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It sounds like they are prime targets for predators. This isn't 20-30 years ago--times are very, very different now. This has nothing to do with allowing your children to have independence, etc. A 10 year old watching a 6 year old is waaayyyyy too young. These parents should have these children taken away. They sound like they belong on naked and afraid...
I'm pretty sure all adults today would have seen their parents arrested for this nonsense back in the day. Parents would tell their kids, "see you later, have fun, don't get hurt, be back by September". As society continues to give up it's freedoms, so continues the PC parenting of the nation, pathetic.
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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.
Nonsense. I support the right of this couple to let their kids develop this way 100%.
The fear we both spread and succumb to "in 2015" is ridiculously embarrassing. We have become a meek society.
Bad things can and will happen in the world in spite of bad laws with the best of intentions. Invasive laws will take away freedom, inhibit intellectual and emotional growth, and solve nothing.
It sounds like they are prime targets for predators. This isn't 20-30 years ago--times are very, very different now. This has nothing to do with allowing your children to have independence, etc. A 10 year old watching a 6 year old is waaayyyyy too young. These parents should have these children taken away. They sound like they belong on naked and afraid...
Yes, times ARE very very different now. Did you look at any of the facts presented? There are approximately 100 stranger abductions a year in the entire country. Most child abductions are by friends and family. Crime is down dramatically from 30 years ago.
I can't imagine I would let my six and ten year old walk by themselves to the corner store. just wouldn't on the "off" chance something would happen to them. I also would not want the older child to feel responsible/guilty if something happened to the younger kid that the older was unable to help or do anything about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErnieG
^^^^^^^^^^^What if bothers me too. Can't help it.
Guilt/feeling horrible in such a case is a normal reaction. Plenty to go around.
But let me ask you......what if one's older child who is an adult, 18 yo, made the decision to drive drunk with their 15 year old younger brother/sister in the car as a passenger and killed their younger brother/sister in a drunk driving accident as the 18 yo was drunk? I bet you'd feel just as guilty too even though you had nothing to do with an 18 yo adult making a poor decision.
My point is your logic seems to indicate you're trying to control the uncontrollable as bad things happen in life and it's unfortunate. But overreacting to the point of assuming something bad will happen in most situations in life is overreacting and living in fear which is not living in my book. And this kind of living in fear/something is bad around most every corner rubs off on kids and that's not healthy for their development.
Also, assigning a magic fixed age to say someone is all of a sudden mature enough to do this/not do that is silly as that varies widely. I've met some 12 year old's that are far more mature than some people I've known that are 46.
I am not a fan of helicopter parenting. I was the mom who let my kids walk 300 feet to the bus stop - in any weather, from age 7 and 9 on. If it was raining, they had umbrellas.
If there was a blizzard, then school was called off. I had people in mu suburban cul de sac actually offering them rides and shooting me nasty glances.
In nice weather they were permitted to rides their bikes in our subdivision. As long as they were together or with friends, that was fine. Half of their friends were able to - the others were not allowed off their street until 12 or 13. We thought it was crazy.
However, I have never heard of "free range parenting".
Letting an 8 year old and a 10 year old in a park at 5 PM on a school night seems a bit wrong.
Between helicopter and free range, there has to be a happy medium.
It sounds like they are prime targets for predators. This isn't 20-30 years ago--times are very, very different now. This has nothing to do with allowing your children to have independence, etc. A 10 year old watching a 6 year old is waaayyyyy too young. These parents should have these children taken away. They sound like they belong on naked and afraid...
Another person brainwashed by "To Catch a Predator?"
Believe what you want to, but the main point I will always be making is this--your opinion should not be the standard for all parents. MY opinion about parenting shouldn't be the standard for all parents, and I think very highly of my opinion. Everyone should parent their own kids and mind their own bleeping business. Short of extremes, parental authority should be absolute and total impregnable from interference by anyone, including the government, and certainly from nosy busy-bodies walking around with nothing better to do than sniff people's Fruit of the Looms.
There is a reason my name is on my child's birth certificate and not yours, or CPS', or the government's--because it's MY CHILD. Period. If you want to make my parenting decisions for me, then you better be ready to assume all the responsibilities of parenting my child as well. You need to be the one to see that they get to school, that their doctor's appointments are kept up, that you know their favorite foods and cartoon characters (like Boopy Boop or whomever), teach them how to dress, clean up their messes--EVERYTHING. If you don't do ALL of those things all of the time in my stead, your opinion means about as much to me as the feces coming from my dog's anus.
There are times, naturally, when the involvement of others is to be expected and encouraged, beatings with a tire iron or leaving a 5 month old in a car for 7 hours while gambling at a casino come to mind. Extremes like those aside, mind your own business--or have your nose twisted sideways for interfering with a parent's authority--is the way things should be.
For the last time, I would let this happen with two children (in 2015) who are at least twelve years old and six years old. I am of the firm and steadfast belief that a ten year old can not assess a situation in the event of trouble as well as a twelve year old can.
I'll take a free range ten year old over a helicoptered twelve year old any day of the week.
Last edited by kokonutty; 04-16-2015 at 12:47 AM..
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