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

reason.com

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

#91

Post by [deleted] »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #31

I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. I think many of us grew up where our parents didn’t know our location at all times. My parents used to tell me to be home by a certain time, but I used to roam the neighborhood, go get candy at the gas station, explore the forest. Maybe it is a sign of the eroding social trust in the USA where people do not believe that others in t…

[deleted]

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

#92

Post by gravitronic »

geff82 wrote: post #70

Isn't it equally bad in Canada? That said... stories like these are incomprehensible for the European mind.

My 10 year old walks home from school with a few friends regularly and stops in at the local library. I haven't been arrested yet.

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

#93

Post by calibas »

To me at least, a cop arguing that it's not safe to walk around town, is a cop saying they have failed to do their job.

If our towns have actually become so dangerous recently, and that's not what the statistics say, then it seems like there's a whole other discussion we need to have. I don't think the world is more dangerous though, I think the average American has become more isolated and fearful over the past 25 years.

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

#94

Post by kleiba »

tristanb wrote: post #5

When I was 8? I think, I used to take a bus to go get a VHS tape from the local rental shop. It's important for kids to have autonomy. In Japan, its pretty common to send even younger kids out on errands.

When I was growing up in the 70s, it was totally normal for a dad to give their under 10 year old kid some money and send them to the corner store to buy a pack of cigarettes for dad.

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

#97

Post by mindslight »

dylan604 wrote: post #35
silent_cal wrote: post #14

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?

After witnessing the past decade, do you think even immediate logical contraditions matter in the least? Especially for the kind of people that think that society should be some kind of authority hierarchy, which is essentially a prerequisite of being a cop?

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

#98

Post by lotsofpulp »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #81
Aurornis wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. This is a news story and a controversy because it's a weird thing that happened. The US is a big place. Societal norms and law enforcement practices vary widely from location to location. This appears to be one sheriff pushing a personal agenda.

It's not just one sheriff, it's: - the busybody who called the cops in the first place - the sheriff - the Assistant District Attorney - the Department of Family and Child Services

The latter 3 all know it’s wrong, but also don’t to be liable at all.

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

#99

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #31

I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. I think many of us grew up where our parents didn’t know our location at all times. My parents used to tell me to be home by a certain time, but I used to roam the neighborhood, go get candy at the gas station, explore the forest. Maybe it is a sign of the eroding social trust in the USA where people do not believe that others in t…

It’s not an obsession with “USA” but with government agencies. The police but also child protective services (called different things in different locations) create these kind of sham protections. It ends up creating a chilling effect by scaring parents into acting differently and depriving their children of much needed independence that is critical to their development. But worse, when a parent gets into trouble for it, they end up being shamed and humiliated in ways that really affect their happiness and psychology. Imagine if you are told that some person from a random agency, usually of low intelligence and low empathy, will come check in on your children every week and humiliate you by forcing you to report to them. It is an inhumane deprivation of parental rights, but also an excess of government. As a taxpayer, I absolutely hate that we waste money on this type of thing when we’re in debt.

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

#100

Post by heisenbit »

krunck wrote: post #29
beaviskhan wrote: post #15

The Venn diagram of people who think it's ok to treat parents like this and people who vote "for liberty" is a circle.

As drawn by you? Or are you saying that people who value freedom are the ones supporting nanny state policies?

There is a wide gap between the people who understand what freedom means and value it and the ones loudly proclaiming freedom. "Reason" may actually fall into the secondary category. The way this works is by undermining the rule of regulations by finding the most ridiculous example of excess (note how the author of the article wastes no effort on finding examples where sanity prevailed stoking emotions of the reader against this extreme but rare overreach). It is important to realize the total absence of regulation promoted implicitly often leads to rule setting by the strongest and most ruthless.

Edit: The author is truly specialized on such stories as can be seen here: https://reason.com/people/lenore-skenazy/

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