Kids playing outside? Not anymore - Take them into custody, officer.

[ArcadiaGP]

Strong USA Today editorial defending free-range parenting

Let 'free range' kids roam home: Our view

 

[ArcadiaGP]

What's Driving the Kafkaesque Crackdown on 'Free-Range Parenting'? | National Review Online

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

What's Driving the Kafkaesque Crackdown on 'Free-Range Parenting'? | National Review Online

If nothing else, George Will is good for my vocabulary.

 

[ghuns]

If nothing else, George Will is good for my vocabulary.

I had the same thought while reading that.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

"Free Range" Parents Cleared of Child Neglect in 1 Case | NBC4 Washington

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Md. officials: Letting ?free range? kids walk or play alone is not neglect - The Washington Post

 

[HoughMade]

I have many thoughts, somewhat random.

Naming it- "free range parenting"... as wrong as the state was, by naming it, the parents identified themselves as somewhat flaky, which didn't help them. Somewhat flakes get to raise their kids as the want too, I'm just saying, I'm sure presenting as a "cause" heightened the scrutiny unnecessarily. Call it: "we let our kids go to the park and play and come home"? Maybe not so much hassle. Maybe.

I still want this busy-body, Mrs. Kravitz who called this in found and flogged.

Way, way, way more kids will be abused by people parents (statistically- 'parent') invite into the house than strangers. Way, way, way, way, way, way more kids will die in car accidents than will be abducted and murdered. Way more kids will be killed by family members than abducted by strangers. People, kids walking home alone during reasonable hours in reasonable neighborhoods are not an issue.

I would also like every person who shares a story of stranger abduction of a child that is more than 100 miles from where they live flogged along with Kravitz.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I have many thoughts, somewhat random.

Naming it- "free range parenting"... as wrong as the state was, by naming it, the parents identified themselves as somewhat flaky, which didn't help them. Somewhat flakes get to raise their kids as the want too, I'm just saying, I'm sure presenting as a "cause" heightened the scrutiny unnecessarily. Call it: "we let our kids go to the park and play and come home"? Maybe not so much hassle. Maybe.

I still want this busy-body, Mrs. Kravitz who called this in found and flogged.

Way, way, way more kids will be abused by people parents (statistically- 'parent') invite into the house than strangers. Way, way, way, way, way, way more kids will die in car accidents than will be abducted and murdered. Way more kids will be killed by family members than abducted by strangers. People, kids walking home alone during reasonable hours in reasonable neighborhoods are not an issue.

I would also like every person who shares a story of stranger abduction of a chils that is more than 100 miles from where they live flogged along with Kravitz.

All this talk of flogging....I'm starting to think you and this...Ms Kravitz have some sort of fetish relationship.

 

[actaeon277]

 

[mrjarrell]

You can add Florida to the craphole states that kidnap children and then charge parents with felonies. There does need to be some flogging. Of police, judges and CPS personnel. In a very public place and shown in primetime.

11-Year-Old Boy Played in His Yard. CPS Took Him, Felony Charge for Parents. - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Trouble Not Over for Florida Parents of 11-Year-Old Taken in CPS Dispute - Hit & Run : Reason.com

 

[Birds Away]

It takes a village....to take your kids away from you.

 

[churchmouse]

You can add Florida to the craphole states that kidnap children and then charge parents with felonies. There does need to be some flogging. Of police, judges and CPS personnel. In a very public place and shown in primetime.

11-Year-Old Boy Played in His Yard. CPS Took Him, Felony Charge for Parents. - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Trouble Not Over for Florida Parents of 11-Year-Old Taken in CPS Dispute - Hit & Run : Reason.com

If I were a caring neighbor the kids would have been invited in my house for snacks and a movie. Damn sure would not call LEO.

 

[IndyDave1776]

This is crazy. We played outside all the time when I was a kid. Couldn't imagine having to stay inside watching a screen all day.

We had fun, and got lots of exercise instead of sitting in front of a TV playing video games.

I remember playing on these huge underground storage tanks that were yet to be placed underground. We had a fort in an area of trees on the other side of the tracks. We rode our bikes everywhere. Helmet?? We even played on the roof of the house!

A problem I see is the parents want to label their kids "free ranging". We all seem in agreement it's kid's going to the park to play. Everything has to have a name these days.

Decades of research into what allows children to become successful and stable has revealed that autonomy is a defining factor. A young human needs to feel a degree of free agency in the way they navigate the world, otherwise they won't have the opportunity to become self-reliant or to develop the "grit" that's so closely associated with achievement.

I dont think its more dangerous.... I just think in the 24/7 news cycle makes many believe its that way..... And this country is filled with a bunch of pansies.

It is a far more dangerous place than when I was a child. Of course I am most likely a lot older than you but the streets were alive with activity.
Kids are getting shot/abducted/beaten/robbed.

Remember being a paper boy.
Not any more.

The 24 hr. news cycle does contribute to this but the streets are far worse than when I was a kid.

