No matter the odds
In How long must a child be left unattended before he or she is abducted by a stranger?, Philip Greenspn writes …
We parents of young kids think that our children are the most precious things in the world, but it seems that, at least statistically, few other adults want them.
That’s approximately one kidnapping every 228 million hours or one every 26,000 years.
Anybody find an error in the above calculations? And what do we do with the result? Will knowing the statistics make it less likely that we will panic when a child falls momentarily out of sight? Can we follow our heads or must we be slaves to our (jumpy) hearts?
One commenter points out there might be an error, but his calculations still indicate that abductions are rarer then we parents think. I didn’t run the numbers, because that’s not what I wanted to comment on.
I have no quarrel with the point Greenspun is making. I try to read everything he writes, I very much appreciate an analytical approach to any topic, and I don’t think he is suggesting parents be less careful parenting.
And I am not about to start giving advice to parents about how to protect their own children. It just reminded me of a discussion I have had with my children many, many times. Sometimes, the potential tragedy outweighs even a low risk.
If you ask me, when I can do so without unnecessarily infringing on the normal course of events, I am going to avoid situations that have any probability of a disastrous outcome. If the potential disaster is more than I can possibly imagine, I don’t care how low the odds are.
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