Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's good that they are suing. I found this below to be concerning:

From the link above:

"Well the policeman said we will give you a ride home when we were like two blocks away. So we got into the car and then about two and half hours later, instead he brang us here," Rafi Meitiv said, referring to CPS.

According to the Meitiv's lawyers, the police demanded that the children get into a police car. The children told police they wanted to call home, but police did not allow them to call. The agency did not contact the Meitiv's for three hours, leaving the parents frantically searching for their missing children.

The 10 year old's report is different from the police officer's report. So, you get to choose which to believe.

Sadly, I would believe a kid over a police report every day of the week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My reading is this is CPS's faulty mostly. The cop's hands were tied. They got a call from a complainant, so they have to respond. Then, since it's a child welfare call, he has to report it to CPS. Then, he has to wait on CPS to tell him waht to do. All the hours of delay seem to be because CPS was trying to figure out what to do.

It all happened late on Sunday. Nobody in the office.

Which means CPS isn't designed to do their job well. I doubt children are only abused and in need of help M-F 9-5. Sounds like the CPS on-call person wasn't answering their phone.

All of a sudden these kids who are so independent and can take care of themselves are all freaked out about sitting in a car.

Most kids that are sitting in the car are pretty thankful. Not the Range Rover kids with the "special request food".

They are in a car with a stranger, whom others have said could not really be part of the police, and their family had recently been harassed by police and the CPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

Actually that too is incorrect. In fact anything that has to do with kids makes the news. We hear of crimes with children internationally that we would not if it was an adult. These 24hr news stations cater to the paranoid. More kids die in cars and in their homes supervised than alone. Kids that are abducted know their predator 73% of the time. Crimes with children in playgrounds playing together with no parents and getting snatched by a stranger? They are very hard to come by.

No. Most of the time the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't even get reported. But most of it happens to people you don't know and no one cares about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

First off, they don't look like me. Second, I think they are good parents because I used to do the same when I was a kid and I now do the same with my kids. I think they (my kids) are better off for it. Stop generalizing to prove a point that can not be proven.

Anonymous wrote:It's good that they are suing. I found this below to be concerning:

From the link above:

"Well the policeman said we will give you a ride home when we were like two blocks away. So we got into the car and then about two and half hours later, instead he brang us here," Rafi Meitiv said, referring to CPS.

According to the Meitiv's lawyers, the police demanded that the children get into a police car. The children told police they wanted to call home, but police did not allow them to call. The agency did not contact the Meitiv's for three hours, leaving the parents frantically searching for their missing children.

The 10 year old's report is different from the police officer's report. So, you get to choose which to believe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents are stupid. What's easier, watching your kids at a park, or having to deal with the police? They should be ashamed of themselves for their lousy parenting. I feel sorry for the kids. The older kid is having to act like a parent and the younger one is being parented by a child.

It's called teaching kids responsibility. All this handholding of kids has led to helpless young adults who can't do anything without their parents.

My brother is 29, parent of the millenial generation and 12 years younger than me so basically my parents dealt with him way differently than me. They were helicopter parents with him. I was a typical 80s free roaming kids. My brother has been in arrested development, can't figure out how to wash his clothes, make a decent meal, open a checking account, budget, basic in depending living essentials. It's incredible and sad. All this handholding does have consequences,

You can properly supervise and support your kids and teach them life skills. I am sick of the whole so called helicopter parwnt criticism industry. Kids thrive with emotional support and attention. While they may become more independent if you ignore them, it comes at a huge emotional cost. Just witness these Meitev parents, who care more about their internet parenting theories than actually protecting their kids from further problems. If they are so wedded to having a free range six year old they need to move to a small town.

Anonymous wrote:Guess what - I can teach my children to be self sufficient without needing to force my 6 year old to wander past abandoned parking garages and homeless people alone, and cross dangerous intersections without assistance. These parents have no sense of proportion or sense. The lawsuit will demonstrate that the police acted reasonably in response to finding two young children alone in a risky area.

Simmer down helicopter. Last time I checked it is okay to walk past parking garages and homeless people are not criminals. The fact that you see two kids walking home from a park without a parent is now neglect is the whole reason why CPS feels they can justify their actions even know there is no law broken. Pretty soon we will be exactly where you helicopters want the kids to be. Like Wall-E. Stuck to chairs watching screens "safe" from any harm.

If you think it was okay for you to walk alone at these ages when you were a kid and it is not now, how much more paranoid can we get in 20 more years when we are grandparents. Will you have to be 18yrs old to watch a sibling? 21yrs old to be by yourself? Will latchkey kids be completely illegal. All kids until high school need after-care? Does any of this sound ridiculous? Because I am 100% sure if you asked our parents 20-30yrs ago about what is going on today, they would think you were crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

Who has said that they are good parents? The points have been:

1. It's not neglect to let your child walk home from the park.
2. It's ridiculous that society has evidently come to believe that it is neglect to let your child walk home from the park.
3. There is no reason to believe that the parents are neglecting their children (except insofar as you believe that letting a child walk home from the park is neglect).
4. CPS messed up here.

