Another parent arrested because she isn't a helicopter.

[Maggie Mae]

I am so sick of people thinking that kids need to be touching mommy 24-7. This is government overreach, pure and simple.

http://fox6now.com/2014/07/29/mother-ar ... ark-alone/

[MarthaMarcyMayMarlen]

That is too young.

[Coconut Flan]

It looks to me that if they want to arrest people for letting children go to the park then they should have a law or ordinance about what the age cut off is. Arresting parents on the whim of neighbors or pool goers calling the police is not a reasonable way to conduct legal affairs.

I wouldn't have done what she did, but wouldn't the situation just like the one with the boy walking home in Hawaii have better been handled by some discussion rather than immediate arrest?

[keen23]

A half mile away seems like a long way. But then I remember that we walked home from school without supervision in elementary school. Unless it was raining, you walked home from school (and if it was raining, you were squished into someone's station wagon with 7 or 8 other kids, no seatbelts). Almost 2 miles. Only kindergarteners got bussed. 1st grade and older, you were walking. And when we got home, we'd get on our bikes, and most likely ride BACK in the direction of school to play with all the other kids who went home to get their bikes.

[DGayle]

Like Keen, when I was that age, we walked further than that alone. My school was a little over a mile away, which happened to be connected to the neighborhood park, and even if it was rainy, we usually walked it. That's what rain coats, rain boots, and umbrellas, were for. How detrimental to society and our kids to say that parents must be with their kids at every moment, and any moment the parents can't be there, the kids must be inside the hose sitting around getting fat, and then society complains about the rising rate of childhood obesity.

Oh, and we didn't have cell phones when I was a kid.

And child molesters in the area? Frankly, so? Most molesters molest their own relatives. How sad that a child is more likely to be molested by someone they know or even related to, yet it's the strangers who we teach kids to be scared of. Trust Uncle Jimmy who's been buying you lots of presents lately and has access to you alone, but he scared of that man who sometimes sits on his porch having a smoke before he goes back inside.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

My kids walk half a mile to school and it's nothing for them. It takes 10 mins. I don't think I personally would let a seven year old go to the park alone but who is to say what is acceptable? Is .25 miles ok? Five mins away instead of 10? Nothing out of eyesight? It doesn't strike me as child endangerment but more of a parents personal choice.

[Mama Mia]

Yeah, absolutely, completely ridiculous. These children are going to grow up absolutely incapable of doing ANYTHING independently. I, personally, wouldn't have had a seven year old walk to the park themselves, but with a sibling, sure. And mostly I wouldn't have let them just because they would have had to cross a very, very busy road. If this mom thought her 7 year old could do the half mile safely, that's her decision.

I also don't think it's any coincidence that in most of these cases the parents are poor and/ or an ethnic minority.

[Evilbad]

Thats idiotic and too much. He's a bit young, but to arrest the mom and charge her with a felony? Absurd.

[Bookworm89]

Wow, I walked to school from third grade on. I would walk a quarter mile by myself then meet at my friends house and we would walk the other quarter mile to school together. It is crazy how sheltered kids now and how other people report parents for letting their kids go to the park alone. By the time I was 9/10 my mom would send my younger brother and I to the pool with money to get in and give us a time to come home by (the pool was up a hill probably close to half a mile but had safe sidewalks). I think it also depends on the neighborhood, when I was 7 I had to have my older sibling with me (11) but for the most part we lived in a safe area so my mom didn't worry too much. I feel old when I talk about my childhood but I'm only early twenties.

[keen23]

I blame Nancy Grace.

The world isn't more dangerous now than it was 20/30/40 years ago. It's just that the media sensationalizes everything. Add to that the 24 hour news cycle and fearmongers like Nancy Grace and it's no wonder that people freak out when they see a kid in a park (and then in the next breath lament the youth obesity crisis and the fact that "kids these days" are so addicted to electronics).

[ADoyle90815]

Like Keen, when I was that age, we walked further than that alone. My school was a little over a mile away, which happened to be connected to the neighborhood park, and even if it was rainy, we usually walked it. That's what rain coats, rain boots, and umbrellas, were for. How detrimental to society and our kids to say that parents must be with their kids at every moment, and any moment the parents can't be there, the kids must be inside the hose sitting around getting fat, and then society complains about the rising rate of childhood obesity.

