Is it safe to assume that “we” all members of the same society?
Oh, so it’s “force” in the sense of being told to do something, and then complying. Not the other kind of force of actually being made to do something.
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That’s not really true. The accepted guidelines from various agencies in Ontario are that your kids can be alone at 10, and can be responsible for watching a younger sibling at 12. The law states that a child under the age of 16 may not be left unattended without making provision for his or her supervision and care that is reasonable in the circumstances. The maturity level of the child is considered part of the circumstances. You can send your child to a ‘home alone’ safety workshop at 10, and kids can start babysitting when they are 12.
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The way it reads to me at least, there’s a law they’re required to enforce. I agree the law is idiotic and the punishment for disobeying it is insane. It’s also deeply classist. But is it fair to blame the Ministery for the law?
This is not progress.
I feel like it’s both. The busybody who snitched took an action they didn’t have to take which brought the law into play, so they’re responsible for fallout, moreso, IMHO, than the Ministry which presumably doesn’t have discretion in enforcing the law. But if I’m wrong and the Ministry is just covering their asses, then a pox on them too.
I wonder how much social media has contributed to the rise of this kafkaesque mentality. The very thing that enables people to be safer than ever - by staying in touch, allowing parents to track kids in real time and allowing communities to share information - has also made it possible for the most self-righteous ignoramuses among us, along with mobs of toxic self-loathing trollies, to stalk people on social media and hound public officials. Have they browbeaten society as a whole into bending over backwards to mollify these lowest common denominators and negating what wisdom was once safe to demonstrate through individual agency? I feel like Americans are especially prone to abuse social media because of our long puritanical protestant history of public shaming. I’m a little surprised and discouraged to find such foolish laws in Canada.
But you checked yourselves. If more people would question corrosive social mores, we’d all be better off. So thank you for being part of the solution.
Exactly. The CYA mentality of lawmakers, courts and other officials allows buttinskies to use the law as their own personal cudgel to destroy families which deviate from their neurotic strictures.
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Yes, but in your galaxy things were different…
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Let’s not go there, please.
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Worked for this little lady (walking home alone, I mean)…
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What’s worse than helicopter parenting is this malicious helicoptering of other peoples’ children- by calling the authorities on people who aren’t parenting their kids in your preferred manner.
Side note: if the Ministry is just going to force the parents to not leave their kids unsupervised no matter what, why even investigate? Might as well skip straight to taking the kids away.
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I live in Switzerland and kids are encouraged to get to and from on their own. My village gives the junior high kids a bus pass to get to school in the next town. The pass is good all week long so the kids use it to hang out on the weekends. I love it as I no longer have to chauffeur my kid all over the place. My 15-y.o. is probably more independent than many American college freshmen. Fortunately, she’s responsible and doesn’t abuse her privilege.
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When I was four, I walked about 1/2 mile to my neighborhood liquor store (located on a very busy four lane road) to show the proprietor my new shoes and purse. A cop was there and asked him if I needed help, but he told the cop that I knew my way around.
My parents are so lucky that they raised their kids in the 60s and 70s.
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Yeah, the Austin MTS does kinda suck for the price.
Except Margaret the bus driver from Liverpool, England. Margaret’s awesome!
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If it was a single kid walking to school on their own it may be cause for concern, but this is a group of kids riding on the bus together. Like the complete opposite of the type of prey a predator might target.
That is beautiful. Well said.
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Oh, well, when it comes to being careful, you can’t be too careful.
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It’s odd, when I was a kid my mother would let me travel around Tijuana on public transportation by myself. My father opened a restaurant right in downtown and me and my brothers worked there from around ages 11-14, busing tables and delivering food. This is a city some adults are afraid to go to and here I was, unsupervised for hours on end like it was nothing.
But now, my mother tells me that things are more dangerous than they ever were, and to basically never let Tachin Jr. out of my sight for one second, and yes, I frequently need to tell her that those facebook posts she tells me about are probably fake. Now, moms advice has gotten me through some tough times and helped me make the right choices when it was critical I do so, so when Mrs. Tachin, who is a little bit more helicoptery than me pushes it a little more than I’m comfortable with, I don’t fight it too hard. But it’s still hard to reconcile.
Ain’t that the truth. 
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I don’t know about downtown, but I see kids walking home from school or playing in the streets of most areas of Tijuana every day.
Which is why I find it weird that it’s my mother that’s worried. Not me.
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Maybe, but with policies like these, that won’t be until their mid-30s at the earliest, so there’s plenty of time to figure out a fix. And if nobody comes up with one, they can just tweak the magic number at which kids are considered people to push it out another decade.
Abusing privilege won’t get you very far ahead most places. The USA just now isn’t one of them.
The story made the Toronto Star front page this morning, picture above the fold.
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