Posted on 04/14/2015 5:24:00 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
As a lifelong Montgomery County resident, perhaps I can shed a bit of light as to many lifelong MoCo residents feelings concerning the issue. When I was a little girl, I too had the freedom many posters expressed. I came in when the street lights came on. My best girlfriend and I would sleep in tents in our front yard. We would “wander” our neighborhood after 10 on Summer nights. Well, the county changes with the Lyon Sisters. For those FReepers who don’t either remember or know about them.. two girls (around the same age as the kids in Silver Spring) walking to Wheaton Mall (and in those days, the area was still very nice. Nothing unusual... a lot of kids did it. They disappeared in broad daylight. The forthcoming investigation was horrific. The police named the Father as a potential suspect even though he was broadcasting in a radio station a block from there. They simply vanished.
Life in MoCo changed that day. The innocence of the county was lost and lost forever. In the years since, the county’s “occupants” have changed as well. IMHO, Silver Spring is no place for a 10 and 6 year old to be wandering alone and for these reasons: (1) The traffic situation is horrific. (2) The parents after the initial warning from Child Services went public. All fine and good but in many articles, the detail listing of when/where the kids walk were published. Every possible child molester with a “preference” for a little boy or girl were given not only the street address but pictures of the kids as well. How easy it would have been or IS to present a fake badge and take the kids. (3) The parents were warned. Wether one believes it was over the top or not, a person decides when/how/if to take a political push back decision. The parents obviously wanted to keep this issue on the front burner so chose to ignore it. That is their right.. but they also had to know that the following issue may lead to the losing of their kids... wether temporarily or not.
In short, I guess a true “Conservative” may say that it is the right/choice of a parent to ignore insane traffic, potential sexual abusers etc... and allow their children to “free range”. I guess it is in a way. However, if one chooses to only look in our past childhoods and pretend that it is in any way, shape or form the same as today... well, they are fooling themselves. For what it is worth, new info has emerged in the Lyon sisters missing case. From the articles I have read, they were taken out of state, repeatedly raped for possibly weeks and may be buried in some hillbilly family plot. The county police are still working this case.. which may seem like a Cold Case for some.. but not to the lifelong residents of MoCo.
To those who protest giving kids this kind of freedom I suggest you go watch Old Yeller and the Adventures of Huck Finn and call me in the morning. Ask yourself will this country ever produce another Patrick McManus if we don't have some free range kids.
Define “left with.”
Parents taking off for the day and leaving the children at home alone, yes, I see it.
However, at the park, having fun?
Not quite the same as the parents taking off for the day and leaving the kids at home to fend for themselves. Nor is it quite the same as having a 10 year old babysit for an evening while the parents are gone.
So, no, the law doesn’t really apply in this case.
But, if you’re okay with a law being stretched beyond its intent, well, that’s on you.
By the age of 14, George Washington was wandering the woods alone to perform surveying duties. In our new day, we don’t even let children play in the park, or walk home at the age of 10!
Crime rates are at an all time low now. This smothering of children is doing more harm than good. We are now a society filled with wimps that can’t even stand to hear any opinions that make them feel uncomfortable.
Welcome to “The Brave New World!” Take your soma and succomb to the state.
“But then and now, they are rare events. You teach your kids to be careful. Teach them to stay away from strangers. You can never make them 100% safe.”
Those involved in rescuing kidnapped children express the opinion that the child that is in the least danger is the one that has learned awareness and is street wise. How does a child learn this? By interacting with the world free of parent suffocation!
Do you realize that it a child having a heart attack is statistically more frequent than an abduction that results in murder?
No one minimizes their child’s activities as a result. They don’t even consider it. Yet, it is more prevelant! You should ask yourself why....
Exactly!
When I was about 4, we went to a drive-in movie theater. As was often the case, my parents would hand me a quarter to go to the snack bar and get something--by myself. One time, on my way back to the car with my goodies, some man tried to get me to come over to his car. "Are you my little girl?" he asked, and then said that he thought I was. I just shook my head and went on to my parent's car (I wasn't even scared by the incident).
The whole point is to teach your child situational awareness. Even childproofing the home is counterproductive--people spend so much time trying to create a safe environment (which they can't), and so little time teaching kids to be safe in a dangerous world that they really have no concept on how to be careful. Or they grow up afraid of everything.
There was that time I tried to send my 3 year old son outside to play in 2 feet of snow. That was probably the only time ever that he did not want to go out... but now he shovels snow, so it's all good.
“Or they grow up afraid of everything.”
Which results in these same folks begging the government to make a utopian world free from danger! In other words, they beg for nannystatism.
That is an excellent observation.
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