Posted on 08/06/2012 9:45:49 AM PDT by Altariel
Yes, readers, it’s another case of child protective craziness. According to the Manchester, Conn. Patch, a local mom was charged with “risk of injury to a minor and failure to appear after police say she allowed her seven-year and 11-year old children to walk down to Spruce Street to buy pizza unsupervised.”
And according to reader Bob who sent this to us, Google Maps shows that we are talking about a half-mile walk! In addition to the solidarity of outrage, please post your ideas for how to protest the idea that kids are in danger every time they do something on their own, even something dumbfoundingly mundane, which means also protesting any time helicopter parenting becomes the only ”legal” way to raise our kids. – L.
Yep. When I was a kid, the far left wing radical groups weren't really heard from that much. Now that politician are protecting their perversions, the kids can't be left alone for one second. Some "social victim" will have them in the back of his van within seconds.
If it was just the 7 year old, a 1/2 mile is probably a bit too far, but with her 11 year old older sister? Please, this is absolute craziness..
Yes they could get snatched, but so can your 15 year old daughter or son.
I would throw this out if I were the judge, or better yet if I was the DA just refuse to put it before the grand jury. Unless there is something else going on here not reported, this is not a crime.
And part of that is the very non data-driven notion that, unlike a plane crash or a deadly illness, a parent can drive themselves insane thinking: "If only I had gone with her to get the pizza. If only I had put the talk show on pause, if only I had waited to do the laundry, if only . . . "
“Sexual predators of children need to be dispatched, not out of cruelty toward them, but simply to protect children.”
They want to protect alternative lifestyles and lock up the parents.
No kidding. When I was barely 11 (maybe when I was still 10, I can’t remember exactly when I got my horse) I used to get up in the morning on weekends and in the summer, ride off into the desert ALONE on my horse and spend all day just messing around (or until I got too tired/hot/hungry/bored. I guess anything could have happened to me, but it never did. I didn’t wear a helmet either! I did have to be home by dark.
There is more at work here than statistics.
“And part of that is the very non data-driven notion that, unlike a plane crash or a deadly illness, a parent can drive themselves insane thinking: “If only I had gone with her to get the pizza. If only I had put the talk show on pause, if only I had waited to do the laundry, if only . . . “ “
“If only I allowed my kids to be self-reliant and strong instead of fearful little wusses who don’t want to do anything without their parents or government’s guiding arm.”
While child abductions are horrible, I think a rational person will consider risk vs. probability.
The alternative: “helicopter” around your kids all day - or teach them never get out of bed - and always wear a helmet in the shower.
The best protest is a jury to tell the State to go F*** itself. We ain’t your damn slaves.
I know they didn’t make you ride in the bed of pickup truck???!!!
Heh.
When I was kiddie, 10 years old, my mom would send me to the local Mom & Pop store to pick up a six-pack of Buckhorn and a pack of Winstons when she was working in the garden, and didn’t want to stop.
Fortunately, the shop owners both knew my parents, and she always called ahead to tell them I was on my way, so it wasn’t a big deal. Good heavens, if that’d happened nowadays, my parents would be in the slammer!
Much has changed in three decades.
Absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s just part of growing up. Sheesh!!!
Such a difference in times. I started school in 1946 in the country. There was no school bus. Two and one-half miles to school and everybody walked. When the snow was deep I had a horse to ride. We, too, had only one car but both my parents worked. Nearest bus to the city was 4 miles and my mom walked it every morning and every night so my dad could take the car because there was no bus to where he worked. I had a scooter and roller skates but wasn’t allowed to ride a bicycle because my mom felt it wasn’t something ladies do.
In the 1960’s my kids rode their bikes everywhere and also no helmet or knee pads. They were outside all day in the summer and only came home to eat, if they had skinned a knee and needed a band-aid or if it was getting dark. Never thought to worry about them.
Now when my grandson goes out to play it’s like he’s in a suit of armor and all the neighborhood moms are out watching their kids to make sure nothing happens to them.
I think it is more difficult now for older people like me because we have lived through and seen the erosion in so many areas.
Exactly. Kids are not beyond being taught not to let a stranger approach them, not to approach a stranger, etc. I knew when I was a kid not to talk to people I didn’t know. I remember a few times people made me uncomfortable, so I just stayed away from them. Kids will never ever learn to be self sufficient or how to take care of themselves if they are never given the chance.
This past year after school, my 10 yr. old boy and 6 year old girl was picked up by a neighbor and stayed with the neighbor from 3:30 until 5:10. The school is about half a mile away. We paid that neighbor $250 a month to do this (they have a 9 yr. old boy with Asperger’s/autism).
We are debating if we can have them walk home from school and stay home for that hour and a half by themselves. They will always an option of going over to the neighbor’s house in case something happens.
I trust my 10 year old 100% with this responsibility, and in Texas the police have said there are no laws concerning this. Of course, we still have concerns with my 6 year old daughter. And of course my greatest fear is one judgmental parent calling CPS.
Or drink from the garden hose ???!!!
My first grandson was born this spring and I feel sorry for him. He’ll likely never get to enjoy the kind of childhood I had. I realize now, mine was golden.
My mom used to send me to the store to buy cigarettes for her and my aunt, who was often at our house, having a bit of whiskey to avoid her oddball husband.
They would have been treated like war criminals!
Seems like another Nanny State situation to me.
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