SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The WaPo reports that Danielle and Alexander Meitiv in Montgomery County Maryland say they are being investigated for neglect after letting their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter make a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. “We wouldn’t have let them do it if we didn’t think they were ready for it,” says Danielle. The Meitivs say they believe in “free-range” parenting, a movement that has been a counterpoint to the hyper-vigilance of “helicopter” parenting, with the idea that children learn self-reliance by being allowed to progressively test limits, make choices and venture out in the world. “The world is actually even safer than when I was a child, and I just want to give them the same freedom and independence that I had — basically an old-fashioned childhood,” says Danielle. “I think it’s absolutely critical for their development — to learn responsibility, to experience the world, to gain confidence and competency.”
On December. 20, Alexander agreed to let the children walk from Woodside Park to their home, a mile south, in an area the family says the children know well. Police picked up the children near the Discovery building, the family said, after someone reported seeing them. Alexander said he had a tense time with police when officers returned his children, asked for his identification and told him about the dangers of the world. The more lasting issue has been with Montgomery County Child Protective Services which showed up a couple of hours later. Although Child Protective Services could not address this specific case they did point to Maryland law, which defines child neglect as failure to provide proper care and supervision of a child. “I think what CPS considered neglect, we felt was an essential part of growing up and maturing,” says Alexander. “We feel we’re being bullied into a point of view about child-rearing that we strongly disagree with.”
(Score: 1) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 16 2015, @07:04PM
Being obligated to investigate every ridiculous case is absurd.
Young kids wandering around alone in a park long enough to be reported by a bystander is not a ridiculous case.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 16 2015, @07:17PM
Yes, it is. How old are you, anyway? I'm in my early thirties, and when I was 7 my parents let me walk around the block alone. When i was 9 I was allowed to ride my bike wherever I wanted as long as I was back before dinnertime. When I was in second grade I walked alone through the snow to school (as MechanicJay did as stated below). I was chased by dogs and bullies, jumped my bike and often fell off of it.
My parents never screamed in horror whenever I came home with a cut or scrape, taught me at an early age how to dress my own wounds and scream and fight back against would-be kidnappers, stay away from the bad parts of town, they would tell me that sometimes shit just happens and that's a fact of life, and told me I'd better not be caught be doing anything bad or I would (and often did) receive an ass-whoopin'.
And the cops back then didn't give a flying fuck about any of that. They were too busy catching real criminals and eating real donuts.
You know another thing my parents didn't do? They didn't push drugs and video games on me as a substitute for real parenting like so many parents do now.
I would be fine with having a kid of my own, but not in this fucking psychological climate. I'd rather have no kid than deny a potential child of mine the joy and exploration I experienced as a kid.
Even Calvin and Hobbes' parents would have had CPS called on them nowadays...unsupervised sled and wagon rides? Child abuse!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 16 2015, @08:03PM
So you are saying when someone reports some lost kids the Police should not check it out. Got it...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday January 16 2015, @08:20PM
So are you saying that every kid walking around without an adult is automatically lost? You seem to be saying, "Investigate absolutely everything no matter how slim the chances are that there is trouble." That's what leads to zero tolerance policies.
Humans have brains, and they should use them, rather than resorting to zero tolerance-type policies.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 16 2015, @09:22PM
So are you saying that every kid walking around without an adult is automatically lost?
No. I'm saying it is the police's job to find out if the kid is lost when someone reports a potentially lost kid. They might actually have to ask some questions to do that.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday January 16 2015, @09:46PM
They did more than ask questions, though. Apparently some threats were made. Also, not every report of a missing child from a fearmongering loser should be taken seriously. It absolutely should not be the police's job to investigate absolutely every claim no matter how stupid they sound. And of course, the one who reported this should also grow a brain; maybe *they* could've asked the child some questions if they were so concerned, but really, you shouldn't be concerned about a child simply walking around to begin with.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:04AM
A simple observation could have provided all the information they needed. Just having a uniformed officer say "hi" and looking for any signs of distress or duress (beyond the natural fear of cops that has been growing in the population).
