My office is in a building with no windows; I'd love something like this.

I think part of the issue is worrying about things that are, statistically speaking, not an issue. For instance, my older kid started walking home from school alone when she was 10. This was about a mile along a busy suburban street with sidewalks. Other parents, worried, would call me to ask if she needed a ride home. Their worry was that she would be kidnapped or put upon by some predator. My worry was that some idiot driver wouldn't see her when she was crossing a street. I didn't want her going free-range until I could see that she was making sure to catch the eye of a driver waiting to make a turn right into her path.

We were told by a teacher that we were "very brave" for letting our 5th grader take public transport to and from school. Sigh. And based on what I've heard from my kids, other parents are similarly astounded that they are allowed to go to the park and to the local mall without a parent.

Speaking of statistically significant risks: having multiple people on a trampoline is not a good idea.

This topic made me think of "Children of Men"--the book, not the movie. If you're not familiar with either, they're set in a near-future world where no human babies have been born for perhaps twenty years. In the book, some women respond by carrying these same types of dolls, treating them like real children. There was one scene where one of the dolls is attacked and crushed by a creeped out bystander. The book's narrator doesn't quite know how to respond; he's creeped out too, but the woman is in such distress over the 'death' of her 'child'.