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Is race always a subtext in every discussion on City-Data?
As for the topic; I was raised by "free range" parents pretty much like every other kid that I grew up with. We walked (seemed like miles at the time) to school, we rode, bikes, skateboards or whatever to the store or park and explored miles and miles of wooded areas what out a thought.
All this helicopter parenting is reducing our kids to on-line couch potatoes who can't navigate their neighborhood much less life.
I lived in a small town growing up and I rode my bicycle all over the place when I was 10 years old. If I had a 6 year old sibling, I'm sure he/she would have been tagging along with me. We're raising a generation of coddled wimps.
My cousin is horrible about this. I was vacationing with her recently and she would not allow her 12 year old son to walk from our hotel room down to the lobby by himself. She insisted that one of us go with him. This was a fancy hotel in Colorado, not some motel with hookers outside. 12 and he can't leave her sight.
Yeah, people talk about "free range parenting" as if it is something made up by crazy 21st century hipsters. But until not long ago anyone who didn't allow their kid out of their sight would have been considered overprotective to the point of being nuts.
This is 2015. I remember when I was young and my big sisters and brothers watched me. That was a very long time ago. Times sure have changed since then. Any fool with a propensity toward violence on children could have had them for the taking. This is the not so safe America we live in now.
I see this as willful child neglect, leaving them unattended. To me its no worse than leaving your kids in a hot car to die.
It's this kind of fear-based thinking that Free Range parents are trying to fight back against - because this "THINK OF WHAT COULD HAPPEN!" fear isn't based in reality. Others have posted statistics in this thread that prove children aren't in any more danger than they were in the '70s or '80s - and in many areas, crime rates have actually dropped. But 24/7 news outlets make it seem like there's danger lurking around every bush.
What amazes me is how quickly it's changed in the course of one generation. Even in the late '90s it wasn't unusual for a 6 year-old to go to the local playground with a group of older kids, some probably around age 9 or 10. The younger ones went home at supper time, the older ones had to be in when the streetlights came on.
Now, hardly 20 years later, you have stories like the previous poster who mentioned his 12 year-old nephew can't even walk from a hotel room to the lobby unaccompanied. These kids are going to be in for a harsh and abrupt transition when they go away to college, which isn't so far in the future.
Here's a handy guide for what to do when faced with this decision:
A hundred years ago, forty years ago, twenty years ago these "free range parents" would have been called..."parents." Parents are supposed to teach their kids how to deal with life's ups and downs, small and large and to learn how to deal with them on their own. Many of today's parents will never let their kids learn how to be independent to the lifelong detriment of those kids.
A few years ago there was an incident near here of a girl who was forbidden (and never taught how) to cross a six lane highway with a traffic light just a few blocks from her home. The last week of school, instead of getting on the bus one day she walked to meet some friends to walk to school. She was struck and killed crossing the highway because she didn't know how to do so safely. She was seventeen.
when i was 10, i was left alone pretty much all day. i was just supposed to come home for dinner. I remember FLYING by myself. People just sent their kids on airplanes, and the stewardess would check up on them. This wasn't in the 1950s, either, it was during the "gangsta rap" era.
I want to slap these people. This is actually a rearing belief. "Free range" like chickens. They sound like lazy parents to me. Why have them if you don't want to take care of them?
State law in Maryland says, "A child under the age of 8 years old" cannot be left alone in a "building, enclosure, or motor vehicle" ... and they must be with "a reliable person who is at least 13."
It is none of your business as to how they raise their children, nor the governments frankly.
The MD law says:
Quote:
A person who is charged with the care of a child under the age of 8 years may not allow the child to be locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle while the person charged is absent and the dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle is out of the sight of the person charged unless the person charged provides a reliable person at least 13 years old to remain with the child to protect the child.
The children were not locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle, they were outdoors in a park. There was no violation of the law.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErnieG
Race, still has nothing to do with this story. Please don't come in here and make this about race. It's the practice of child rearing I take issue with. Don't troll my threads with racist nonsense. There are at least twenty of them going on as we speak. Join one and have at it. Well apparently Maryland doesn't want parents to "free range" kids at this age (as they have laws).
