You know something is wrong with the US......

[Boozy]

A person shouldn't be required to keep an eye on someone else's kid just because that kid's parent is from an area that belives that.

Quit setting up strawmen.

The only information we have on this woman is the one comment she made in the OP, which reads:

"This isn't Pakistan. This is the US, where people only look out for themselves."

To our knowledge, she has never told her neighbours to watch her kids because she doesn't want to. In fact, the quote above would indicate that she entirely understands that the rules are different here, and that she in fact adheres to them.

[Titi]

It looks like I have to clarify. My coworker is NOT and would NOT force responsibility for caring for her children to someone else. She was complaining because she DOESN'T FEEL SAFE to even let her daughter (7) walk down the street to a friend's house alone. Heck when her children are outside and she is watching them, she DOESN'T FEEL SAFE even to leave them just to use the bathroom. She felt safe in Pakistan.

And we live in a what is considered a good area. (Lancaster County PA among the Amish.)

[Millahtyme1983]

To be honest I don't think that sort of thing is entire lacking in American culture, at least not when I was a kid, which admittedly was awhile ago. We lived right next to a playground and my parents did not have a problem letting me play with the neighborhood kids because most of our houses overlooked the playground so there was always somebody watching. I can recall a few times that something happened like somebody falling of their bike or getting hurt somehow and one of our parents would be running out of the house before we even had to say anything, usually not the parents of the party involved, though they would find out rather quickly.