Posted on 01/15/2015 5:02:57 AM PST by ConservativeInPA
It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently.
Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children.
We wouldnt have let them do it if we didnt think they were ready for it, Danielle said.
She said her son and daughter have previously paired up for walks around the block, to a nearby 7-Eleven and to a library about three-quarters of a mile away. They have proven they are responsible, she said. Theyve developed these skills.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I roamed all over creation as a child growing up 50 years ago. The whole city was my backyard. Unfortunately I could never allow my children that sort of freedom growing up. The country has changed and not for the better.
Of course I also was allowed to bring my hunting rifle to school during deer season, but that is a whole other conversation.
I hear you. My 8 brothers and sisters and I were free-range kids, and I raised my own children the same way.
Yep. We’ve screwed it up royally, that’s for sure. It was nice while it lasted.
Yes, good observations. The mothers were at home to check on their children and on the neighbors’ children. And neighbors knew each other and helped each other.
“You’re entitled to your opinion. They are are entitled to their’s. No?”
Sure, but who pays for their judgment when the kids disappear? The kids.
Silver Spring is not farmland in Iowa.
“free-range” kids? Taste like chicken?...
From the age of 7 I crossed a major street, rode the city bus 3 miles, and walked 5 blocks further in a slightly seedy part of town every school day for 3 years. Even in 20 below, or the heat of Indian summer.
I survived that, in a city known as “little Detroit” due to its crime rate at the time.
“Danielle is a climate-science consultant, and Alexander is a physicist at the National Institutes of Health.”
Oh the irony. The above quote is all I need to know to be able to state without a shadow of doubt that these people vote for the very government control that they protest.
On a side note, this story explains the childhood obesity epidemic in a nutshell.
By 10 I was walking to friends’ houses and to the town green to play. That was over mile away. Not a big deal then.
I’m glad I’m almost done raising my kids - I let them run around the neighborhood and yelled out the back door when it was time for supper. Wonder how they ever got to be adults with all that unsupervised play time.
They forget their card, yet she thinks they're responsible enough to be out walking alone.
Five miles walk to school? Nonsense. A mile to a mile and a half maximum unless you were in High School and even then...five miles is a long damned way to walk on a good day for a kid.
I walk five miles every day and a good pace (~4mph) enough to make me sweat and it takes me an hour and 10 minutes minimum on a good day, longer if it snows or rains or is hot.
When we first moved to Cary, NC, we lived on the edge of town, I rode the bus. Then the rule was the bus stopped about every mile, idea being no kid had to walk more than a half mile. Nowadays my truck gets behind a school bus, they are big chauffered limos and stop at every house.
There they unload a few pudgy little scudders who no doubt waddled in to sit on their butts and eat chips and play video games.
yldstrk, sorry as I can be about that young girl, but extrapolating from that to every kid in America is an over-reach I think.
Sure, but who pays for their judgment when the kids disappear? The kids.
And? That's just the way it is.
They forget their card, yet she thinks they're responsible enough to be out walking alone.
Oh, the horror!
I was 4 years and 9 months old when I started Kindergarten in '57. Walked about 3/4 mile to St. Mary's school each day, usually alone vs. in a group. Today's overlords would defecate a brick if they knew how free range we were back then...
So now the local government admits that it is too dangerous in their town for children to play at the local park?
Is there a closer park? Does the city need to build more parks so kids don't need to walk so far?
Why is the city so dangerous, and who allowed it to become so dangerous for its citizens?
What is the maximum distance that a child is allowed to walk to a public park before it becomes neglect? Any rules on that on the books?
What is the age at which a child is allowed to walk outside of their home without adult supervision? How about outside their yard?
The nanny state has just declared that the rules have changed but they neglected to tell you.
Each and every city employee (not just the police) now have a sacred duty to raise you kids.
Just nuts.
My middle school was over three miles away up two long hills, then down into a valley, up another hill then down into the schoolyard (I really DID walk uphill both ways < BG >), and my high school was just under two miles. It was only uphill on the way there, fortunately. This was in the 1970’s. In a different city from my previous post.
The nearest city bus stop was 3/4 mile in either direction.
Maybe not for him, but I know that kind of distance happened long past. Especially for rural children.
It happened back then, too.
We just did not have 24/7/365/everywhere media to tell us about all the incidents.
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