NJ's point that the people most likely to be ensnared by the law above are the poor; blacks and Hispanics have much higher rates of poverty than whites so the law is likely to have a disparate impact on minority communities. Disparate impact is how the EEOC judges racism in the work place so it should apply equally to the government and laws.
Oh.... and the MD law isn't about "free range" and the parents were not in violation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErnieG
This is 2015. I remember when I was young and my big sisters and brothers watched me. That was a very long time ago. Times sure have changed since then. Any fool with a propensity toward violence on children could have had them for the taking. This is the not so safe America we live in now. I see this as willful child neglect, leaving them unattended. To me its no worse than leaving your kids in a hot car to die.
Yes, times have changed. Crimes against children are plunging. Kids are safer now then when I was growing up.
In the report above the FBI only opened 77 stranger abduction cases, down from 106 in 2000.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErnieG
I let my son go to school on his own (school bus) when he turned twelve. I let my daughter who is older than he go to school on public transportation by twelve also but was very unsure about that. I knew when to let my kids take on every new responsibility they needed to have. My personal opinion is that at 6 years and 10 years its still just too dangerous for them.
12? They didn't ride a bus until they were 12? My kids walked to school (or rode a bike) or rode the bus from 1st grade on.
NCMEC is an activist group that grows their membership by scaring people. Read the FBI report and raw data. Most of the kids reported missing are found, most of the kidnapping are custodial cases, over a third are runaways from abuse home situations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErnieG
I'm not trying to debate who gets to decide what age. What I am doing, however is giving my opinion on this matter. That is, I would not let my children run about "anywhere" at the ages of six and ten years. Under no circumstances.
Why would anyone want to bring attention to CPS with their children anyway? This couple should know the Maryland laws. If it is not allowed, then they must follow the law.
You are trying to debate it, you started the topic.
It is none of your business as to how they raise their children, nor the governments frankly.
The MD law says:
The children were not locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle, they were outdoors in a park. There was no violation of the law.
NJ's point that the people most likely to be ensnared by the law above are the poor; blacks and Hispanics have much higher rates of poverty than whites so the law is likely to have a disparate impact on minority communities. Disparate impact is how the EEOC judges racism in the work place so it should apply equally to the government and laws.
Oh.... and the MD law isn't about "free range" and the parents were not in violation.
Yes, times have changed. Crimes against children are plunging. Kids are safer now then when I was growing up.
In the report above the FBI only opened 77 stranger abduction cases, down from 106 in 2000.
12? They didn't ride a bus until they were 12? My kids walked to school (or rode a bike) or rode the bus from 1st grade on.
NCMEC is an activist group that grows their membership by scaring people. Read the FBI report and raw data. Most of the kids reported missing are found, most of the kidnapping are custodial cases, over a third are runaways from abuse home situations.
You are trying to debate it, you started the topic.
They did follow the law as I've quoted above.
Well the point of this kind of outrage is mostly for people to prove they are better parents.
The related point is to find a way punish 'bad' parents. This fulfills the weird inner American need to discipline others.
The laugh is that nobody really cares that these kids were out by themselves. If there's one thing that Americans certainly don't give a **** about, it's other people's kids.
Well the point of this kind of outrage is mostly for people to prove they are better parents.
The related point is to find a way punish 'bad' parents. This fulfills the weird inner American need to discipline others.
The laugh is that nobody really cares that these kids were out by themselves. If there's one thing that Americans certainly don't give a **** about, it's other people's kids.
I suppose it makes sense that parents who have a controlling personality/want to control their kids in an unhealthy way would also have the desire to control other aspects of life around them.
Well the point of this kind of outrage is mostly for people to prove they are better parents.
The related point is to find a way punish 'bad' parents. This fulfills the weird inner American need to discipline others.
The laugh is that nobody really cares that these kids were out by themselves. If there's one thing that Americans certainly don't give a **** about, it's other people's kids.
You are SO right!
I fully support the decisions of these parents to let their kids "walk home alone."
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