A friend of mine was explaining how he would never let his kids play outside alone. Too dangerous. His oldest is 5 and in kindergarten.

Another friend was talking about getting an alarm system, not to keep people out, but to keep their daughter in when she’s a teen. She’s 6.

I explained to the first friend how we let the kids play outside by themselves (and I check on them), and how we’ve discussed "stranger danger", in our way. We’ve explained that if you took 1000 people, maybe ONE person might want to do something bad that MIGHT hurt them. So you can be friendly with strangers, but careful. We’ve explained what things you don’t do (go with someone, take food from a stranger, etc), but that they don’t have to be afraid of that. My friend was horrified. "But…but that’s when the loss of innocence starts! To explain that the world isn’t safe!"

And all I could think was "but it isn’t safe. But you don’t have to be afraid of it"

When do you think innocence is lost? (and yes, there will be a followup, but I am getting the dreaded crud)