CPS Threatens Dad: Let Your Kids Play Outside and We'll Take Them Away

Reason.com ^ | December 23, 2014 | Lenore Skenazy

[Altariel]

I received an update from the Maryland mom of two who was contacted by Montgomery Country Child Welfare Service in November after she let her kids, ages 6 and 10, play at the park two blocks from home by themselves. She was cited for allowing a child under age 8 "to be locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle while the person charged is absent."

The CPS worker decided "confined in a dwelling" was the same thing as "outside in a park."

The higher ups at child services agreed that this was insane, and the case was closed—until this week. As the mom wrote in an email to me:

It seemed that we had called their bluff and they were going to leave us alone. Not for long. This past Saturday, while I was out of town, my husband dropped my kids off at a park about 1 mile from our house and said they could walk home together. They got 1/2 way when someone called the police.

"Shots Will Be Fired"

The kids were picked up in a patrol car and brought home. The policewoman asked to see my husband's ID. When he refused, she said she was going to call for back-up. He said he would get his ID and went to go upstairs. She said - in front of the kids - that if he came down with anything else, "shots would be fired."

At this point 10 yr old. called me crying, saying that the police were there and that Daddy was going to be arrested. My husband stepped outside to continue the conversation away from the kids. When he disagreed with one of the officers about the dangers that walking alone posed to the kids, she actually asked him: "Don't you watch TV?" (The answer was no). They took notes and left.

"Sign This or We Take Your Kids"

Two hours later someone from Child Welfare showed up with a temporary plan, which they wanted my husband to sign, stating that he would not leave the children unsupervised until Monday when someone from their office could contact him.

He refused.

She called the police, saying that if he didn't sign they would take the kids away right then.

He signed.

This is outrageous. We refuse to deprive our children of critical opportunities to develop responsibility and independence, and have no intention of fundamentally changing our parenting to accommodate this kind of paranoia and bullying, but it's not going to be easy. We are now waiting for the call from Child Welfare and looking for someone who can give us legal advice on these issues in Maryland.

I have to admit when I read stories on your site and elsewhere about CPS threatening to take kids away, I never thought it could happen to us. I'll keep you posted.

Best, Danielle Meitiv

I'll keep you posted, too, readers. Since when are children not supposed to play outside on their own? And what gives the state the right to take them from their parents when they do?

[Altariel]

CPS and the Police: Threatening to take children away at gunpoint for (gasp!) going to the park to play.

[Morgana]

I would have already packed in a moving van if it were me.

[Bryanw92]

Free Range Kids grow up to be intelligent adults. Bureaucrats hate that.

[Star Traveler]

Well ... I sure wouldn’t let the kids play in the park or walk home like that without some adult in charge watching them every single second!

[Ray76]

Signing was a HUGE mistake.

[defconw]

We went 6 blocks away to a park and stayed all day. There were always at least two of us and often 6 or more kids. But how sad. Glad I was a kid in the 70’s.

[Altariel]

Yep, can’t blame the Father for wanting to keep his kids out of the government’s hands though. The problem is the government’s willingness to bully good parents who teach their children independence.

[Ray76]

The gov thug needs to be sent to prison.

[GreyFriar]

In the rural Indiana village I grew up in in the 1950s, there were nothing but ‘free range children’. We roamed around the houses, out into the fields and nearby woods all day long, only coming in for lunch.

[PLMerite]

“...and looking for someone who can give us legal advice on these issues in Maryland.”

Move.

[Glad2bnuts]

I walked to school and home. In K-6 the walk was about half a mile. Jr High we walked 1.9 miles, HS was close to a mile. Nothing happened, there were reports of people exposing themselves. Kids were grabbed on the news, but Moms and Dads were not frightened, they told us about dangers and to get home right after school. Now people drive to the end of their driveways to pick up their child that is bussed a few hundred feet. We live in a world of paranoia, and laziness. The streets are safer than they have been in years. Not letting children walk home, leads to less children walking, making it more dangerous because of lack of a crowd, and they get fat.

[Vendome]

Time to move...

[Mercat]

I grew up free range. My kids did up to a point but I was a bit more protective. Now with cell phones though and tracking devices it seems safer again. I do know her parents won’t let my granddaughter walk to 1/4 mile home alone.

[Star Traveler]

Those “good ole days” don’t exist any longer ... because of the extreme danger to kids in the day we live in. There are way too many out there now just looking to grab kids at the first chance they have.

[easternsky]

I also was raised long ago and we wandered freely and even played on the railroad tracks. Different day and time, I despise the Cps groupies, but would ask what kind of neighborhood they live in? There are a lot of perverts out there and Children can be picked up quickly never to be seen again. Do I think this is any business of CPS absolutely not, but do have those questions in my mind 6 and 10, now days are perfect targets.

[Sasparilla]

We were free range kids too. It was a wonderful childhood.

My Dad had a very recognizable whistle that could be heard blocks away. It came about sundown. When we heard that, it meant get your butt home now because dinner was ready.

[theBuckwheat]

” Since when are children not supposed to play outside on their own? ...”

Since the moment that the Collective HiveMind seized control of your children even though they have allowed them to continue to live with you while they are not at the indoctrination center.

[ladyjane]

I walked to school and home, about a mile each way. I went to a playground about 6 blocks away and stayed for hours.

I would never let my children do that today.

[tanknetter]

Signing was a HUGE mistake.

Possibly. But given that he was threatened with having his kids taken away by CPS and the police, he's got an excellent case for being forced to do so under duress.

[Star Traveler]

Well 55 years ago, I ran around all over the place, too ... but I was also shot at by a carload of Mexicans at our school (killing one boy next to me and wounding several others) and I was molested by a stranger asking for directions to the post office. I spent one year in one school “knowing” that I could be killed at school any day (spent the whole year that way).

I also sat in the front of the bus, in those days, was there when Kennedy got shot, said prayers in school, memorized Bible verses in school and everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

STILL ... I wouldn’t let any kid run around on their own today.