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Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#61

Post by graeme »

[deleted] wrote: post #58
mordocai wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they are not delusional. I know of many cases (from my sister who worked in child protective services) where spiteful(or even sometimes well-meaning) neighbors report people to CPS for the dumbest things. CPS is required to investigate every one of them, and it is quite a hassle. I'd say most of the time if you are actually doing nothing wrong the chance of them actually taking your kids is pretty low, but the cha…

[deleted]

You make a reasonable point, but you say it very unreasonably, with unnecessary insults. This is why you're being downvoted.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#62

Post by Florin_Andrei »

jrs235 wrote: post #46
pdabbadabba wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

But it is safer now, that's the paradox.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#63

Post by dalke »

goodcanadian wrote: post #41

"'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?

Gun-related deaths, drowning, suffocation are next on the list at http://www.childdeathreview.org/nationalchildmortalitydata.h... . However, motor injury outnumbers all of the other listed fatalities due to unintentional injury.

A lot of the numbers in that list are due to infants http://www.cdc.gov/injury/images/lc-charts/leading_causes_of...

To answer your question, gun-related deaths and cancer.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#64

Post by Florin_Andrei »

forgottenpass wrote: post #10
graeme wrote: post #5

How 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…

but people are more afraid. The media has taught us to be afraid. Not maliciously so. It makes us better consumers, the metric they're paid to optimize.

> Not maliciously so.

The vast majority of media people cannot be malicious, sure - but looking at some of the corporate higher-ups, I'm less inclined to absolve them of moral issues.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#65

Post by jrs235 »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #62
jrs235 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

But it is safer now, that's the paradox.

Is it though? And even if it is, is it a world we want to live in?

(We need to name the evoking of Ben Franklin's "Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither" quote... _______'s Law).

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#66

Post by jgoewert »

[deleted] wrote: post #53
talmand wrote: post #50

A 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 afr…

[deleted]

Hardly delusional and seriously un-fun when you are on the receiving end.

When my son was 6-ish and my daughter around 1 years old, we got a visit from DFS(like CPS). This was 8 years ago and the amount of rage it brings up in me is immense. Being immediately threatened with your child being taken away for refusing to do ANYTHING that they ask is ridiculous. I'm sure it is there to be able to have some power over the deadbeats, but when you think you are a normal family doing nothing wrong, it is pure rage inducing.

They tour your entire house. They check your fridge and food preparation areas. They check your yard. They interview your kids wherever they are. So if it is at school, guess what, they school now thinks you are a craptastic parent because only some shithole would have DFS called out on them. Of course, that rumor-mill then goes full force. We were never treated the same by anyone at the school ever again. Our kids never got invited to any more parties. No one there ever wanted to set up play dates anymore.

When the DFS agent finally gets around to telling you the reason for the visit, it is an anonymous complaint. That's right. Anonymous, even if you are proven to be completely not in violation and it is some crackpot calling them up to report you, you will never find out who that person is.

Ours was anecdotes and funny stories we had told some neighbors. Like the time that our son took off his dirty diaper and painted a wall with it, including behind a shelf that he put back and we didn't notice for a month and as such hadn't cleaned until then.

Yeah. Our life got seriously messed up on something we had no way to deter or counteract. Crazy neighbor could call them again anytime and send our lives on a spiral.

Hit by a meteor. I would have much more preferred that as I would have a chunk of meteorite to sell.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#67

Post by RIMR »

chpp wrote: post #12

For reference, I graduated HS in 2005 so my childhood was mid to late 90s. My friends and I used to tell our parents were were all going to each others houses and then ride our bikes all around town, through construction sites, abandoned factories, down highways, etc. None of us were abducted, died, injuries happen but who doesn't fall off their bike now and then ;) The only times cops were involved were when someone…

I used to ride my bike out of the county when I was in Elementary school. The worst thing that ever happened was that some redneck threw a beer bottle at me and knocked me off my bike. I got his license plate number and phoned the police. In the semi-rural area I had managed to bike to (about ten miles from my house) the police could care less about why I was biking, They thanked me for the info, made sure I was ok, and sent me on my way. Phoned my mother later (i borrowed her cell phone so I could call home while biking) to tell her that they caught the guy and were charging him with assault of a minor and DWI. I just had to speak to an officer on the phone for about 10 minutes and that was the end of that.

Now we apparently are considering taking children away from their parents because they were allowed to be 1/2 mile from their homes unattended? Was I born in the last decade where one could experience childhood?

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#68

Post by lsaferite »

graeme wrote: post #34
pdabbadabba wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To be clear, I don't think this kind of thing is common. But it's also not common to see children walking alone in America, at least in the parts I've been to. It's the latter that's the problem. The former is merely a symptom of the latter, whether or not it is common.

I lament this fact constantly. As a child I was super free-range. We would leave our house at sun-up and just had to be home by sun-down. We would explore for miles and miles. I'm so sad my children will never experience this freedom.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#69

Post by jgoewert »

[deleted] wrote: post #58
mordocai wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they are not delusional. I know of many cases (from my sister who worked in child protective services) where spiteful(or even sometimes well-meaning) neighbors report people to CPS for the dumbest things. CPS is required to investigate every one of them, and it is quite a hassle. I'd say most of the time if you are actually doing nothing wrong the chance of them actually taking your kids is pretty low, but the cha…

[deleted]

I am definitely not anti-vax.

Having been on the receiving end of this BS, if there was a way I could sue my neighbor for defamation over their false complaint to win something back, I would.

But since restitution is not part of the law, this is a wonderful tool to bully your neighbors with.

Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

#70

Post by xrange »

xrange wrote: post #28
jessep wrote: post #6

Reading this, I felt real anger at our society. I have 1 year old twin girls and I am genuinely scared and saddened by the limitations that paranoid adults are going to put on us as parents, and them as children. We live in a world driven by fear detached from the real risks and joys of life.

>Reading this, I felt real anger at our society. I think everybody feels this way. I have a hard time imagining that anything but the vast majority of parents would agree. So that makes we wonder if there is some agenda behind this? A gas lighting effect maybe? People would say "well things may not be ideal where I live, but at least it is not like over there ", and so they are less likely to act to change things loc…

...after thinking about it a bit more, it could also just be part of an overall propaganda in the "cultural wars". Some people will be against the actions of the government in this case, while others will instinctively defend it. Certainly it is easy to get a

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."

...vibe from the article. Which is not so different from the

"For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States"

...vibe that has also been making rounds lately.

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