Posted on 09/22/2014 10:58:18 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Children's book author Kari Anne Roy was recently visited by the Austin police and Child Protective Services for allowing her son Isaac, age 6, to do the unthinkable: Play outside, up her street, unsupervised.
He'd been out there for about 10 minutes when Roy's doorbell rang. She opened it to find her son —and a woman she didn't know. As Roy wrote on her blog HaikuMama last week, the mystery woman asked: "Is this your son?"
I nodded, still trying to figure out what was happening.
"He said this was his house. I brought him home." She was wearing dark glasses. I couldn't see her eyes, couldn't gauge her expression.
"You brought..."
"Yes. He was all the way down there, with no adult." She motioned to a park bench about 150 yards from my house. A bench that is visible from my front porch. A bench where he had been playing with my 8-year-old daughter, and where he decided to stay and play when she brought our dog home from the walk they'd gone on.
"You brought him home... from playing outside?" I continued to be baffled.
And then the woman smiled condescendingly, explained that he was OUTSIDE. And he was ALONE. And she was RETURNING HIM SAFELY. To stay INSIDE. With an ADULT. I thanked her for her concern, quickly shut the door and tried to figure out what just happened.
What happened? The usual. A busybody saw that rarest of sights—a child playing outside without a security detail—and wanted to teach his parents a lesson. Roy might not have given the incident a whole lot more thought except that shortly afterward, her doorbell rang again.
This time it was a policewoman. "She wanted to know if my son had been lost and how long he'd been gone," Roy told me by phone. She also took Roy's I.D. and the names of her kids.
That night Isaac cried when he went to bed and couldn't immediately fall asleep. "He thought someone was going to call the police because it was past bedtime and he was still awake."
As it turns out, he was almost right. About a week later, an investigator from Child Protective Services came to the house and interrogated each of Roy's three children separately, without their parents, about their upbringing.
"She asked my 12 year old if he had ever done drugs or alcohol. She asked my 8-year-old daughter if she had ever seen movies with people's private parts, so my daughter, who didn't know that things like that exist, does now," says Roy. "Thank you, CPS."
It was only last week, about a month after it all began, that the case was officially closed. That's when Roy felt safe enough to write about it. But safe is a relative term. In her last conversation with the CPS investigator, who actually seemed to be on her side, Roy asked, "What do I do now?"
Replied the investigator, "You just don't let them play outside."
There you have it. You are free to raise your children as you like, except if you want to actually give them a childhood. Fail to incarcerate your child and you could face incarceration yourself.
Yeah, me too. My sons...making and shooting a potato gun and swimming without an adult present at all times...climbing trees and building a rickety tree house with saws, nails and hammers, shooting b b guns, driving...cross country woods skiing in the woods w/o adults!
Luckily we lived in the country on five acres and they did their dirty deeds at home. All our neighbors were the same “lousy” parents as us.
I offer my 5 year old the same freedom I had.
My children would not be allowed to be questioned by CPS busybodies.
I was wondering the same thing.
If she was at home, why did this woman allow strangers to enter her home?
If such a situation occurred at my house, the CPS investigators would not even have been allowed to SEE my children, never mind enter my home and interrogate them without me being present.
Take out the word “almost” and he’d be describing 50% of the US population.
I’m really hoping that this is a satirical piece from The Onion.
Knowing what I know now and experiencing what I have experienced with them I would not allow a child to be left alone with a caseworker. Some of them are as bad as perp parents/adults themselves. Most have "The Village" mindset. Most are recent grads from college within the past 5 years and very few are parents themselves. Not many parents can stomach being a caseworker and part of the Village System.
A word to the wise. If you ever get a call from them that they have your nieces, nephews, or grand-kids, in protective custody and need you to pick them up and take them into your home you better Lawyer Up for yours and their sake fast.
Sooner or later the state will screw up the case and when they do they will hunt a scapegoat for the court and their cough cough official records. The kids are provided an attorney. The parents are provided one as well. The state has their attorneys. Guess who has to provide for their own attorney? Guess who can least likely afford it? Usually a grandparent, great aunt, or uncle, retired and on fixed income is where kids usually end up. Caseworkers can make their life a living hell and so can the kids parents with the caseworkers encouragement.
They don't care about your beliefs, your values, your rights, or your GOD. Do not trust them Ever!!! Worse is agencies whom the states contract. But if you are two couch potato bon bon eating Butches living together and want kids in the home to make it feel like a family the state will oblige you at already traumatized kids expense. You have free servants and an instant family if you are Gay/Lesbian.
Take out the word “almost” and he’d be describing 50% of the US population.
_________________
sadly true. Where do men crave freedom?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.