where are the parents?

I didnt know where lese to post this but i wanted to know other peoples opinions about it.

I live in a really huge apartment complex and my balcony faces a huge courtyard filled with some trees grass a sand box and some benches and all the time i see kids playing out there. now its great that they are outside and having fun running around and playing but there is rarely ever a parent watching any of them and some of these kids are out there alone and are quite young. What i dont get is why these parents arent watching their children, there is nothing keeping people who do not live in the apartments out of this court yard and a few months ago the police came in and arrested 2 child molesters who were living in the building and had not reported that they were (or something along those lines) anyway to say the least i dont get how they feel comfortable letting them be out there alone. I would never let my son play outside unsupervised because you never know what will happen. then there are those who have older children who maybe do not need supervision but they get into worse things such as vandalism (sorry if its spelled wrong). I am just curious what these parents are doing and why they dont seem to care.

I dunno, I've never been supervised when I was a child (since like 4 years old), and that was just how things worked. :/ Nothing really happened too, even though we lived in a pretty dangerous area. I think we had 2 murders in the neighborhood and some other stuff go on over several years, but all the kids in the neighborhood went out to play outside and no one watched them, and we were all fine.

That's just the way it worked.

So at what age do you give them some freedom and trust yourself that you have explained the dangers. children understand much more than they are often given credit for.

I was never supervised as a kid.

I was never watched as a child when I would go outside. Nothing bad ever happened to me.

However, my friend in the same neighborhood was kidnapped and her body was never found.

I honestly just believe it's all up to chance if you're going to get hurt as a kid or not. No matter how much you try to watch your children, something bad can go wrong. It sucks. The best thing to do is teach your children how to handle situations in case they do arise.

I lived in an apartment for a while when I was a kid and wasn't supervised at all. My brother, sister and I would run around all over the place with the other kids and I rarely saw an adult. My sister was 7, I was about 5 and my brother was only 3.

When I was 7 my mom had remarried and we'd moved onto a farm. My siblings and I always stayed home alone during the summer...7 miles out of town. If my mom was home, we were never in sight of her. We spent our days exploring the far ends of the property or swimming in the creek. And we knew neighbors my mom and dad didn't even know we had.

So, yeah, I've always been a bit of a "wild child". But I still turned out well and didn't seriously injure or kill myself...or anyone else. 

Oddly enough, if I had kids, I'd probably be freaked when they left my line of vision. Which is one reason I haven't had them. I'd be too scared for them all the time.

I feel so sad for parents and children today.  I grew up in a medium sized town in the 1950s and we ran wild all day long.  Our mothers would shove us out the door and we'd play with our friends.  Some of us had play equipment in the back yard and some didn't, so we moved around the neighborhood at will, going where we pleased.  The only rule was to let mom know if we would be out of earshot or if we were going into someone's house.  In the evening the rule was to come home when the street lights went on.  Rainy days we'd gather on a front porch and play endless games of canasta or monopoly.

Now, you all feel that kids need to be watched every minute and every minute must be planned and orchestrated.  Those children have no freedom to discover the world and those parents are subjected to anxiety for the safety of their young ones. 

What a shame it's come to this.