When I was growing up (back in Hungary), nobody was taken to school by car. Well, most families did not have cars (not that I want to date myself). It was absolutely normal to walk or bike to school. We can't say the same these days.

I read a very interesting article about how paranoid we got in the past years, and how much fear is running our lives. I'm no exception, unfortunately, so it's a good idea to look deeply in ourselves from time to time and try to realize what is it that we are afraid of, and overcome at least a few.

As this article points out, "statistics show that rates of child abduction and sexual abuse have marched steadily downward since the early 1990s, fear of these crimes is at an all-time high". The chances for your child being abducted or sexual abused are way less than him or her developing Type II diabetes, hypertension and other obesity-related ailments.

Both my children are under four at this point, but I wonder: would I let them walk or bike to school once they get to that age? Let's hope that my related fear will be minimal by then and our neighbourhood will continue to be safe enough, so I can do that.