Crap like this is why parents advise their kids to AVOID cops if they get lost and go ask an adult with kids for help. Honestly, it's good advice since random strangers are far less likely to bring the family to harm these days.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by VitalMoss on Friday January 16 2015, @08:20PM
There's a difference between lost kids and "kids walking home from school."
Don't use word-phrasing that doesn't line up with the story. People who are walking somewhere and people who are lost look completely different, and even then if they were truly worried about the children's well being, they could have just asked.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Jesus_666 on Monday January 19 2015, @07:35PM
As far as the cops are concerned, I'd expect them to behave rationally* and ask the kids if everything's alright and if they need a ride home. If the kids say that they're fine and they know the way home that should be it. They should definitely investigate the call but they should also be able to tell whether any further action beyond talking to the kids is neccessary.
Assuming that an unsupervised ten-year-old is automatically lost and neglected only makes sense if you assume that children never leave their homes except to travel by car, during which they don't look out the windows. Real children make friends and explore their neighborhood and after a while they know it pretty damn well. In fact, they can cover fairly large areas that way, especially if they have access to bikes. Being able to navigate from a known location a mile away to one's home is not exactly a great feat for a ten-year-old.
* unless you live in one of those towns that gave American cops their current reputation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday January 16 2015, @10:25PM
In my early 50's here, and i know what you are talking about: I think one of the reasons so many kids are coming up ADD/ADHD/WMD is because they aren't out by themselves/in a small group/a bunch of kids playing!
Football
'Super heroes'
Climbing trees
Getting into trouble!
Just running around/biking until you are exhausted, so you lay in the grass for a while until you catch your breath and then you run some more.
Today, kids sit and play video games or text or....
Kids aren't allowed to run the streets unless they are in sight of their parents (they don't even have to walk 50 feet to catch the school bus in a group: the bus stops every 5 freaking feet to pick them up... my brother and i used to have to run along the highway and up into the subdivision to catch the bus).
And we wonder why kids are on drugs (meaning Ritalin alone!, for gods sake).
Kids aren't allowed to play baseball on school property because someone might get hurt.Kids aren't allowed to play on the monkey bars on school property because someone might get hurt.Kids aren't allowed to play football on school property because someone might get hurt.Kids aren't allowed to play "fill in the freaking blank" on school property because someone might get hurt.
Kids need to get hurt. They need to experience failure AS WELL as success. They need to experience life. And they need to have parents teach them and then back off slowly to let them experience it.
Damn.
Glad the cops did check it out, though. It used to be everyone knew everyone and said hi to everyone. Now....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday January 17 2015, @01:05PM
And that made me think that perhaps society did have a future. These kids were free to *discover* that falling off a boulder that's taller than you *fucking hurts*, and that way, they learn. They learn to evaluate risks and danger, with realistic perspectives. I'm guessing that the one of them that grows up to be a politician is not going to wage a "War On Boulders" when their own kid gets a graze one day, for example.
Another funny tale about that school I have is of the swings they had. There were 2 swings, and there were 4 kids who wanted to play on them, two boys and two girls. The two boys were fighting over one of the swings, if one of them briefly got onto the tyre, the other would do his best to stop it from swinging, and try to pull him off, lose lose all the way. The two girls were squeezed snugly onto the other swing and both having a whale of a time swinging merrily - win win all round. It was in some ways unsurprising, but it still stood out and was a great, powerful, even, commentary on gender, even if it is only an anecdote about 4 people.
That was Finland, if anyone's interested.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @07:39PM
Call me heartless, but fact is I think it's better for the greater good if more of stupidly careless kids die out (or render themselves less likely to breed or qualify to vote).
The cops should be working to make the area safe enough for kids to walk home alone, rather than harassing kids and their parents.
If the area is safe enough already, there's no need to bother the kids or their parents. The cops can escort them home if they want. And maybe imprint a "Cops are good guys" image to the future generation. Rather than cause problems and cause the kids to realize that "Cops are bad people to be avoided".