The theatrical histrionics and technical fantasies of the popular “Home Alone” movies aside, millions of children are at risk from a host of dangers when they are left unsupervised.
March Parents explores the problems of latchkey children in a special report that should be read by any working mother whose children between the ages of 10 and 15 are left at home with unsupervised time between the end of school and a parent’s return from work.
The story cites recent studies showing that during those unsupervised hours, latchkey children of all social and economic groups are twice as likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, engage in sexual intercourse, join gangs or contribute to the astonishing 48 percent increase in juvenile violent-crime arrest rate in the last five years.
In addition, the story states, they may be extraordinarily isolated and lose out on valuable life-shaping experiences shared with friends and role-models during this critical period of adolescent development.
The story contains valuable tips for parents on how to assess a child’s readiness to spend unsupervised hours, such as determining how a child acts in an emergency, how the child exercises judgment and whether the child is emotionally able to stay alone without being afraid.
Staying in contact frequently with the child by phone is important, but the best alternative, the story emphasizes, is to find a community- or school-sponsored after-school program with positive activities and support for the child, one that encourages self-expression, teaches social interaction and has activities that impart a sense of competence and achievement.
March Ladies Home Journal adds a double whammy for parents worried about the safety of unsupervised children with a special report on child kidnappings.
The report states that nearly 5,000 children a year are abducted by non-family members, and of these, 300 are missing for a long period or sometimes forever. While some eventually are recovered alive, many others are found murdered.
The report describes five unsolved kidnapping cases in the last few years; most of the young victims were abducted in or near their own homes and neighborhoods.
The report also offers important pointers for parents who are bound to be anxious after reading the details of the kidnappings: Caution your children about strangers from a very early age, and especially to refuse requests for help from unknown adults; give a child a code word if there is an emergency and the child must be picked up; always walk in groups; do not allow strangers to take their pictures; if the child is grabbed, fight and scream for help, and as in the latchkey situation, know where the children are at all times and keep in frequent touch with them.
On the lighter side of parenting, March-April Family Life carries a delightful story for city slickers and mall cruisers about dude ranches where the whole family can play along with all the deer and antelope and horses, where dinner is a sunset cookout followed by a Western sing-along at a roaring bonfire and where the youngsters are too tired at bedtime for pillow fights and endless requests for glasses of water or just one more video. The story includes a list of ranches by cost and location.
March Glamour runs a lengthy editorial on the gender gap (unless you’re Leona Helmsley) in the treatment of people in prisons, which charges that “women are getting more time behind bars than men, more restrictions, less rehabilitation and worse medical care.”
Since 1980, the editorial claims, the population of women in state and federal prisons has quadrupled to 90,000, nearly 6 percent of America’s prison population. Most are incarcerated for drug possession, writing bad checks and other non-violent crimes, and while there are other non-prison programs for men who commit the same offenses, such as halfway houses and work-release programs, the same facilities are nonexistent or scarce for women, according to the editorial.
The editorial goes on to claim that women serve more time of their sentences than men because of overcrowding in men’s prisons, get less job training and drug treatment in prison, and are trained in “feminine” and lower paying skills such as typing and sewing. Sexual harassment and abuse are rampant; and in fact a significant number of women are being impregnated in prison by the guards who are supposed to protect them, and the medical care available to them is substandard at best. The editorial calls for a massive reform in women’s penal institutions, and concludes, “No one argues that women shouldn’t pay a price if they break the law, but they shouldn’t pay a higher price than men do.”
March Good Housekeeping runs a story about the 32 richest women in the world and how they ended up that way.
Nearly two-thirds are billionaires, and half are Americans. Queen Elizabeth (not an American) heads the list at $5.4 billion, which includes the world’s largest private art collection. The richest American is Helen R. Walton, widow of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., chain, with $4.9 billion. Much of the wealth has been inherited, but there’s Estee Lauder, head of a cosmetics empire she built from scratch, who is worth more than $3 billion, which represents an awful lot of face cream and mascara.
