What Do You Tell Them
A question for the parents and guardians of the Upper West Side.
As you know, the streets up here are narrow and one-way. Easily crossable, unlike the avenues. I often find myself, a solo adult walker, waiting to cross next to your families and charges. When you're walking with your kids (the sentient, perambulatory ones), and I cross as soon as the traffic passes, long before the walk sign comes on, does it set you back? Do you have to explain to them why it's not time to go yet? And why I'm going anyway but they still may not? I know they're New Yorkers–they're going to learn very quickly that there are almost no universal truths–but I wonder every time I go early.