Free-range kids picked up AGAIN by police

[Anonymous]

I bet next the Helicopter Parents will start passing laws saying you can't be more then 10' away from your kids or the police will take your kids. What a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But I don't think people are as worried about the destination as they are about the journey. Are there any major roads or busy intersections nearby?

Do you think that a six-year-old and a ten-year-old are inherently incapable of crossing a major road by themselves, or do you think it depends on the specific six-year-old and ten-year-old and the specific major road?

[Anonymous]

I want to know which one of you is the Meitivs' nosey vindictive neighbor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But I don't think people are as worried about the destination as they are about the journey. Are there any major roads or busy intersections nearby?

Do you think that a six-year-old and a ten-year-old are inherently incapable of crossing a major road by themselves, or do you think it depends on the specific six-year-old and ten-year-old and the specific major road?

I think it depends on the specifics. And I think some of the intersections at issue are notoriously horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's weird to me is that the police/CPS didn't call the parents for a couple of hours. I'm sure the 10 year old knows the parents phone number (and I would think the 6 year old does as well). Why didn't the police or CPS immediately call the parents and say "We're taking the children into custody. Please come down to X for an investigatory interview" or whatever the process was.

I have no personal knowledge of this case- but I a fairly familiar with CPS procedures. Standard CPS procedure would be to immediately attempt to call the parents- including going to the house with the kids. I strongly suspect the parents were not reachable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet next the Helicopter Parents will start passing laws saying you can't be more then 10' away from your kids or the police will take your kids. What a joke.

It's glad to know how much effort parenting takes, telling them to go walk to the park while you go out to the bar or get a nap is not parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scenario: 6 yo falls off the monkey bars and breaks his arm. What will the 10 yo do?

Call for help, presumably. What do you think?

So the kid has a phone? I didn't give my child a phone until middle school. Another poor parenting choice.

I have a 10 year old niece and she has a cell phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet next the Helicopter Parents will start passing laws saying you can't be more then 10' away from your kids or the police will take your kids. What a joke.

Why don't these people have a nanny or are they too cheap and pass it off as free range.

[Anonymous]

I think it's unconscionable that CPS did not notify the parents form 6:00-10:30 at night. Egregious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's weird to me is that the police/CPS didn't call the parents for a couple of hours. I'm sure the 10 year old knows the parents phone number (and I would think the 6 year old does as well). Why didn't the police or CPS immediately call the parents and say "We're taking the children into custody. Please come down to X for an investigatory interview" or whatever the process was.

I have no personal knowledge of this case- but I a fairly familiar with CPS procedures. Standard CPS procedure would be to immediately attempt to call the parents- including going to the house with the kids. I strongly suspect the parents were not reachable.

They did say they were looking at the park and the neighborhood for their children.

They need cell phones for themselves and their children, apparently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Downtown Silver Spring has some very busy streets, and a few pedestrian fatalities in the past few years. Sometimes kids don't pay enough attention or take stupid risks because they don't truly understand they could get hit by a car or whatever. A good number of adults and teens run across Colesville, Georgia, etc. against the light. If you're not paying attention, that serves as a cue that it's your turn to cross too.

I was going to say something similar. Lots of people are running with this story saying "but I let my kids go to the park all the time and it's fine." If you're not familiar with this particular area, it doesn't mean much. There really are some awful intersections and it's not an overblown fear of child abduction that has some people saying it's not wise to let these kids wander this particular area unsupervised. I have no opinion as to whether CPS has overstepped the line, but can we stop pretending that this is just big government vs. sensible parents. There are legitimate threats to a child's safety in that area and pretending that this is just a case of nosy neighbors turning in parents who let their kids go to the park unsupervised misses the point. If we didn't have so many danagerous drivers in the area maybe these kids could have more freedom. But welcome to Silver Spring...

Agreed. There is no way in hell I would let my 10 year old and 6 year old do that walk.

Oh my god, that's bullshit. I live in DTSS, and the walk is perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

How the hell does CPS have time for this? How many kids have been beaten, sexually assaulted and who knows what else in the time they have spent on this family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's unconscionable that CPS did not notify the parents form 6:00-10:30 at night. Egregious.

Sue them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet next the Helicopter Parents will start passing laws saying you can't be more then 10' away from your kids or the police will take your kids. What a joke.

Why don't these people have a nanny or are they too cheap and pass it off as free range.

I don't know anybody who has a nanny for a six-year-old and a ten-year-old on a Sunday afternoon. Is that a common thing among the people you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How do I know? Because two children walking to a park is not a threat to public safety and is not illegal, and because getting taken to CPS by the police for being children walking to a park is not in the best interests of a child.

Wrong. Many children are neglected in Montgomery County Maryland every year. CPS gets calls every day from concerned citizens call and they investigate the situation.

Wrong, what? It's a threat to public safety when two children walk to a park? It's illegal for two children to walk to a park? It's in the best interests of a child to get taken into CPS custody by the police for walking to a park?

You would have to look at the community as a whole instead of you own little tiny meaningless agenda to understand. It is the best interest of the community as a whole that CPS respond to a call to CPS and to investigate the call.