General News Mom arrested after letting kid go to park alone.

Ridiculous. So basically, by those terms, every single parent in the 60's would have to be arrested...

 

Sounds like the case is going to be dropped anyway. The person who called the police did the right thing & the police officer did the right thing by returning the kid home. The mother probably shouldn't have been arrested, given that we now know her story seems to be convincing - and she did take some reasonable safety precautions.

Still, parenting choices/child welfare is always going to be a hot topic - The police are often damned if they do, damned if they don't. So long as the case is dropped, that's all that really matters here.

 

and the fact that we are at the lowest crime rate in Murica in a while...

 

I'm glad I was born when I was, because it's hard as hell to be a kid nowadays. Unless you stay inside, that is, because they have the best toys.

 

Damn, leaving a 10 year old gets arrested, then 9 and now 7.

 

My mother used to leave me in a hot car for up to 45 minutes at a time. The worst she ever got was a warning from a cop. Several children have died in hot cars, especially in Georgia, but it's still seen as an OK thing to do.

This kid can't go to a park a few blocks away from his house with a cell-phone. Ridiculous!

 

Oh how I miss times that actually allowed kids to be kids...

 

If he had been dropped off in Downtown Atlanta, I'd completely understand, but that area looks fairly safe. Plus, he lives nearby, so he could easily use his cell-phone and/or walk back home if he felt uneasy.

 

That's ridiculous. A child is not a blob with the potential to one day grow a brain, but a developing person, and one who needs a little freedom in order to do so. A line must be found between protecting the child, and freeing them, and it does no good for a child to be cooped up for their entire life. I must have gone to the park, the beach, the shop, whatever, a thousand times around that age.

 

Totally agree. I was homeschooled since age 11, and my mother hardly ever let me out of the house. She blamed it on us living in a bad area. While I've been shy and awkward since I was a toddler, I believe the sheltering made it a million times worse.

Hell, I have to work up the courage just to go buy something at a store, and I often go without something I need just because I don't have the guts to look the cashier in the eye. I can't even look someone in the eye while filling out a job application, and I think that's a big reason why I am unemployed.

 

To call that criminal neglect is an affront to actual victims of neglect and abuse.

 

Agreed. They have no idea what criminal neglect actually looks like. The parents are doing the kid a favor by letting him test out a little independence.

 

I honestly think seven is too young to let a kid out alone and don't act like being neglected in the 70's makes you a superior person. Every generation freaks out about the younger ones having worse qualities. I me as n the smoking in cars and the smoking that was everywhere in the 70's isn't good. I mean some freedom at 10 or 11 isn't bad, but seven?! Come on guys were not in the seventies anymore! I think that woman had a good reason to be arrested.

 

This post is poorly constructed - I'm not even sure what you mean. The only part I could grasp is the first and last sentence - though I'm not sure what the 70s has to do with it.

In any case, most people have some degree of freedom before 10 or 11. When I was 7, I was walking to my school alone, and going for bike rides alone or with friends. Heck, there are kids who travel on public transport alone at that age. Sheltering children, and preventing them from doing things on their own, will only serve to harm them when they are older as they will have no idea how to do things independently. We're not talking about sending a 7 year old on a plane to a foreign country - we're talking about a kid going to the park.

It's just part of the ridiculous paranoia that has erupted in recent years. My mother has a friend who works at a day cay centre, and can't even use Facebook because there might be pedophiles. A valid concern, maybe, but people today live under the assumption that there are dangerous people lurking around every street corner, or that everyone is a potential pedophile, murderer, rapist or whatever else - and the funny thing is, crime is far lower now than it was in the 80s or 90s (both in the US and the UK). It's stupid.

 

Geez, the park wasn't even that far away. I see little kids walking around the neighborhood by themselves all the time...

Edit: Also, there is a playground across the street from my house, and many little kids ride their bikes there, sometimes nearly a mile from their house. This isn't exactly an uncommon occurence...

 

Oh.... .—.

 

I was one of those kids in the 60's: out from early morning until evening during summer break (sometimes so long that my mother actually had to come get us to get home), as were most of the other neighbourhood kids...imagine that, getting to know the actual kids who live in your neighbourhood!

Now it's all about "play dates"; arranged by parents every step of the way from Grades 1 to 6, always at each other's home. No large, spontaneous groups of kids in the local park just wiling away the time with whatever they fancy, no money required....good times!

 

This is nuts. I know I did not get to do this as kid, but at the same time I live out in the middle of no where with only one neighbor, and we really do not get along. However, I knew people who did do this and it was perfectly fine. I will admit, any younger could be concerning, but 7 is not a terribly young age for going to the park, especially if he had a phone.