A friend of mine gives her kids much more freedom than many other parents think is reasonable. But a couple weeks ago an incident happened and it just saddens me... She had dropped her 8-, 9-, 11-, and 13- year-olds down the street from me on the way to our house. She was here less than an hour and a half when she got a phone call that the kids were at the university police station! They were crossing the street (the oldest was directing, and he's very mature for his age!), and the youngest ended up by himself on one side after the others crossed. A truck was coming so he waited to cross. The driver saw his siblings waiting for him and graciously stopped to let him cross. No big deal. Except that university police saw what happened and picked up all the kids... For really no reason. Just because they were crossing the street without an adult I guess. It took U.P. 20 minutes to get ahold of my friend's husband (she had left her cell phone at home and he was at work). Because it took so long, U.P. called in Child Protection. So now they've been told that NONE of their kids are allowed out of their own yard without an adult present. Of course, they all think it's ridiculous! As do their parents. As do DH and I... The 8-year-old knew enough to not cross when he had enough time to but knew it would be closer than he was comfortable with, just to be safe. What a frustrating situation...
@CML: That's awful! What a scary thing, that parents can be ordered not to allow even a 13 year old out of their yard without an adult present. What sort of society do we live in? So sad.
Haha. This is great!
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine gives her kids much more freedom than many other parents think is reasonable. But a couple weeks ago an incident happened and it just saddens me... She had dropped her 8-, 9-, 11-, and 13- year-olds down the street from me on the way to our house. She was here less than an hour and a half when she got a phone call that the kids were at the university police station! They were crossing the street (the oldest was directing, and he's very mature for his age!), and the youngest ended up by himself on one side after the others crossed. A truck was coming so he waited to cross. The driver saw his siblings waiting for him and graciously stopped to let him cross. No big deal. Except that university police saw what happened and picked up all the kids... For really no reason. Just because they were crossing the street without an adult I guess. It took U.P. 20 minutes to get ahold of my friend's husband (she had left her cell phone at home and he was at work). Because it took so long, U.P. called in Child Protection. So now they've been told that NONE of their kids are allowed out of their own yard without an adult present. Of course, they all think it's ridiculous! As do their parents. As do DH and I... The 8-year-old knew enough to not cross when he had enough time to but knew it would be closer than he was comfortable with, just to be safe. What a frustrating situation...
ReplyDelete@CML: That's awful! What a scary thing, that parents can be ordered not to allow even a 13 year old out of their yard without an adult present. What sort of society do we live in? So sad.
ReplyDeleteWhoops... That comment was supposed to be for Unreasoning Fear...
ReplyDelete