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Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

reason.com

61–70 of 203 posts

Re: Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

#61
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, we drill into kids heads to not get into cars with strangers.

Unless you summoned that stranger with an app on your phone, then it's totally fine.

I mean, yeah? There's a qualitative difference between your Uber driver showing up to the specified location where you're waiting and someone who could be an Uber driver stopping you while you're walking down the road to offer a ride.

Re: Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

#64

> She (the Sheriff) kept mentioning how he could have been run over, or kidnapped or 'anything' could have happened, This is weird. Is the crime so bad in the town? Even the good-for-nothing cops in my (developing) country do not come up with such nonsense.

interesting, given that kids in Atlanta GA are REQUIRED to walk to and from school if they live a mile away.

Re: Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

#66
""A few days later, DFCS presented Patterson with a "safety plan" for her to sign. It would require her to delegate a "safety person" to be a "knowing participant and guardian" and watch over the children whenever she leaves home. The plan would also require Patterson to download an app onto her son's phone allowing for his location to be monitored. (The day when it will be illegal not to track one's kids is rapidly approaching.)""

I'm liberal Democrat. But sometimes I think maybe we should just have a beer watch the world burn.

Re: Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

#67
post #20
post #8

When I was five years old I would walk along a path and take a bridge across a river to visit my friend to play board games. By the time I was nine I was bicycling forty-five minutes to school on a 80 km/h road. The level of paranoia that's infected people around keeping kids near their parents is insane.

Yes, but. For all of the happy survivor stories like yours (and mine), the reality is that the rate of child accidental deaths has steadily decreases over the past few decades as parents (and society) became more protective. That isn't to say I agree with over-parenting and eliminating independence -- I don't -- but there needs to be rationality applied as well as personal values.

Yes, but. It's not "happy survivor stories", as if 20% of all children died on their way to school thirty years ago. It's overwhelmingly normal stories, and child deaths were always exceedingly rare.

Re: Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many cops in the US have a massive superiority complex

Yeah, but wouldn't the sheriff making the comment be own goaling the situation. Wouldn't her scenarios imply that she's shite at her job so that crimes like these are prevalent?

No no, you see, the tremendous crime rate in the city is why voters should support giving the sheriff loads more unchecked power, and loads more money to buy MRAPs and AR-15s.

Re: Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town

#69
post #20
post #8

When I was five years old I would walk along a path and take a bridge across a river to visit my friend to play board games. By the time I was nine I was bicycling forty-five minutes to school on a 80 km/h road. The level of paranoia that's infected people around keeping kids near their parents is insane.

Yes, but. For all of the happy survivor stories like yours (and mine), the reality is that the rate of child accidental deaths has steadily decreases over the past few decades as parents (and society) became more protective. That isn't to say I agree with over-parenting and eliminating independence -- I don't -- but there needs to be rationality applied as well as personal values.

Yes, while childhood suicide, depression and obesity rates have all been increasing. If you look at all the factors, I'm not sure there's a net benefit.

Edit: I decided to look up the CDC statistics to see if there is any net benefit, but total childhood mortality rates have been increasing in the US. Measuring accidental deaths is extremely flawed, if that were a good target then we should keep all children indoors. No bike riding, no swimming, no tree climbing, just keep them inside on a screen all day long and accidental deaths will continue to drop.

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