Oh, and we didn't have cell phones when I was a kid.

And child molesters in the area? Frankly, so? Most molesters molest their own relatives. How sad that a child is more likely to be molested by someone they know or even related to, yet it's the strangers who we teach kids to be scared of. Trust Uncle Jimmy who's been buying you lots of presents lately and has access to you alone, but he scared of that man who sometimes sits on his porch having a smoke before he goes back inside.

That was also true for me growing up as well, walking about a mile to school, and there was a park across the street from there. As we had to cross a major street to get to my elementary school, we did have a crossing guard, but she really was the only adult we saw between home and school. We also walked when it was rainy, and as a matter of fact, the only reason I didn't walk to my high school was that it was on my mom's way to her teaching job, and she liked to get there early, so she got us to school on time. I still walked home every day unless I had band practice or other thing after school. Childhood obesity was a rare thing when I was growing up, until video games and these fears became big.

It's also true that most children are likely to be molested by a family member or someone close to the family, such as a coach, church leader, etc. Most kidnappings tend to be a result of a custodial dispute, as stranger abductions are extremely rare. The sex offenders people should worry about are the ones who aren't registered because they haven't been caught yet.

I live near both a middle school and elementary school, and I've noticed that on mornings and afternoons during the school year, the traffic jam of parents dropping off for picking up their middle school kids makes it tough to get in or out of the neighborhood. Some of that is probably due to the fear of pedophiles and kidnappers, but I would say that now the fear is of being arrested for child endangerment or having CPS called. That fear of arrest of CPS investigation tends to force parents into becoming helicopter parents even if they would love to give their children more freedom as they reach middle school age and older.

[flubber]

My son is desperate to go play in the park by himself. He's 8, and he's not allowed because;

1. the roads are too busy to cross by himself - so I need to walk him (which isn't an issue)

2. I would rather he had a friend with him - and he doesn't have any friends who live nearby

3. His sister wants to go to and she's 6 so too young to be there without and adult and he is to young to be responsible for her.

But if he had a mate I'd be quite happy for them to go by themselves - although the park is only a block away.

As for child endangerment - would she get arrested letting the kid walk to school on his own? Kids need to learn independence, responsibility, awareness and they aren't going to learn that with a helicopter. And if the cop was so worried about the sex offenders in the area why wasn't he keeping an eye on them.

[Mama Mia]

And it so much depends on not only the area and distance but on the particular child's responsibility and awareness level.

One of my kids I was comfortable sending across two busy intersections ( with crossing lights) to the store a couple of blocks away to buy milk, at 8 and a half. One of her siblings I would not have sent on the same errand at that age, even though we had moved and there were no streets to cross and the store was a block closer - because the kid would have completely spaced out what they were doing and went off to play with a friend, or didn't look for cars in the store parking lot.

It really depends on so many things, that only the parent can judge.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Like Keen, when I was that age, we walked further than that alone. My school was a little over a mile away, which happened to be connected to the neighborhood park, and even if it was rainy, we usually walked it. That's what rain coats, rain boots, and umbrellas, were for. How detrimental to society and our kids to say that parents must be with their kids at every moment, and any moment the parents can't be there, the kids must be inside the hose sitting around getting fat, and then society complains about the rising rate of childhood obesity.

Oh, and we didn't have cell phones when I was a kid.

And child molesters in the area? Frankly, so? Most molesters molest their own relatives. How sad that a child is more likely to be molested by someone they know or even related to, yet it's the strangers who we teach kids to be scared of. Trust Uncle Jimmy who's been buying you lots of presents lately and has access to you alone, but he scared of that man who sometimes sits on his porch having a smoke before he goes back inside.

Florida has some stringent statutory rape laws, and there is just a narrow "Romeo and Juliette" exemption from placing an offender on a public registry. It's possible, therefore, that the molester in the area could be a guy who was caught with his 14 yr old girlfriend when he was 19. [Not saying that's a great thing to do, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the guy poses any current threat to a random child years later.]

