"'The number one cause of death for children of their age is a car accident.'”
They're children. What else are they going to die of?
Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
41–50 of 105 posts
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#42This might be off topic, but go check Google News for "meitiv", and look at how much spam is there from The Week!
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps some of the increased safety comes from people being more afraid and therefore taking more precautions now? So it's not necessarily a contradiction. Edit: Also, I think some of the safety culture comes from diminishing returns. E.g., in the 1950s industrial workplace safety was extremely poor by modern standards. But the people who worked there had just been through world war II, so the risk must have seemed…
It's always worth considering alternative hypotheses, but I don't think this one holds true. I've lived in dangerous places. North Americans take very few safety precautions. In general: * People aren't aware of their surroundings. Often have headphones. * People wave phones around in the air, hold them loosely, or leave them dangling out of back pockets. * People use public ATMs, in insecure locations, and don't pay…
I see what your saying with the whole phone waving and public atm's. And I'm not trying to sound macho when I say this but I much prefer to carry a more physical type of deterrent that when employed will have a much more reliable effect than a monetary incentive. I would think it's more of a "don't feed the bears" thing.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly it comes down to: division of labor is a thing. CPS is responsible for things like foster care, finding if parents are (truly) neglectful and abusive, helping teach ignorant parents how to not kill their kids accidentally, and other related things. In most of the work they do, it is just due process - Our society has decided that when a parent goes to jail, or is ordered into an institution, or what not, and d…
It's because the general idea that someone can take away the children you love due to a misunderstanding is pretty freaking terrifying! Parents make mistakes all the time. When you see stupidity like this, you realise there's a problem. It's very unfortunate, because at the same time as ridiculous things like this one are occurring there really are abused kids out there slipping through the cracks.
Exactly.
Additionally if a parent stands up to CPS and refuses to sign, CPS will forcefully take your children (even if you shut the door and lock it they'll go get the police, and hopefully a warrant, to come and get your kids) and that itself will cause psychological damage harming otherwise unharmed children. CPS thinks it can do no wrong when they can inflict more harm and damage on children without any oversight and repercussions for their mistakes and overzealousness.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always worth considering alternative hypotheses, but I don't think this one holds true. I've lived in dangerous places. North Americans take very few safety precautions. In general: * People aren't aware of their surroundings. Often have headphones. * People wave phones around in the air, hold them loosely, or leave them dangling out of back pockets. * People use public ATMs, in insecure locations, and don't pay…
The idea of carrying cash to hand over if you get mugged being a safety precaution is funny to me. I never really thought about it that way. I always thought of not carrying cash as a way to lessen the risk of getting mugged, or at least lessen the loss if you were to get mugged (I'm an American).
In general, muggers are small fry criminals. You want to carry on you enough cash for them to be happy, call it a day and go to spend it on meth/booze - e.g. without hurting you - but not enough to give them funny ideas and attempt an amateur kidnap on you.
I've been told the sweet spot is in the ballpark of $20 - $50 USD. But of course this has to be adjusted by location.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#46How odd. America is much safer than it used to be, but people are more afraid. My father walked to and from school every day in Montreal when he was young, for a good half hour each way I believe. He'd go in a group with kids from the neighborhood, there were no adults. I walked to school every morning in Canada starting from age six, alone. I didn't live far from school, but if I had lived further I still would have…
I don't know whether I agree with your general sentiment or not. But maybe we should consider whether your response to this article is itself an illustration of the very phenomenon that leads us to perceive the world as more dangerous as it is. The usual account of why we live in such irrational fear is that nobody wants to hear about things going well, and everyone being safe and happy on the news. Anyone who watche…
The Police chided the parents for letting the children walk alone and about how unsafe the world is. The Police have fallen prey to the "the world is dangerous" narrative.
Did they just admit they can't keep/make it safe?
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#47So, I'm not up to speed on this issue, but can anyone give a brief summary or link describing why we need a special "extra-legal" department like CPS? Extra-legal probably isn't the exact wording I'm looking for, but why couldn't issues of excessive cruelty to children be handled in the standard manner, with due-process, etc.? I suppose I only hear about the outliers of extreme overreach, but it seems like CPS attrac…
I haven't had a lot of interaction with them, but my opinion is that CPS attracts very empathetic people -- people who are attracted to a job of "saving the children".
These people are then exposed to a continuing stream of addicts, criminals, the mentally ill, etc, who are actively harming children.
Preserving your empathy in such a situation is very difficult. I suspect most just protect themselves by shutting it down.
Not to mention the fact that to everybody you interact with considers you the "bad guy".
I was at a party once where we everybody was trying to outdo each other describing the most disgusting thing they'd ever seen. There were some whoppers there -- there were farmers, doctors and vets at the party.
The winner was a CPS officer.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#48The perception is that CPS workers are egomaniacs that think they can't be wrong and many appear power hungry. The sad part is for ever time CPS "sign and agree or we'll make your life hell and take your children" they end up screwing up and failing a child in real need. Their mentality is similar to that perceived of police forces... "you might beat the rap but you can't beat the ride... now comply!" (regardless of…
Yea, my wife and I have had a run in with cps, luckily nothing bad came of it. For a while though I was constantly thinking of the kids that actually are in an abusive situation and haven't been helped by these cps jerks who would rather waste their time threatening to shatter everything I live for. And yes, I tried to stand up to them and they threatened to remove our kids. Wtf? How can it be so easy for an entity to just do that? Something really wrong with that.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always worth considering alternative hypotheses, but I don't think this one holds true. I've lived in dangerous places. North Americans take very few safety precautions. In general: * People aren't aware of their surroundings. Often have headphones. * People wave phones around in the air, hold them loosely, or leave them dangling out of back pockets. * People use public ATMs, in insecure locations, and don't pay…
I see what your saying with the whole phone waving and public atm's. And I'm not trying to sound macho when I say this but I much prefer to carry a more physical type of deterrent that when employed will have a much more reliable effect than a monetary incentive. I would think it's more of a "don't feed the bears" thing.
Doesn't this prove the point? A weapon only escalates a situation. If Americans were being robbed all the time, they would quickly realise that carrying one is a very very bad idea.
However, because the US is generally a safe place, Americans can carry a weapon without much risk, because they will almost never have to use it.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#50A few here are giving examples of how this kind of thing wasn't a problem when they were a kid. I had similar experiences.
But, I want to say that I actively do not allow my children to play in our front yard. Not because I'm afraid a stranger will take them, not because I'm afraid they'll wander into the street to get hit by a car, not because I'm afraid they'll get hurt without an adult present, not because I'm afraid they'll wonder off to get lost.
The reason I don't let them play in the front yard? I'm afraid a neighbor will report me and the government will come take my kids away.
This is the true tragedy of these stories, society has only traded one type of fear for another that is potentially far worse in nature.