Posted on 06/09/2015 5:03:05 PM PDT by Kaslin
There was a time not too long ago that parents could let their kids walk to school alone, take a solo bike ride around the neighborhood, and, once reasonably old enough, stay home alone. Those days are gone, and gone with a vengeance. This type of parenting, which was once considered the norm, is now getting kids taken away from their guardians, and parents locked up and treated as negligent criminals.
The latest story comes out of Florida, where an 11-year-old boy, whose parents were delayed in traffic, hung out in his own backyard for an hour and a half waiting for them. I’ll let the mother who wrote to Lenore Skenazy over at her website, Free RangeKids.com, explain what happened next (emphasis from Skenazy):
My children are not free range children. The younger one has always had a baby sitter. The older one who just turned 11 a couple of weeks ago always had a baby sitter as well. This school year that changed. The eleven year old comes home and is met by his dad who lets him in the house. In the event dad isn’t here on time, his instructions are to wait in the backyard until I come home about 20 minutes later.
On this particular day, a little more than a month ago, both dad and I were both running late due bad traffic and rain. We were about and hour and a half late. When we arrived the police had been anonymously called and we were arrested for child neglect.
We still do not have our children, we are fighting for our own freedom and due to the nature of my employment I am no longer employed. My son was in his own yard playing basketball, not in the street or at the park. The authorities claim he had no access to water or shelter. We have an open shed in the back yard and 2 working sinks and 2 hoses. They said he had no food. He ate his snacks already. He had no bathroom, but the responding officer found our yard good enough to relieve himself in while our son sat in a police car alone. In his own yard, in a state, Florida, that has no minimum age for children to be alone. If you have any advice for what I should do I will accept it.
And then for her update:
Our sons were returned to us on Tuesday/Wednesday in the children’s court/DCF with adjudication withheld. However the criminal prosecutor is not dropping the charges as of today. We have to appear in the criminal court on June 11th to put in our plea. I would love to speak to someone however due to my job (which is still on the line) I don’t know if it will make it better or worse. I am a state and county employee with the school system and I was made to sign a paper stating I would not speak with teachers parents or students regarding the matter.
This is disturbing on so many levels. These children were taken away from their parents for a month. Criminal charges were filed against them, the mother may end up losing her job, and on top of all that, she can’t even speak about it.
Similar incidents are happening all over the country, and as Matt Walsh over at The Blaze points out, the problem is just as bad if not worse in public schools, where parental rights are virtually nonexistent.
This is the epitome of the nanny state and the worst part about it is that it’s not even to correct a problem in society—there has never been a safer time to be a child in America.
As Skenazy noted in her story about the article, “If this doesn’t convince lawmakers that they had better start revising the child neglect laws — and convince politicians that supporting Free-Range legislation would be a great, vote-getting platform — I’m not sure what will.”
We don’t need to go back to the ‘50’s. Being in forced contact with your neighbors in fact only makes abusive situations more likely. If there was a system in place for this kid to be able to communicate with the parents in the case of an emergency that would be fine but it doesn’t sound like the parents were operating in accord with a very workable or responsible plan.
My thought exactly, but I had neighbors once who had five children, ranging from 2 to 15. The 15 year old still needed a babysitter and he was not retarded
Kids lose keys, what then?
This is NOT a case of child abuse or neglect. An 11-year-old can be on his own for 90 minutes, for Pete's sake. My kids often were, when they were 8 and 11. An 11-year-old can babysit!
I agree he should have had a key, but the legal overreaction is shocking. Keeping the kids in custody away from their home is just outrageous. A kid is in far worse danger from a foster family than alone in his own backyard.
And to threatren the mother's livelihood? Outrageous!!
