It truly does only take a second of scooping down to pick up a dropped item or to help tie the shoelace of another child for a younger kid to race swiftly away. Children have no real idea until surprisingly old, and no way to be taught, outside of extremes, that a car or otherwise could cause them great harm. Little ones have wildly differing personalities as well. My youngest would never have run into the road before me, but my oldest would have done so in the blink of an eye. I recall instead of others encouraging caution with my parenting, that people would say the opposite to me, that I should "relax" and "not be so anxious" while I was quickly scanning situations and keeping my more risk-prone kiddo, as near as possible to me when out in public (as I knew from experience what might occur if I did not). I understand why the OP was worried. They were right to feel so, but the unfortunate event likely happened through no real fault of anyone involved.
Many, many years ago when my son had chicken pox, I kept him home from school, as he was ill, but also, there were two pregnant mothers with children in his class, and it can be particularly dangerous to catch the virus for the first time, while carrying a child. After being out for only four days, I had the principal of the school call me in to ask why I was keeping my pox-ridden kid home for so long, she said "It's fine if he is sick at school, it's more harmful for him to miss so many days". It seemed to be a shared attitude with many people as well when I would bring up my (what seemed reasonable to me) concerns regarding his own and others' well-being.
There is pressure upon parents to conform to some very harmful societal norms at times.
I kept him home, regardless, and feel it was the right decision to do so. I have so many, many stories that are similar in nature. Don't be surprised by what parents are forced to do against their better judgements when it comes to the welfare of their families.
Many women I know are happy to date someone with caretaking responsibilties. I've not known one woman who isn't and I'm in my mid-40s. Nine friends of mine are involved with fathers that have children from previous relationships-Some of whom are special-needs. Two friends of mine are involved with partners that take care of infirm relatives. I'm not meaning to be dismissive, but perhaps you might want to choose different sorts of women to pursue or perhaps examine the possibility of there being other potential issues involved?
I live on Brunswick Street, where a long bike lane opens up only a block from my house and no one ever rides it. It's filled to the brim with cars driving in or parked next to a grim amount of door prize potential. Cyclists often have to jump up to the sidewalk to avoid cars in the bike lane there-Thankfully the sidewalks along the Citadel side are wide enough to allow for a bicycle and a pedestrian to easily pass one another. I once had a bike trailer for my kid, thinking I could use that downtown. Nope. Pretty soon, I used it only on the wharves, then with the omnipresent construction there, I gave it away to someone in Dartmouth where they have multiple safer biking options. They use it almost everyday. I wish we could here. Separate the bike lanes from traffic and parked cars! Sheesh!
You sound like a spectacular human being. You know that you were once a child, right? Let kids be kids without their parents having police called upon them for the noises the children make while playing. Sheesh!
I had a shop I used to commonly frequent have a newer employee argue with me in a condescending way via telephone, about a bike I had once purchased at their previous location. They told me that there was no way I had bought the bicycle from them, when I had just casually mentioned it when talking about another bike; Telling me over and over how they don't sell used bikes. I explained that they had once. She kept telling me that they had never, ever once, in their entire history and hung up. Yea, never brought a bike back to there for myself or my kids after that and we had likely dropped a few thousand altogether in that shop over the years.
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There is pressure upon parents to conform to some very harmful societal norms at times.
I kept him home, regardless, and feel it was the right decision to do so. I have so many, many stories that are similar in nature. Don't be surprised by what parents are forced to do against their better judgements when it comes to the welfare of their families.