One of the things that contributed to my insistence on evalutating risks for myself beginning around 7 or 8 was a series of incidents when I was 7-9. Noteably, a particular car gunned its engine and sped around a particular corner at me repeatedly durring my short (sight of the window) walk to school (I was 9), and I became very affraid of a family member who was babysitting me (and his own daughter) who was drinking a lot (I was 6).
No-one believed me in any of the cases, though in one, the dead guy was later found (heart attack, but several of us told the teachers about a guy slumped in his car). I was often disciplined for lying.
So if you're going to be very protective, I guess make a point of taking the kid seriously!
Add us to the list of people who limit car travel.
We are *not* particuarly interested in using carseats for the absolute longest period of time etc. We have at times had to use dangerous drivers or stand up on busses while carrying babies because transporting carseats was impossible... we'd have been safer in a car with a safe driver and no carseat. I think the incremental improvements in safety with state-of-the-art ideal practice in carseats are often over-represented and miscalculated in the scheme of things (especially with respect to the quality of the driver, especialy when the kid is crying).
**Please note, we do use carseats correctly when we use cars, we just try to see the whole picture. One of the reasons he fussed so much is that we really did do up the straps tight enough, and a lot of people told us "it's because you have the straps too tight!!!" weeeelllllllll.
Anyway. The upshot of the whole thing is that we strongly resist the need to use roads, including choosing walking routs carefully.
Amusingly, a child services worker once strongly advised me to accept a ride without a carseat rather than to walk 30 mins outdoors in the summer carrying my baby. Because apparently summer air is THAT dangerous. It was abut 27 degrees.
-Mich.
