This was in a field by their home at 4 on a Saturday afternoon!

I don't have kids but I have often felt like today's parents tend towards being helicopter ones; always hovering over their offspring and instilling paranoia. Where I live, children will go to the park by themselves (some parents will accompany them but this is the first place in a long time where I have seen kids riding their bikes alone when they're not on their own block).

[www.infowars.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2012 10:12PM by banana who.

Unbelievable!

Yea,send those rotten kids into their rooms,have them sit in front of their computers,and sip Coke,and become zoned out drones.

That will keep the cops away.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2012 10:47AM by eaglefly.

Eaglefly, I think it's overreacting to not allow kids over a certain age to go off on their own in the suburbs. But of course I don't have kids so maybe I would feel differently? I just remember my childhood and it was so wonderful to be able to explore the neighborhood!

I fully agree.
And I dont have kids either.
But I figure in this day of cell phones,I would let my kids wander around freely.
I remember being about 7 yrs old,and wandering up the street about 8 houses,and that felt really far away.
By age 9 I was venturing out about a mile away.
By 13 I went anywhere my bike could get me...miles sometimes.
And yes,I remember thoughts of possibly running into troubles with strangers,but no one was paranoid about it.
Certainly not the cops.
Viny



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2012 10:42PM by eaglefly.

Ha ha... i like this article... the way the writer states the obvious

yeah, i guess i am EXTREMELY lucky to have a childhood where at a very young age

i used to be able to go about EVERYWHERE unsupervised

i never had the slightest fear at all

and i guess neither did my parents


and all turned out well

maybe that was a miracle

back then, it was just called " being a kid" and "playing"

and yep, it was almost always outdoors

biking, roller skating, etc. etc.

many happy memories

i was blessed

eaglefly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I fully agree.
> And I dont have kids either.
> But I figure in this day of cell phones,I would
> let my kids wander around freely.
> I remember being about 7 yrs old,and wandering up
> the street about 8 houses,and that felt really far
> away.
> By age 9 I was venturing out about a mile away.
> By 13 I went anywhere my bike could get me...miles
> sometimes.
> And yes,I remember thoughts of possibly running
> into troubles with strangers,but no one was
> paranoid about it.
> Certainly not the cops.
> Viny

Haven't the times changed since then? I also don't have kids, but when I do I'd be checking to what extent it is reasonable to let them explore the neighbourhood. This will depend in the neighbourhood of course, but also on the prevalent social conditions at the time. It just seems to me that in old times kids were much less likely to run into troubles with strangers than they are now.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

From the article:

Quote

When the mother asked the police officer if the children, two teens, a pre-teen and a 5-year-old, were causing trouble, the officer responded, “No they were very respectful kids, I just wanted to make sure they were okay because it was odd seeing them outside unsupervised.”

Wicked, wicked policeman, making sure the kids were OK when he saw no grown-up around.

Perhaps Virginia has stricter laws, but here in suburban Detroit, kids can stay out on the nearby field at all hours and no parent gets "harassed."

Not surprisingly, there is nothing that corroborates this story, LOL.

Tam, your first sentence sounded like sarcasm and then you seemed like you were taking the other side.

The issue is that in today's bizarro world, if kids are playing alone it looks like neglect. Where I live children ride their bikes all over town (I am sure there are the more protective parents even here) and it reminds me of my childhood. If it were happening in the inner city, it would be totally different because there are more chances of danger.

banana who,

It WAS sarcasm! I should have put an LOL after it.


Look, the majority of children are abducted when alone in a public place or unattended by an adult in a public place, and law enforcement and social services are probably trained with this in mind. There is another story at Free Range Kids about a suburban Pittsburgh dad who was charged with neglect after leaving his two under-tens in the park to play for a couple of hours while he ran errands. A woman who knew the family--but who was not asked by the dad to keep and eye on them--called the cops. If you read the Free Range Kids account, it sounds like over reach, but if you read local media accounts, it's a tad different:
[chartiersvalley.patch.com]

The comments beneath are fascinating. Some folks understand that in this day and age, leaving your kids unattended in a public place is reckless, and some are worried only about the autonomy of the parents. And that is what it comes down to. What's more important: the needs of the children or the needs of mom or dad? Take your kids to the park, and let them play together and meet with children they don't know, but be around in case something happens. This is why we were allowed to play in the filed behind our sub unaccompanied, but not the park one mile away. That's too far away for mom to get to us if something were to go wrong. And as for the first, likely apocryphal anecdote, don't assume your teen could deal with whatever you as a parent could deal with.

I have this sneaking feeling that, were one of these people's tots snatched by an evildoer, they be yelling blame-the-authorities to high heaven.

Yea,its all to cover the cops butts.

Tam, it's all about context of locale. I am all for children's safety but I find too many parents these days neurotic about their kids' wellbeing. I may be mistaken about this but I believe it's far more common for children to get abducted by parents than strangers. And where I live, kids ride their bikes and do things by themselves. Maybe not 100% of them but it's an area where it is very safe. Strangely enough, in the general vicinity we do hear occasionally of attempted abductions. Usually it's someone trying to talk to the kids from their cars and the kids are already taught to run away. But I feel it's more damaging to hover over your children and teach them that the world is fundamentally unsafe.

Parents Pushing Precociousness on their kids --

[social.entertainment.msn.com]

This is just crazy --

Why You Shouldn't Play Hide and Seek

[www.momtastic.com]

Over Psycho-Analyzing - No wonder the kids are basket cases and committing suicide so much today - the constantly monitoring and analyzing and discussing of their 'feelings' and 'emotions'.

Reality TV

"Toddlers and Tiaras" . . . Ugh!

Mother Harassed by CPS for Having ‘Free Range’ Children
Infowars.com
Sept 7, 2012
[www.infowars.com]

Alex talks with Lenore Skenazy, editor of the Free Range Kids website, who was contacted by a mother in Virginia who related her story of how she was interrogated by police four times and visited by social services twice after her children were spotted playing outside unsupervised.

Mother Harassed by CPS for Having 'Free Range' Children
15:36 Minute Video
[www.youtube.com]#!

Warning - Graphic and Negative - do not click if you're easily offended!

OK, this is going too far --

Public Potty Training Draws Attention

[www.ksl.com]

Mom Arrested For Letting Child Play Outside
[www.courthousenews.com]

Wow, that's terrible. The poor kids must have been traumatized by the cops taking their mother away and they're lucky CPS didn't contrive to take the kids from the mother. The nanny state is out of control when kids can't even play in a cul de sac near their house.