[roddma]

A girl from church and I went to this show in Nashville and rode the bus all by ourselves. I was no more than 7-8 ish and she was a year younger. Flash forward 35+ years-I don't think my parents would allow that now. We weren't allowed to go more than a block away from the house.

Around 1980ish, Marcia Tremble, a 12 yr old, disappeared selling girl scout cookies. Who would have though a 12 yr old would get killed selling girl scout cookies in the early 1980s? I think that Then came Adam Walsh.These cases were shocking to Americans. In 1993, it was 12 yr old Polly Klaas. This fear started long before Nancy 'Naggy" Grace.

I don't think these cases of leaving kids in parks have to do with fear of abduction but safety. You never know what kids may get into especially at 7. I do agree it is silly to slap a felony on her. While it is good to be concerned, you don't have to be paranoid about everything. That said, there's a time and place for free range. t is something that happens gradually.

[itsnikki05]

I'm going to go the opposite way and say that I would NOT let my daughter walk to the park or school alone. She recently turned 7. But it's really a maturity thing with her. No, I don't coddle her. I just feel she is too young. But that's MY daughter, I won't tell anyone what to do with their kids as long as they're not purposely hurting them, and I don't feel like she should have been arrested.

[laura oz]

That could have been me. I was outside with my kids a little more than a year ago and had my stomach go nuts. No chance to convince them to come inside and I barely made it. On my way going back out the phone rang and I told them I'd call them back. My kids were gone and I flipped. They had gone through some yards and were down the street where a policeman that responded to the call thankfully found them. When he brought them home I was a wreck; crying, snot everywhere, convinced a predator snatched them. I thanked him profusely and was stunned when he told me he could arrest me for neglect. The other older officer quickly talked over him and shot him a look that should have killed him while just gently telling me he was glad they were found and to make them come in next time. I was so depressed because I felt like a failure as a mother, and I was so incredibly scared of that younger cop that I really didn't want them to go outside anymore. I think 7 is too young for my kids, but she knows her child better than I do.

Things are no worse now than they were decades ago, we just have continuous news coverage that make us aware of every single bad thing that happens on our planet, jmo.

[julie paradox]

When I was 9 (late 70s) I went to the park with my younger siblings (6 and 4) and friends from up the road (4 and 2). It was fine, I was in charge.

Admittedly, it was pretty close (if I heard the whistle go as I left our back door, I could run and get to school before everyone had got inside, and the park was next to school) with only one side road to cross.. but still...

And all this talk of neighbourhood molesters makes me wonder, again, what people would have made of Ernie, who spent all day standing on the corner and offered kids sweets. The one time he offered me them (I didn't play out much... we were aspirational. besides we had a big garden) I said no thanks because - get this - I didn't think it was right that he had to bribe children with sweets to get them to talk to him, and I stayed and talked to him anyway.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't a molester. Nobody seemed to find him creepy. But I was an odd child (I think I may have been vaguely Aspergers-ish) and I might just have not heard anything.

[utter solitude]

I wonder what they'd make of this:

When I was in middle school, I rode the bus to school. I had to walk a very short distance from my small trailer park up the street to the bus stop, it was about two block. The bus driver was a bitch; if you were walking to the bus stop when she got there, she would NOT wait for you, even if she saw you.

My mother worked downtown and would leave for work before I got up for school. I was expressly told that if I missed the bus to go home and call her. I assumed, then, that meant she would come home and drive me to school (which would have been a huge fucking deal, in my mind, with a lecture and punishment) although I think she would probably have just called the school lol. So, missing the bus was death in my preteen mind.

Welp, inevitably, it happened. I missed the bus. When I reached the stop, waving my arms like an idiot, the bus driver had pulled off not even five seconds prior. Shocked, I stood there with tears in my eyes, unable to make my way home just yet. a couple houses down, a youngish man was getting in his car. He waved at me, and asked if I needed a ride to the next stop. Crying, I nodded and he offered me one.

