Oh, that lovely time of year.
School’s back, and with it comes the opportunity to walk your kids to school.
But if your kids are older than Kindergarten age – and assuming the school is in walking distance – I’d recommend letting them take a stroll to school by themselves.
Many will say this is an act of insanity.
Walk to school? What about the serial killers lurking around every block?
Well, get this – the chances that your kid will get kidnapped are 1 in 14 million, according to UBC professor Dr. Mariana Brussoni, who was just interviewed by my colleague for a story that’s running this week.
So yes, 1 in 14 million. You want to know what’s more likely than that?
Let’s have a look at the numbers, as reported by various news outlets and compiled by The Independent.
The chances you’ll be crushed by a meteor – 1 in 700,000.
The odds of being killed in a plane crash is 1 in 11 million
You have a 1-in-4.4 million chance of dying from being left-handed and using a right-handed product incorrectly.
The chances of being fatally struck by lightning is 1 in 10 million.
You have a 1-in-1.1 million chance of dying from flesh-eating bacteria.
Winning an Olympic gold medal is a 1 in 662,000 chance.
For those of you who want to be astronauts, the odds of that are 1 in 12 million.
So there’s a greater chance your children will be... left-handed Olympic gold-medal-winning astronauts who die from using right-handed products incorrectly in planes plummeting to the earth while simultaneously being struck by lightning, consumed by flesh-eating bacteria and smashed by meteors... than there is of them being kidnapped.
Basically, the chances of your kids getting kidnapped aren’t very high, and the lifelong benefits of letting your kids walk to school seem to outmatch the 1 in 14 million chance that they’ll be stolen.
Brussoni said that resilience, self-confidence, risk management and learning how the world works are all things that result from what some may consider risky activities – like walking to school.
And it doesn’t stop there. Those kinds of activities seem to act as a shield for anxiety and depression. College students who reported overprotective parenting are more prone to those mental health problems, Brussoni said.
By all means, show your kids the ropes first. Make sure they’re aware and capable of obeying traffic safety rules. But once they’re capable of venturing out on their own, let them.
