Every day after school, hundreds of parents crowd in front of the school gates, waiting for their children.
This can be seen at every primary and middle school in every city. When kids get out of school, the streets are partly or entirely blocked by the crowds and cars, as noisy as a busy market.
The jams at the school gates have become a hot issue recently. Only a little over a decade ago, there were no such hordes of parents waiting to pick up their kids.
As most primary and middle school students lived in nearby apartment blocks, many of them walked home in groups, and some middle school students rode bikes.
Today things have changed a lot. Almost all the parents of kindergarteners pick up and drop off their children. And 90 percent of parents continue to do this when their kids go to primary school, while half of the parents still do so when their kids go to middle school.
Many blame parents for over-protecting children. However, there are some other reasons behind this phenomenon.
With more cars in the street, the traffic conditions are much more dangerous today. Thousands of children die in traffic accidents every year, and child abduction cases have received prominent media coverage.
Some cities also saw kids assaulted in the streets. All these shocking numbers show that safety has become a worrying issue for parents, prompting them to take a closer watch over their kids.
Temperature drops in central and eastern China
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