– Maryland Parents Being Investigated for Neglect After Letting Their Kids Walk Home from Playground Alone (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Jan 15, 2015):
It’s one thing for an 80 year old to nostalgically lament that things aren’t as they used to be. The problem is, I’m only 36 years old and this country already barely resembles the place I grew up in.
I’ve mentioned in the past how I used to ride the New York City public bus to and from school by myself starting when I was around 9 or 10 years old. Many of my peers started taking the then dreaded subway by themselves around the same time. Bear in mind, this was NYC in the 1980’s, a far different place than the Disneyland for Wall Street it has become since. I can’t recall a single child abduction happening to anyone at my school, but what I can remember was a teacher being fired for molesting young boys. Makes you wonder about where the real danger lurks, doesn’t it?
This transformation into a nanny-state, snitching culture has severe negative long-term repercussions for U.S. society, as well as the economy, if the trend isn’t reversed. I have written about this dangerous change many times in the past, and links to prior articles will be attached at the end of this post.
First, let’s take a look at the ridiculous circumstances now faced by these Maryland parents for simply allowing their children a rite of passage that kids from time immemorial have enjoyed. From the Washington Post:
It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently.
Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek — in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children.
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 fact that parents who want to allow their children to engage in normal behavior have to resort to terms like “free-range” parenting, which makes you think of livestock, tells you all you need to know.
“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,” she said. “I think it’s absolutely critical for their development — to learn responsibility, to experience the world, to gain confidence and competency.”
On Dec.?20, Alexander agreed to let the children, Rafi and Dvora, walk from Woodside Park to their home, a mile south, in an area the family says the children know well.
The children made it about halfway
Police picked up the children near the Discovery building, the family said, after someone reported seeing them.
The Meitivs say their son told police that he and his sister were not doing anything illegal and are allowed to walk. Usually, their mother said, the children carry a laminated card with parent contact information that says: “I am not lost. I am a free-range kid.” The kids didn’t have the card that day.
Can you believe that such a card is even necessary? What planet am I living on.
She added: “Abductions are extremely rare. Car accidents are not. The number one cause of death for children of their age is a car accident.”
Danielle is a climate-science consultant, and Alexander is a physicist at the National Institutes of Health.
Alexander said he had a tense time with police on Dec. 20 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, he said, which showed up a couple of hours after the police left.
Mary Anderson, a spokeswoman for CPS, said she could not comment on cases but that neglect investigations typically focus on questions of whether there has been a failure to provide proper care and supervision.
The Meitivs say that on Dec. 20, a CPS worker required Alexander to sign a safety plan pledging he would not leave his children unsupervised until the following Monday, when CPS would follow up. At first he refused, saying he needed to talk to a lawyer, his wife said, but changed his mind when he was told his children would be removed if he did not comply.
Following the holidays, the family said, CPS called again, saying the agency needed to inquire further and visit the family’s home. Danielle said she resisted.
“It seemed such a huge violation of privacy to examine my house because my kids were walking home,” she said.
This week, a CPS social worker showed up at her door, she said. She did not let him in. She said she was stunned to later learn from the principal that her children were interviewed at school.
Think about how terrifying this is for a second. Two clearly loving, intelligent and thoughtful parents where threatened with the removal of their children for allowing them to do something that should be seen as completely normal by all but the most scared, pathetic and uncourageous amongst us. To make matters worse, the whole thing started because a neighbor ratted them out.
This is not what freedom looks like.
For related articles, see:
A Winter Wonderland of Fear – Cities Across the U.S. Move to Ban Unregulated Sledding
The “Nanny States of America” – Mother Arrested for Allowing 7-Year-Old Son Walk to Park Alone
Connecticut Man Arrested for “Passive Aggressive” Behavior to a WatermelonHow I Remember September 11, 2001
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
I was a free range child. Depending on where we live my kid will hopefully be one too. Although my child is a little girl she will be carrying mace and a knife incase a child predator is around……..
I couldn’t imagine anyone trying to take her away from us. I don’t think I would handle it very well…………..
@Josh,
And get her some martial arts training, because the techniques learned during long years of training will be applied instinctively in case of an attack and that will take any attacker by surprise.
Against any surprise predator attack that is the best defense (and it will give you the time to run away or to get the mace and knife out of your pocket if necessary).
Additionally I recommend a kubotan, which is …
Best,
Infinite Unknown
Friend at IU, martial arts are the best.
I am glad I had a child years ago before we had to worry about creeps on every corner, but I was very careful to see she was protected all her life…….it is the responsibility of the parent to watch out for the child.
I once had a friend remark how I never left her alone with other people, even for a few minutes as she was growing up, he found it surprising. I just told him if he ever had a child, he would understand.
When my child was born and put into my arms for the first time, I made a vow to protect her until she could protect herself…..and there are too many little ones who get hurt. After school, she got into the van, and she went directly to her babysitter, and I would pick her up from there. I didn’t go for the after school stuff, she didn’t like it, she wanted to go to her sitter, so that is where she went.
Screening the people who care for your child ought to be second nature.
I have a strong aversion to government caring for one’s child, it is up to the parents. Too many people have put all responsibility on the schools as academic nannies, and that isn’t a good idea, think of Nazi Germany and Hitler Youth.
My mother, and all my Aunts taught school, and there was a definite divide between school and home living. This nanny system didn’t happen overnight, too many Americans (especially) put all on the state, then cry because the state takes the power that goes with responsibility. This is a can of worms created by the endless childhood mentality of America. I don’t understand why I was born here sometimes.
The school wanted to put my daughter on drugs when she hit the age of 13, and I refused. If she was having problems, I would hire tutors or pay for counseling, depending on the problem……sorting that out is something the parents and child need to define and carry out, not the schools. But, I never asked the school or state to pay for either one.
Now, I understand, schools can decide your child ought to be drugged, and the parent have no say. I am so glad my daughter is over 40, and chose to have no babies of her own. She had a stepson, and that was enough for her. He was trained in martial arts as a youth, he was smaller than other boys of his age; and he graduates with honors in a few more months before going on to college.
Martial arts training provides mental discipline, physical grace and a sense of self reliance that will serve him for the rest of his life. As a child, I wish such sciences were available for young girls, but in those days, we were not even allowed to study wood working or shop……..just sewing and cooking.
Nanny states come from a society (such as we suffer with in the US) where people look to government to look out for them. I remember that disgusting first lady referring to herself as “mom in chief”, a sick play on commander in chief. Seeing men who have never been in battle making insane war choices is bad enough without adding that into the mix.
Predators who go after children are often people known and trusted as a family friend, a very small percentage hide behind bushes and accost them. For one of such aggressive ones, there are probably another thousand who groom them as family friend or sitter. From such people, it is difficult to protect your child without keeping them close to you until they are old enough to know as I did my daughter. You never know.
I knew a family in the San Francisco Bay Area. Parents were married 30 years, two lovely grown children, well established in the community, they oozed respectability. The Internet was just evolving to the point where it was becoming a tool to waylay and get children for sexual gratification. The man was in a business that allowed for the use of computers. Old family on both sides, decent on the surface. He ended up getting arrested in one of the first stings of that sort in history, his name as a predator was published all over Europe and the US. The international press picked it up, and for all of us who knew the family…..we were shocked. He liked little boys, thank goodness his progeny were female………it destroyed everything.
My point is that you never know, and all I can say is pay attention.