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"From the Department of Pet Peeves: This weekend, the New York Times ran a prominent story about walking to school. To my mom that would have sounded as funny as a story about buttoning your coat or making a sandwich: Something boring and mundane, something kids just do.  Predictably when there&amp;#039;s an article that contains a line like &amp;quot;Walking to school has become a political act&amp;quot; (because, apparently, it&amp;#039;s now so uncommon, that was the theme), parents start talking it up, taking sides and creating a debate: It&amp;#039;s dangerous! It&amp;#039;s healthy! It&amp;#039;s Jaycee Duggard waiting to happen! It&amp;#039;s two blocks, forgoodnesssake! Here&amp;#039;s what bugs me about the whole thing: That now even more parents, the ones who weren&amp;#039;t already willied out of their common sense or cognizant of the fact that 2,000 times more kids are hurt in car wrecks than kidnapped by strangers off the street (that&amp;#039;s 250,000 a year vs. 115 a year), will think &amp;quot;Gee, maybe I, too, should be driving Kaitlyn to down the block to her playdate because that&amp;#039;s what good moms seem to do these days.&amp;quot; Hysteria around parenting issues tends to feed on itself. Before you know it, curious and marginal practices (potty training three-month-olds, pierced ears for toddlers, not saying &amp;quot;no&amp;quot; in order not to squelch a budding spirit) are so talked about, if not actually pursued, that it seems like everybody&amp;#039;s doing it. And if everybody&amp;#039;s doing it, the rationale goes, it must be the definition of the right way to be a mom. You know the right way to be a mom. Trust your common sense. It&amp;#039;s there in your gut. \u2013Paula Spencer, WD &amp;quot;Momfidence&amp;quot; columnist  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a41952/whats-the-big-deal-about-walking-to-school-4231/>