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I don't know where you live but where I live none of the parks are supervised.
Perhaps there may be a city park employee mowing the grass, trimming bushes or cutting down tree branches a few hours a week but they certainly aren't supervising children (except to make sure that they don't accidently hurt them with the lawn mower or other equipment).
A few parks (far less than 5%) may have a summer recreation program for a few hours a day for a few weeks but that is only open to the children registered to attend it. They do not supervise, or even interact with, random children who happen to wander over to them.
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I don't know where you live but where I live none of the parks are supervised.
This is true in most places.. IF you live in Miami, I know they still have community services, it's sad we as a society invest less and less in the kids.
I guess the one take away from this story is "Children don't talk to strangers"!!!!! The child was approached by a stranger and therefore should have never answered the questions from the stranger but walked to her mom's work. Unless, the girl approached the mom and started talking to her and then the mother asked where is your mom? answer from kid is "at work". mom never asked anything else but called police. It is sad in this society that this can happen where you cannot rely on family, friends, neighbors, church but it is happening.
Parks are not supervised or safe it used to be where pedophiles waited for children to come and play and get them alone. That was 30 plus years ago. I was never able to go to the park alone I had to take a friend and the undesirables left alone because we were together. However, now I hear of groups of kids getting approached or worse.
I'm pretty sure that if that happened today (of course, depending on the ages of the children) the museum staff would call the mother to pick up the kids or return to supervise them, and if they couldn't reach her call CPS.
Part of the problem is that there is a wide range of maturity among 9 year olds. A few could handle something like that for hours, some could handle it for a short time and many could have tremendous problems. Depending on what type of 9 year old the reader is familiar with they may respond differently.
My nephew (now a very responsible adult) couldn't be left alone after school until he was 12. He had ADD, was very impulsive & was constantly getting into mischief (cooking a snack & starting a kitchen fire and things like that). Just because 95% of all 11 and 12 year olds could safely stay by themselves for a couple of hours after school did not mean that my sister and her husband should let Little Mr. Curious do it. So they always arranged for after school supervision.
They didn't argue that since they didn't need a babysitter at that age they didn't need one for their son, they looked at his needs and planned appropriate supervision.
How would they call the mother? She was a stranger off the street.
I'm pretty sure that if that happened today (of course, depending on the ages of the children) the museum staff would call the mother to pick up the kids or return to supervise them, and if they couldn't reach her call CPS.
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Originally Posted by Kibbiekat
How would they call the mother? She was a stranger off the street.
They would ask the child/children. Even a preschooler would know that his/her mother's name was Joan Smith and a kindergartener would probably (at least should) know a home phone number or where the mother worked, that she was going shopping at the Mall, or whatever, etc.
If the child was so young that they didn't even know their parent's name or other contact information then they were definitely too young to be left alone all day and the police or CPS should be called.
Last edited by germaine2626; 07-18-2014 at 12:24 PM..
SC law doesn't specify an age at which it is legal to leave a minor unattended. And, it doesn't appear as though the mother made her daughter stay at the park either. The daughter asked if she could go there, and the mother said yes, and gave her her cell phone. She is being charged with abandonment.
While I don't think I'd be comfortable leaving a 9 year old on her own for any length of time, I think these charges are ludicrous. Now the mother has been fired, lost temporary custody of her daughter, and will have to go to court to answer charges based on very ambiguous laws.
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Originally Posted by Zaba
No, the 'difference' is irrelevant.
Unless there's statutory specifics on the matter, arresting a mother for having her kid play at the park across the street opens the door to arrest parents who ever leave their kids unsupervised, ever, for any amouont of time BECAUSE TERRORISTS WILL MOLEST THEM!
Just because there's no specific age at which it is legal to leave a minor, that doesn't mean that one is free to leave a child of any age alone w/o adult supervision. There is no age in my state either, it's up to a judge's discretion. Obviously, the judge or whoever heard this case thought there was some neglect going on here. We do NOT know the whole story. To imply that this story means that "letting kids play outside shouldn't be illegal" is incorrect.
Just because there's no specific age at which it is legal to leave a minor, that doesn't mean that one is free to leave a child of any age alone w/o adult supervision. There is no age in my state either, it's up to a judge's discretion. Obviously, the judge or whoever heard this case thought there was some neglect going on here. We do NOT know the whole story. To imply that this story means that "letting kids play outside shouldn't be illegal" is incorrect.
A life altering circumstance for two people should have more than a judge's discretion to determine it. Yes, we don't know all the details, neither do you. We can only go by what we read online. By that criteria, I believe the police, and the judge, overreacted.
A life altering circumstance for two people should have more than a judge's discretion to determine it. Yes, we don't know all the details, neither do you. We can only go by what we read online. By that criteria, I believe the police, and the judge, overreacted.
By that criteria (reading online), I believe we should all withhold judgement.
Then you'd be calling the cops on just about every parent back when I was a kid. Actually, we weren't dropped off, we just left the house and biked there (yikes!). We went home when we were hungry for lunch or the sun was going down. Yes, much better that kid spend their time playing on an ipad or phone at their parent's place of work for hours than play in a park, surrounded by other kids, getting fresh air and exercise.
Well, I did that too, but my mom was always at home, and I wasn't too far away. So when I was stung by a swarm of bees at the playground (that really happened!), I ran home and she was there for 1st aid (and to get stung by the bees following me lol!)
We let our 6 year olds go outside on their own and ride bikes and play in the park across the street. There are tons of other kids in our neighborhood and all the parents know one another. They know that if they go to one place or house to play, they have to come let us know if they want to go somewhere else. I want them out being active, but I'm not going to follow them around the neighborhood and watch every second!
By that criteria (reading online), I believe we should all withhold judgement.
How so? The state law doesn't give an age at which it's illegal to leave a child. What has been published states the child requested to play at the park, and the mother allowed it, along with supplying a cell phone for any emergency. The playground was a short walk from the mother's place of work, and the daughter knew she could go there any time. I'm just not seeing the need to ostracize the mother here, much less a reason to remove the child from her care, and her employer to fire her.
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