You're making a lot of generalizations and assumptions. You're assuming, first, that the story the parents present is the entire story. I don't assume that. Second, your statement that "it's not neglect to let your child walk home from the park" is obviously overly general. If I let my 4 year old walk home alone from the park, that's neglect. I think if I let my 6 year old walk home alone from the park, that would also be neglect, but that might depend on how far the park is, the maturity level of the kid, etc. If I let my 8 year old walk home alone from the park, I don't think that's neglect, and neither does CPS. So let's be clear on how awful this nanny state really is. They agree if the kid is 8, it's all good. Your disagreement is on where that line is (somewhere between 4 and 8, probably -- you'd say closer to 4 and I'd say closer to 8).
I don't know whether the parents are neglecting their children in other ways, but I do know that two separate people have reported these kids (according to that Fox news story that said the most recent reporter didn't know the kids). That to me says there's something worth investigating. That's what CPS did. And the police report, while certainly not definitive, raises the issue of the kids being spotted in/near the garage and for long enough that the person reporting it called and when the police came the kids were still there. That's not consistent with the story of the kids walking home from the park -- at the very least there was some dawdling near a parking garage with a homeless guy. If my kids were doing that, I would want a police officer to check it out and get them out of that situation. I'd of course want him to then bring them home to me. But they can't do that, because once the report has happened, they have to do their due diligence to make sure the place they're returning the kids to is safe for the kids.
Your conclusion, that CPS messed up, isn't determined. You would have to know a lot more about this situation before you decide that. The may have, they may not have.

Anonymous wrote:Guess what - I can teach my children to be self sufficient without needing to force my 6 year old to wander past abandoned parking garages and homeless people alone, and cross dangerous intersections without assistance. These parents have no sense of proportion or sense. The lawsuit will demonstrate that the police acted reasonably in response to finding two young children alone in a risky area.

Why do you think that the six-year-old was forced to do these things? What makes you conclude that it's a risky area -- have you been there? And it's not an abandoned parking garage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

PREACH!!!!!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

Who has said that they are good parents? The points have been:

1. It's not neglect to let your child walk home from the park.
2. It's ridiculous that society has evidently come to believe that it is neglect to let your child walk home from the park.
3. There is no reason to believe that the parents are neglecting their children (except insofar as you believe that letting a child walk home from the park is neglect).
4. CPS messed up here.

BINGO

Guess what - I can teach my children to be self sufficient without needing to force my 6 year old to wander past abandoned parking garages and homeless people alone, and cross dangerous intersections without assistance. These parents have no sense of proportion or sense. The lawsuit will demonstrate that the police acted reasonably in response to finding two young children alone in a risky area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

Actually that too is incorrect. In fact anything that has to do with kids makes the news. We hear of crimes with children internationally that we would not if it was an adult. These 24hr news stations cater to the paranoid. More kids die in cars and in their homes supervised than alone. Kids that are abducted know their predator 73% of the time. Crimes with children in playgrounds playing together with no parents and getting snatched by a stranger? They are very hard to come by.

It's good that they are suing. I found this below to be concerning:

From the link above:

"Well the policeman said we will give you a ride home when we were like two blocks away. So we got into the car and then about two and half hours later, instead he brang us here," Rafi Meitiv said, referring to CPS.

According to the Meitiv's lawyers, the police demanded that the children get into a police car. The children told police they wanted to call home, but police did not allow them to call. The agency did not contact the Meitiv's for three hours, leaving the parents frantically searching for their missing children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md. free-range parents to file lawsuit against CPS to fight the "unlawful seizure of their children."

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/04/14/free-range-parenting-lawsuit-cps/25759523/

I don't like this couple and I'm on CPS side on this one, but I'm actually glad they're suing. Let's get this issue resolved. Is CPS overstepping? I read the regs to be pretty clear that you're not supposed to leave a kid under 8 unsupervised, and the supervision must be by someone 11 (if sibling) or 13 or older. But it's a bit fuzzy whether that applies to public spaces or just at home. So let's get it resolved already. Regardless, I expect there will not be any finding of liability on the part of the police or CPS. They're going to be able to show that they're legally obligated to follow up on the report and not just turn the kids over to the parents without some investigation. To me, the only thing they may have done wrong is take too long in resolving it. But I'm not sure how that leads to any liability.
I also fully expect that if this couple (and all the spittle-flinging crazies on this thread) succeed in removing any regulations for young children being left unsupervised, they will then vilify CPS for NOT protecting unsupervised young kids when something does happen as a result of that. Of course, most of the time, the bad stuff that happens to unsupervised kids doesn't make the news. And I also think that a *lot* of the reason that people think these parents are good parents is simply because they look like us and our friends. A lot packed into that level of bias.

Who has said that they are good parents? The points have been:

1. It's not neglect to let your child walk home from the park.
2. It's ridiculous that society has evidently come to believe that it is neglect to let your child walk home from the park.
3. There is no reason to believe that the parents are neglecting their children (except insofar as you believe that letting a child walk home from the park is neglect).
4. CPS messed up here.