I got in that man's car!!! He passed the bus and dropped me off at the next stop, explaining that he knew the bus driver wouldn't wait and that he had two daughters that went to the elementary school. He didn't ask for my name or give me his. I thanked him when I got out of the car and he went on his way.

Some people would have you believe that's just insane and I'm "so lucky" the guy didn't molest me. Well, he didn't! :nenner: I wouldn't have gotten in his car if my instincts had told me something was off. Everything was fine. There's no need to helicopter and shit, trust your kids at some point.

[Firiel]

Okay, I know that this is a fake blog, but is it one of us? Parents getting arrested for letting kids go to the park alone has been discussed several times here recently.

zedicy542.blogspot.com/2014/07/brady.html

[utter solitude]

My favorite thing about obviously fake blogs is the very real comments people make in response...

[Letgo]

I'm in my late 50s and walked a longer distance than that to school at ages 6 and 7 in the very early 60s.. We played outside all day long, often in the woods, barely coming home for lunch. No one thought anything of it. We rode our bikes all over town. All kids did this-I didn't know anyone who did not have that kind of freedom. However, I did not raise my kids the same way as I did not think it was safe. I sometimes wonder if it is society that has changed so much and is so dangerous for children, or if it is our parenting that has changed. I didn't hover over my children, but I would never have let them have the freedom I did. When did we become so fearful?

[Mama Mia]

I'm in my late 50s and walked a longer distance than that to school at ages 6 and 7 in the very early 60s.. We played outside all day long, often in the woods, barely coming home for lunch. No one thought anything of it. We rode our bikes all over town. All kids did this-I didn't know anyone who did not have that kind of freedom. However, I did not raise my kids the same way as I did not think it was safe. I sometimes wonder if it is society that has changed so much and is so dangerous for children, or if it is our parenting that has changed. I didn't hover over my children, but I would never have let them have the freedom I did. When did we become so fearful?

I think it started with CNN and the 24 hour news cycle in the early 90s, got worse when the constant scrolling newsticker became a thing in 2000, which pretty much coincided with general Internet usage which greatly accelerated the paranoia. And social media has sky rocketed it to just ridiculous degrees, IMHO.

[nellautumngirl]

I wonder what they'd make of this:

When I was in middle school, I rode the bus to school. I had to walk a very short distance from my small trailer park up the street to the bus stop, it was about two block. The bus driver was a bitch; if you were walking to the bus stop when she got there, she would NOT wait for you, even if she saw you.

My mother worked downtown and would leave for work before I got up for school. I was expressly told that if I missed the bus to go home and call her. I assumed, then, that meant she would come home and drive me to school (which would have been a huge fucking deal, in my mind, with a lecture and punishment) although I think she would probably have just called the school lol. So, missing the bus was death in my preteen mind.

Welp, inevitably, it happened. I missed the bus. When I reached the stop, waving my arms like an idiot, the bus driver had pulled off not even five seconds prior. Shocked, I stood there with tears in my eyes, unable to make my way home just yet. a couple houses down, a youngish man was getting in his car. He waved at me, and asked if I needed a ride to the next stop. Crying, I nodded and he offered me one.

I got in that man's car!!! He passed the bus and dropped me off at the next stop, explaining that he knew the bus driver wouldn't wait and that he had two daughters that went to the elementary school. He didn't ask for my name or give me his. I thanked him when I got out of the car and he went on his way.

Some people would have you believe that's just insane and I'm "so lucky" the guy didn't molest me. Well, he didn't! :nenner: I wouldn't have gotten in his car if my instincts had told me something was off. Everything was fine. There's no need to helicopter and shit, trust your kids at some point.

My mom used to hitchhike (?) as a teenager, obviously nothing happened, but of course she told me to never do that. She could have relied on her experiences, but I think, if the overall risk is too great, why risk it?

[utter solitude]

My mom used to hitchhike (?) as a teenager, obviously nothing happened, but of course she told me to never do that. She could have relied on her experiences, but I think, if the overall risk is too great, why risk it?

I'm not advocating getting in stranger's cars, but I think some helicopter parenting squashes the development of instinct. If you're around me 24/7, I never get the chance to make wrong choices and learn from them. Then, when you're gone, I'm screwed.