What's your opinion on these "Free Range" parents?

[scottcarter]

Maybe not smart, but you think it should be illegal? Feeding your kids McDonald's every day is just as dumb and dangerous, but it's not illegal cause this is 'Merica and "I'll raise my kid however I damn well please". How is this different?

+1

 

[Bourn]

Maybe not smart, but you think it should be illegal? Feeding your kids McDonald's every day is just as dumb and dangerous, but it's not illegal cause this is 'Merica and "I'll raise my kid however I damn well please". How is this different?

Tough question about legality. I would never let my 6 year old walk a mile from home to go to a park. (Don't have kids but I know I wouldn't.) It's just dangerous so I can live with that law if enforced. It's for the better of a child's life safety wise. There are sickos everywhere.

 

[scottcarter]

Tough question about legality. I would never let my 6 year old walk a mile from home to go to a park. (Don't have kids but I know I wouldn't.) It's just dangerous so I can live with that law if enforced. It's for the better of a child's life safety wise. There are sickos everywhere.

the 2 kids look happy, healthy and have good warm clothes for their park playtime. I don't know much about Maryland but it seems like a decent place where those kids go. They aren't walking through some dangerous area. Maybe I am wrong. I don't know.

 

[Bourn]

the 2 kids look happy, healthy and have good warm clothes for their park playtime. I don't know much about Maryland but it seems like a decent place where those kids go. They aren't walking through some dangerous area. Maybe I am wrong. I don't know.

Yeah.

 

[RenoChazz]

Shit when I was 10 I was out riding bikes in the neighborhood with other kids, playing hide and seek and shit. I had a paper route around that age (maybe it was more like 12) and did it by myself every morning.

200 years ago the average 10 year old was probably packing his own lunch pail and heading to the mines.

+1, society and parents are way to over protective. The this day and age argument doesn't do it for me. It's far safer this day and age for children than it was 20 years ago, we just didn't have Nancy Grace back then. I was walking 2 miles to school in the morning to elementary school, and so were most of the kids. Pretty soon playing outside will be a crime.

 

[slapshot]

Another stupid law

 

[scottcarter]

Another stupid law

as is [h=1]In 33 U.S. Cities, It’s Illegal to Do the One Thing That Helps the Homeless Most[/h]
http://mic.com/articles/91055/in-33...do-the-one-thing-that-helps-the-homeless-most

 

[silver7]

Hell yeah, F the govt., let em go wherever they please. Just ask John Walsh or the Wetterling's!!

 

[Acebb]

I think that we’re regulating parenting according to the obsessions of neurotic upper-middle-class white women.

The fact that the state can take your children away for this is absurd.

 

[Enfuego]

I think that we’re regulating parenting according to the obsessions of neurotic upper-middle-class white women.

The fact that the state can take your children away for this is absurd.

What's the answer AC? I'm not saying I agree or disagree...I really don't have an opinion either way but if the parents continue to break the law and let their kids go wherever they want, what does the state do?

 

[GoSooners]

It's all fun and games until a "free range" kid gets snatched from the park.

 

[Acebb]

First, There’s never been a safer time to be a kid in America. So the fears hear are wildly overblown (and are those of upper-middle-class white women) and the actions of the person who called the police, the police departments and CPS are ridiculous.

Second, the law that says” children younger than 8 must be left with a reliable person who is at least 13. “But the law refers only to enclosed spaces such as buildings or cars, and makes no mention of children outside, in a park or on a walk"

So again, the actions of CPS and the police department are over the top (the officer decided to take the children to the CPS offices in Rockville). The issue here isn't some law that the police are following. The issue here is that the culture is being hijacked by "momification" of everything.

 

[Enfuego]

First, There’s never been a safer time to be a kid in America. So the fears hear are wildly overblown (and are those of upper-middle-class white women) and the actions of the person who called the police, the police departments and CPS are ridiculous.

Second, the law that says” children younger than 8 must be left with a reliable person who is at least 13. “But the law refers only to enclosed spaces such as buildings or cars, and makes no mention of children outside, in a park or on a walk"

So again, the actions of CPS and the police department are over the top (the officer decided to take the children to the CPS offices in Rockville). The issue here isn't some law that the police are following. The issue here is that the culture is being hijacked by "momification" of everything.

AC, I know what you're saying but the cops are in a tough spot here. If they don't do anything and the kids get abducted etc., they will be subject to an enormous lawsuit. It's really a catch 22 for them.

 

[Acebb]

AC, I know what you're saying but the cops are in a tough spot here. If they don't do anything and the kids get abducted etc., they will be subject to an enormous lawsuit. It's really a catch 22 for them.

The police could have taken them home. They were a 2 minute car ride away.

 

[Acebb]

AC, I know what you're saying but the cops are in a tough spot here. If they don't do anything and the kids get abducted etc., they will be subject to an enormous lawsuit. It's really a catch 22 for them.

Absolutely false. The police have zero obligation to protect you or anyone else. For reference see here and here. In Maryland, police are immune from suit, absent malice (The Maryland Tort Claims Act (MTCA))

 

[Enfuego]

Absolutely false. The police have zero obligation to protect you or anyone else. For reference see here and here. In Maryland, police are immune from suit, absent malice (The Maryland Tort Claims Act (MTCA))

I'm talking the department AC not the individual cop:

In two decisions handed down Tuesday, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for citizens to sue law enforcement officers for their conduct.

 

[Enfuego]

The police could have taken them home. They were a 2 minute car ride away.

And what happens the next day and the day after that? The cops don't have time or resources to keep picking the kids up.

Like I said, I don't have an opinion either way. Don't care what the outcome is. Just an interesting case is all.

 

[Michelangelo]

Unless there is OBVIOUS and FLAGRANT abuse, the parents should parent and nobody else.

Keep the Government and all their social agencies out of our business. Parenting is the parent's business. Nobody elses.

 

[Enfuego]

Unless there is OBVIOUS and FLAGRANT abuse, the parents should parent and nobody else.

Keep the Government and all their social agencies out of our business. Parenting is the parent's business. Nobody elses.

I don't know man. I've seen plenty of cases where a parent doesn't know how to parent and the state has to step in and the abuse is not obvious at all.

My wife is a school teacher so I've heard some stories as you can imagine. Kid brings only a ham sandwich for lunch and it meets the bare minimum the state requires to feed a kid during the day as the parent doesn't pack any other food. Shit like that happens daily.

 

[NBAcapper08]

I don't know man. I've seen plenty of cases where a parent doesn't know how to parent and the state has to step in and the abuse is not obvious at all.

My wife is a school teacher so I've heard some stories as you can imagine. Kid brings only a ham sandwich for lunch and it meets the bare minimum the state requires to feed a kid during the day as the parent doesn't pack any other food. Shit like that happens daily.

Im sure kids being under fed is a huge problem in the US