In the 50’s, I and all the other kids played unsupervised. We were let out Summer mornings, and we returned (usually) for lunch and dinner.
The USA is completely different now. We don’t know our neighbors. We don’t trust people we see. The USA has become a very low trust society, meaning that it is no longer part of civilization.
People rush to their cars, rush to their destination, rush home and lock themselves in their homes.
Instead of arresting parents, how about eliminating the element that lives among us which is solely responsible for the breakdown of trust? That would solve the problem. Not putting parents in jail and putting the kids in a foster home.
That was certainly the case about neighbors and neighborhoods. We knew each family living by us, twelve houses down the street to the left, twelve houses down the street to the right, and ditto across the street. You’d see your neighbors walking up and down the sidewalks constantly, the women heading to the supermarket, the kids out and about playing, teens working on hot-rod cars in their driveways, housewives pinning linens to the clotheslines in their yards. And a milkman delivering milk. This was still even in the 1970s for me!
My mind boggles at how much things have changed. I just don’t recognize this country at all, anymore. Not the people, not the culture, not anything.