I grew up in the middle of the desert right on the Colorado River. We used to float down the river in tubes by ourselves, no adults. My dad would drop us off at a certain point down the river and be like “HAVE FUN! Don’t drown!” and then we’d call him from the payphone at the park that we eventually ended up at. We used to spend all day outside walking the desert. Do you know how many interactions I’ve had with “jumping cacti”? Good times.
While I think in larger cities “free range” is probably impossible, if you live in an area like these folks do, I think kids should have every right to spend time out doors, alone, playing.
Unless the cops and/or CPS have a statute that says kids can’t walk around by themselves, a judge ought to issue a restraining order against those agencies.
My child went to a local park by himself often when he was 10. It was 5 to 6 blocks away. When our children are 12 years old, and start middle school, our city gives students bus passes ,and the student is expected to go to the bus stop, and get himself or herself to school. These are not yellow school buses, but regular scheduled big city buses. My only concern with this was during winter months they are often walking in the dark. I did not fear abduction, but rather car accidents. If you do not want your children to have any freedom, Fine! Just don’t tell me how to raise mine.
It gets better. The cops say they got to the kids at 5:03 PM. There was a known homeless man “eying” the children. The cop stated the kids said they were hungry and thirsty. The oldest said they last ate a hamburger 2 PM to 3 PM. Remember the cops got them at 5 PM. The mother wanted them home by 6:30, probably for dinner. It is now child abuse for not feeding your kids every 2 hours. If you don’t believe me look here. It is the police’s Facebook page.
Looks like it might be 8 in Maryland? Not sure how reliable this info is…
Would that even apply? It appears to be the age for children left at home alone, not playing in a public park.
Not sure. I’d imagine if anything that playing in a park would fall under the same law, if not even more restrictive. I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure some states DO have statutes regarding this.
Oh, very clever. Demonstrate to parents how dangerous it is to let their kids walk home on their own by being the danger you warn them against.
I wonder if it might help to have a lawyer give the police chief a call? Then again, everybody in Silver Spring is a lawyer, so he might not be impressed.
And, meanwhile…
Gainesville cops using Armored Personnel Carriers for bogus traffic stops:
I would posit that the police and CPS are the ones committing child abuse here. You can report instances of child abuse in Silver Springs to CPS using the contact info below:
Montgomery County Child Protective Services
(240) 777-4417 (24 hours)
(240) 777-4258(fax)
The Dept. of Health & Human Services
1301 Piccard Drive
Rockville, Maryland 20850
Kids I know we’ve never met but I know your parents. They are in trouble. You need to get in the backseat of my car right now so we can go take care of this.
Makes sense to me. Someone might have been planning to commit a crime, so the police arrested the victims.
In Maryland, the law addresses ages for leaving them alone inside, but doesn’t have anything specific on things like age, distance, or time of day for playing outside.
I see some people who never left Fallujah.
Also:
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I’ve probably mentioned this here before, but my favourite story of free-range childhood is my friend who was sent to school with the family dog - because the dog knew traffic. And of course my childhood was similar as well, mom walked me to school the first day and it was a across a town (of 30,000) with lots of traffic etc.
By “free-range” you mean the way everyone was brought up back in my day, right? (I’m not even that old. What’s the world coming to?)
It seems to me that the best way to deal with kids being hungry is to let them go home for dinner instead of confining them in a car and a waiting room.
