There are two parts of this thread I wanted to comment:
Skipping and the lost age of innocence: I went to a talk last week by a noted psychologist, How to be a Go To Parent. And she talked about how common oral sex is in middle school, and drugs and alcohol. Although we want the educational skip, the social issues of skipping our kids is very scary. They are so young after acceleration in middle school and dealing with very grown up issues. This is complex.
Second, I grew up in the neighborhood described a few pages back. No fences, a kazillion kids to play with as soon as you stepped out the door.
Last summer at the beach, my 2 year old said she heard her friends (windows were open) and ran outside to play with them. And when we lived in the "Beach" in Toronto for a year when she was born, it was within the city, but the beach is like a village and she could play with the neighbor kids (though she was too young to do it on her own) we would take a walk after dinner and it would often end up as an impromptu play date. But I would see older kids doing it on their own. I don't think you can be as laissez faire as our parents on where your kids are, but there are places to live where kids can still ride their bikes to the park or the "candy" store.
Ren
