Unattended Children in the Library

I just finished reading a compilation post on PUBYAC about policies regarding unattended children while their parents are on the Internet. It brought me back to my days as a librarian in an under served area of Brooklyn. Every so often Branch Administration would institute parental supervision policies for the branches to follow. How we would laugh! The idea! Parents bringing their children to the library and watching them! When we got the Internet we did have one or two mothers who would come in for hours with their very small children and leave the children functionally unattended. I'm not sure it ever occurred to us to insist to strongly that the mothers watch the children themselves. After all they came in during the middle of the day when the computers (and we) were most available so really what else did we have to do but read their children some stories. We were just happy that the mothers weren't completely being left on the off ramp of the information superhighway. What were they going to do about finding care for their children anyways, hire a babysitter?(With what?), get dad to chip in? (Where is dad anyhow?), buy their own computer to surf at home? (Be realistic!) . Seriously, when I read this post, and statistics bear this out by the way, it immediately occurred to me that those who rely on computers at the library are generally at high risk of being of being on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. So I'm with the woman who encourages libraries to be proactive to the needs of mothers who are on the Internet at the library. Don't get me wrong. I'm sympathetic to what can happen when children are left unattended for too long, and I can imagine that not all patrons who use library computers and abandon their children while they surf are in the situation that my former patrons were. I have two little kids and they can get into incredible mischief when I turn my back for even two seconds. Once when I was at the library, I was putting our books into our stroller, when my then three year old daughter stuck her arm into the door jamb. Not something I ever anticipated happening. I guess you really do have to be three to think sticking your arm in the door jamb is a good idea. Fortunately I saw her do it and grabbed the door before it closed. Otherwise the story wouldn't be even in the least bit funny. (You have to admit it's kind of funny). If I was on the computers at the library, even for five or ten minutes I know exactly what they would do. They would walk right out of the library onto the busy street smack into the path of a car. That why I don't use the computer at the public library, I use it a home when the kids are distracted by a snack, Dad or best of all bedtime. But that's the advantage of being white and middle class. You get to have little luxuries like a husband that fully supports your family and sometimes gives you free time to "enrich" yourself, as well as your own computer with Internet access. That's why libraries that serve minority patrons should be open and creative in finding ways to serve both their patrons need to use library computers and their children's need for constant supervision.