problems with roaming/barking animals was in the past. I was right about the animals; now we have children. That's right - roaming children. We have neighbors that live across the street from us with 3 kids, ages 6,4, and 2 and yes, they roam the neighborhood ALONE. A 6 year old, I can kind of see. But a 4 year old? A 2 year old? This is a new phenomenon that I have been lucky to have not witnessed in the past. I was shocked in my last neighborhood when people would let their dogs out in the front yard and leave them to fend for themselves. Not even an electric fence mind you. Not only do the kids wander the neighborhood, they sometimes wander it on one of their various electric riding toys, one of which is a 4 wheeler that I wouldn't get on. The 4 year old zooms it up and down the street, sans helmet and sometimes clothes and into other peoples driveways, yards, etc. My latest witnessing was of the 4 year old (boy) stripping his clothes off and peeing in one of the neighbors yards. Is this where the village should step in and raise the child? Is there a certain age where the world stops being a public restroom or have things changed and I just haven't caught up? When is the proper age to allow your child to roam the neighborhood free or should I start investing in child collars and leashes?
