What Was Lenore Skenazy Thinking?
by Judd WileyMay 18th, 2008, 10:40 pm
By now you’ve probably heard of Lenore Skenazy, the New York Sun columnist who let her nine-year-old ride the subway alone, provoking a wave of applause and criticism.
Here’s what happened, in Skenazy’s own words:
For weeks my boy had been begging for me to please leave him somewhere, anywhere, and let him try to figure out how to get home on his own. So on that sunny Sunday I gave him a subway map, a MetroCard, a $20 bill, and several quarters, just in case he had to make a call.
No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn’t want to lose it. And no, I didn’t trail him, like a mommy private eye. I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn’t do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, “Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I’ll abduct this adorable child instead.”
Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence.
Of course, the chattering classes immediately started piling on. “Are kids coddled?” suggested Newsweek. “Remember ‘go outside and play?’” asked the Los Angeles Times. “Are we raising wimps?” inquired the Buffalo News.
Fair enough. The wussification of America is a very real phenomenon, and it should be crushed mercilessly at every possible opportunity.
All the same, the NY subway is no place for a nine-year old boy.
From the Daily Commuter:
I am heading home on the “E” train from WTC/Chambers Street. I usually take a seat in the second car from the end but there was an Asian homeless man on it. And although he did not appear filthy, he certainly smelt like BLEEP. So I got off and walked to the next car. The third car from the end had a single homeless black man on it who was smoking because the car smelled of smoke. I continued to walk to the next car in the hopes that there wasn’t a homeless person there.
Now, you may be wondering why I decided to hop from car to car via the station as opposed to through the cars. Well, I’ll tell you. Homeless people use the “between” cars to do their business. What sort of business? Peeing. They pee between cars. That’s right. And that is why the last stop on the “E” train in Manhattan always smells of stale urine! It’s because the homeless people who take up residence in the cars, use the between cars to BLEEP and probably take a dump too.
From SUBWAYblogger:
Just the other day I was standing on the platform on my way to work. Just 8 feet away, a bum steps up to the edge and whips his BLEEP out, and lets loose. He then proceeded to yell at everyone standing around him.
Then there’s the guy that BLEEP in the subway stairs. At one of my stops, there’s one of those “Exit Only” stairwells. Some guy goes down there every night to take a BLEEP, since there aren’t likely to be other people around. Sometimes, he puts down some newspaper to BLEEP on. However, his aim isn’t that great. Sometimes, he doesn’t even bother with the newspaper. So every day, in the same spot, is a fresh pile of poo.
Some of them pee of the edge of the platforms. Some of them pee in the corner. Other’s look for a drain in the floor. …
Not to mention the cockroaches, rats, and bed bugs.
You have to wonder. What was Lenore Skenazy thinking?
The Lenore Skenazy Saga
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