Seriously....we are not pansy's.

You can add Florida to the craphole states that kidnap children and then charge parents with felonies. There does need to be some flogging. Of police, judges and CPS personnel. In a very public place and shown in primetime.

11-Year-Old Boy Played in His Yard. CPS Took Him, Felony Charge for Parents. - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Trouble Not Over for Florida Parents of 11-Year-Old Taken in CPS Dispute - Hit & Run : Reason.com

All good points. Here's what I get out of it:

Autonomy and its associated responsibilities foster the development of the independent thought and behavior needed to succeed as most of us would define success. Playing as most of us remember it requires action, imagination, and getting up off one's rear, culminating in creative thought and independent initiative which in later years will allow a person to think or invent his way out of or around problems he may encounter. Sitting indoors with faces glued to screens stifles thought, creativity, and independent initiative. Useful idiots do not exhibit thought, creativity, or independent initiative, but rather blindly follow orders. It seems patently obvious to me that the mission of the .gov at this point is the construction of a society of useful idiots who blindly follow orders.

Further, there is a battle for the children going on whether we acknowledge it or not. It comes down to the question of whether they are our children or the government's children, and the government's answer is quite different than yours.

As for the cute little names for everything including letting your children out the door without micromanaging them, I blame that on the 24 hours news cycle and the need to have a buzzword for everything to grab people's attention. That said, the fact that anyone felt the need to invent a term like 'free-range children' tells us how far we have drifted from our roots. I would say the same thing about 'free-range chickens'. A generation or two back, that is just how you raised children or chickens as the case may be. Now it is apparently unusual.

I hope the lawsuits work. Something needs done to give those who make a career of minding other people's business some smackdown. Discussion of any other methods which come to mind would get me banned, so I hope the first is successful.

Oh, as for the danger--the world may be more dangerous than in decades past, but I also believe that there was much danger then--you just didn't hear it on the national news for weeks any time a kid went missing. My conclusion is that one could support the notion that there are dangers that didn't exist in the past, but also that some of those dangers were there but you just didn't hear about them.

Another significant factor is that back then, a kid could count on most any adult for assistance if something went sideways, and by help, I mean real help, not calling the police, CPS, or any other agency of government.

 

[ruger1800]

also don't get me started on CPS services, they are a bunch of government people who only try to justify their jobs by screwing with people who don't deserve it, I know some type of CPS service is needed because there are people out their who cannot take care off themselves let alone any children, but from what I see it seems like the kids who truly need help don't get it and CPS services do a lot more damage to family's than they do good.

Yea this, state dcs, cps, receive federal money depending on the number of cases, also they may get extra for finding the parents guilty of neglect, abuse, ect so their is a motive for case workers to lie, even if all parties are innocent.

 

[MCgrease08]

There?s never been a safer time to be a kid in America - The Washington Post

Yep. There's never been a less dangerous time for kids.

Sadly the busy bodies would use this to say, "see. All of our oversight is what is keeping them safe.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

There?s never been a safer time to be a kid in America - The Washington Post

Yep. There's never been a less dangerous time for kids.

Sadly the busy bodies would use this to say, "see. All of our oversight is what is keeping them safe.

Yep, as long as we're redefining "safety" to include being abducted by the government out in public.

 

[actaeon277]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dont-leave-them-kids-alone-state-lawmakers-target-165921448.html

Don't leave them kids alone: State lawmakers target parents


PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Parents who fear the judgment of neighbors if they leave their kids alone at home or in a car may soon have more than a "tsk, tsk" to worry about in Rhode Island.
State lawmakers are debating a bill that would punish parents for leaving a child younger than 7 alone in a car. They've also proposed legislation to ban kids under 10 from being home alone and older kids from being home alone at night. Legislation could even extend to private preschools, where a bill would ban outdoor recess when the temperature drops below freezing.



Some good comments in the comments section

 

[hoosierdoc]

Their motto is "hope", but apparently they like to legislate their hopes.

 

[Bill of Rights]

Using the graphic in that article, I created this image:

I find it interesting that in three cases, neighboring states have vastly different ages: Mississippi vs Georgia, Delaware and Maryland, and most strikingly, Colorado vs. Kansas.
Very few have actual law on the subject, but those that do are widely varied in their definitions of "old enough".

I have to ask: Are six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds so different when one crosses the border from KS to CO, that they can no longer be trusted alone? I will postulate that perhaps it is not an issue with a difference in the children, but rather in the governmental recognition that it is parents, not bureaucrats, who best know when a child is ready for this level of responsibility.

Blessings,
Bill

 

[KLB]

I have to ask: Are six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds so different when one crosses the border from KS to CO, that they can no longer be trusted alone? I will postulate that perhaps it is not an issue with a difference in the children, but rather in the governmental recognition that it is parents, not bureaucrats, who best know when a child is ready for this level of responsibility.

Blessings,
Bill

That is just crazy talk.