Sat in the police car for two hours. Lovely.
7 year old British boy skiing alone falls off cliff, dies
http://news.yahoo.com/british-boy-7-killed-french-alps-skiing-accident-093513030.html
unbelievable! the unwarranted paranoia that so many feel today regarding any kids being “left alone” without a parent hovering nearby is just ridiculous!
No wonder so many students cant function on their own when they get to college!
I like to know who the busybody neighbor was. The out of control Montgomery County CPS needs to be brought to heel. Not like there’s no real child abuse going on there.
It is utterly ridiculous. The other day, I was in a more rural part of the state, and saw two kids going by on a bike path paralleling a main road–maybe eight and ten, one on a scooter, the other on a skateboard. No adult with them.
And it made me happy to see kids being allowed to be kids.
Nanny state gone completely wild.
The point, as I see it (and I live in Montgomery County), is that Maryland law states that children under 8 can’t be left unsupervised (at home or in public places like libraries) and that the person supervising an under-8 child has to be at least 13.
So if this law applies to parks and streets, too, which logically I think it should, then these people are violating the law by leaving their 6-year-old unsupervised (or supervised by their 10-year-old, which is also illegal) in these environments.
It should be perfectly acceptable, though, for the 10-year-old to go to the park alone or with other kids who are at least 8.
People on my street (yes, in Montgomery County) sometimes let their very young children play outside alone. It’s a quiet cul-de-sac, so the kids play in the street. When I need to back my car out of the driveway, and I tell the kids to move off the street while I do it, the youngest ones don’t always stay where they’re supposed to be. There’s a real danger here. Sometimes, if both my husband and I are home when one of us needs to go out, the one who’s staying home will watch the kids and remind them to stay on the grass if they try to move back into the street before the car is gone. But what are we supposed to do if only one adult is home?
By the time kids are 8, they understand “stay on the grass until my car is gone.” Younger kids may not.
When I was in kindergarten, we had a field trip/picnic at one of the parks in town. I slid down the largest slide and landed in a mud puddle at the bottom. The kindergarten teacher asked if I knew how to get home–my clothing was kind of a wreck–and I said that I did. (My family and neighbors had walked to the park together from time to time.) The teacher suggested that I could go home. So I did. Walking. Alone. It was a little over half a mile. There was one moderately busy road to cross along the way. I was not yet 6. In that time and place, it was safe.
I don’t know where exactly the line should be drawn, but a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old a block from home ought to be safe. (I realize that there are neighborhoods where that might not be true, sadly.)
This story makes me sick. There is enough actual child abuse and neglect around, with children in actual danger, to not waste time harassing parents and kidnapping their children. A neighbor called the police? Would you call the police if you saw a 10 year old and a 6 year old walking past your house? I most certainly would not. If I saw a 3 year old walking by himself I would ask the child where he/she lives and where his mom is. Yes, “children get abducted”… so what? People get shot, probably at a greater rate, parents kill their own children, also probably at a greater rate than stranger abduction. Just leave these parents alone!
It seems to me at this point that the family is being targeted and harassed by the local CPS.
@calmom Alternatively, the parents are baiting the authorities. It’s hard to tell which.
This situation is absurd. The Meitivs may feel their approach is ok, but they are very much on the radar of their neighbors, CPS and the police - they are risking losing custody of their children to make a point.
Kids found alone again, this time they were taken to CPS
http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/04/md-free-range-kids-found-alone-again-taken-into-custody/
The family is clearly being targeted, but they have painted a bullseye on their kids to make a point. It’s an unfortunate situation.
Reading some of the comments on local DC news websites,many people cite the Lyons sisters case, which occurred in 1975, about 10 minutes from where these girls now live. I lived 4 blocks from the Lyns girls and parents kept the neighborhood kids under a close eye for quite a few months afterwards, however we could still go outside.
partyof5- This is the same story- not another instance. There was one instance last month, and now this new one mentioned in your link and the one above.
It does seem a little absurd to me. I understand that the family is violating the law in this county, but a fine or warning should be enough. Just bring the kids back to their home. Why they kept them until 10:30 and never informed the parents until 8pm is not explained.
My 12 year old son used to babysit our neighbors three kids, 4, 7 and 9. I wonder if it was legal. Never crossed my mind, as he was as competent at 12 as most 15-year-olds.
I think the laws that restrict kids from being able to be outdoors in their own neighborhood are too strict. But I also wouldn’t risk losing my kids to prove that point.
Actually, I think I would be looking to move if I were in that situation – probably somewhere more rural… or at least somewhere more sane.
My daughter was all over the neighborhood at age 4 – I just knew which other houses on the block had kids she played with and made a point of getting the phone numbers of the parents at those houses. It never took more than 2 phone calls to find DD. This is the DD who grew up to be a world traveler, headed off to Russia for a foreign exchange at age 16, living alone in India for an internship at age 20.
The local Fox5 news played the actual 911 call - which was a bit different than what I expected. The caller was a man - out walking his dog - who had been observing the kids out walking alone for 20 minutes - following them at a distance so as not to scare them. He had no idea who they were. I had assumed that the caller was a nosy neighbor who knew the story and disagreed with the “free range” parenting approach. The caller seemed genuinely concerned for the childrens’ safety.
The police rep who spoke commented on the presence and potential threat of homeless men in the area.
The parents have now lawyered up and are not commenting further tonight.
When I visited my sister once in Sweden, she and her husband and older daughter went out for some reason. H and I and our girls were watching her two younger girls, both about 3. They didn’t speak much English, but after awhile they told us that they were going to Patrick’s house, or so I understood with a lot of waving of arms.
I nearly died! These girls were so young and were wearing their summer outfits - nothing but a pull up diaper and no shoes. The neighborhood had narrow roads and no sidewalks and they were happy as larks, walking around the block to Patrick’s house. H and I went with them, just to be sure, but my sister didn’t think it was a big deal. It really was safe, but the standards in the US are very, very different.
Still, I think these two children are doing well. Recently during the Easter school break a little girl in my neighborhood took to the sidewalk for hours on her scooter. She went all up and down the block and it never occurred to me to call the cops because she left her front yard and no one was sitting on the porch watching. She was fine and happy!