I have an 11 year old. He is turning 12 soon. There is no way my wife and I would allow him to be alone for an hour and a half in the rain. My wife or myself drive all 4 kids to the bus stop at the corner or take them to school ourselves....I mostly do that because it is faster and safer. But occasionally they like to ride the bus and the wife can be a pushover at times. Our oldest is now 17 so he is starting to drive which is exciting of course. The next is 15 and our youngest is 7 years old. We have done a great job with our kids and kept them safe but still participate in sports and other activities but we are not stupid and irresponsible. My wife and I are going on 20 years next April and would love another kid although we are both 46 now so who knows. Raising kids is a total responsibility that we both take seriously. These parents were negligent. The only difference is that my wife stays home. This woman wanted to work so had others watch their child and of course that failed.
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I raised four. My children all started with permits at 15 and were expected to successfully drive at 16. My kids were homeschooled, and were free ranging in our town from the time they could range. The occasional semester that they took the school bus they went down and stood, rain snow or shine. And the stop was a 1/3 mile from the house. The only time I drove them and other neighborhood kids to the bus is when the coyote pack was skulking around.
I don’t think these parents were negligent, I think that they were unthinking. A hidden house key does wonders. However, the kid didn’t melt, and learned that life doesn’t always go his way. Good lesson.
Glad that the kids turned out well. I love that we both have four. I think that is a good number....although if we were to have more that would be great. It is a scary world out there now a days. And kids like to see how far they can get away with.....big time.
My parents would have been in jail.
Torn?
You must be an adherent. Congratulations. /s
This is government out of control, and it needs to be fought.
Now days, kids aren't even safe with their female teachers.
My kids were raised just fine, bless your heart.
There is nothing I could say to change the mind of a nanny-stater so I’ll end it here.
That’s what I was thinking. If I was the neighbor I would have invited the kid to stay in my house, I wouldn’t have called the police.
In. His. Own. Backyard.
Oh I hope you are right. I would imagine that all parents say they raised their kids fine but end up a disaster. Hopefully you were responsible and raised your children right. I fear you may not have. I know it is difficult to be a good parent but having four like I do has been quite an accomplishment for me. Other parents like yourself don’t always have that achievement. Sorry about that.....perhaps the grandkids might be better.
True but it is a very believable story.
He had a shed too. OMG! He was 11! That is not a baby.
Nothing so traumatic for me but my parents left me with my brothers one night and they took off to hang out with their friends so I was home alone until way after midnight...I never told.
They won’t
Child Welfare agents are unelected and unaccountable.
They are not even sworn peace officers.
Parents are not even permitted to confront their accusers.
A person can accuse a parent of the most heinous things in complete assurance that they will never have to appear in court or have their name appear on any document that the parent will ever see.
No signed and sworn affidavit. Just their word is enough to send the child abuse investigators to your home no warrant and you will have to let them in.
Oh jeez. Give me a break. The kid was 11 years old. He wasn't sent into the wilderness by himself to survive. He was in his own backyard. If a kid can't play basketball in his own backyard for a couple of hours, what's next? He can't be left in front of the TV for too long before the authorities are called in to arrest the parents?
People ought to lighten up, mind their own business and get a life. This is one of the most preposterous stories I've every heard about the nanny state and the cowardly nosy neighbors.
there is no situation that can’t be made worse by having somebody call the police.
the police are NOT there to serve and protect. they are nanny state government employees whose job is primarily to collect evidence for prosecutors.
the days of Andy Griffith and Barney Fife are long gone.
We are talking an 11 year old, not a five year old. He was in little danger in his own back yard.
I have an eight year old who rides his bike about a mile to his school in good weather and walks home every day when he doesn’t. Often alone. He also walks to my parents home a block away daily.
At ten I had a weekly paper route and collected the money monthly. At 12 I had a daily 365 day a year route that had to be delivered by 6 am. I had fifty eight customers, my 13 year old brother had 75. We had the routes for four years. My father would wake us up, but we had to deliver the papers alone every day, often in the dark.
11 is long enough to self supervise in your own back yard for an hour.
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