Man gets cops called on him for letting his 12 year old play in the yard.

[Anti Federalist]

Reddit story, so I don't know how much truth there is to it.


What is a parent to do? Police called on me for letting my son play outside by himself. He is almost 12.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/xoo27/what_is_a_parent_to_do_police_called_on_me_for/

The police said he wasn't doing anything wrong, but the other parent(s) wanted me reported for neglect for allowing him outside by himself. I personally think helicopter parents and parents who allow their offspring to become obese from a steady diet of hotdogs and tv/videogames are the neglectful ones. I live in an apartment complex, if that matters. Also, when he goes out alone I send him with a walkie so we can contact each other. And he knows the boundaries of where to go. So do I have to ruin the shred of childhood that lingers and keep him indoors all the time now? Or go with him, which he would hate and be ridiculed for? WTF? Any advice?

Edit: FWIW, he is 5'5", he doesn't look like a little kid who wandered off.

Edit #2: Thank you all so much for your support!

 

[Danke]

I know my response.

 

[Origanalist]

At least they didn't shoot the parent and taze the kid.

 

[pcosmar]

Get the hell out of the Cities.

Those shit holes are going to get exponentially worse.

 

[Carson]

I sort of remember being left on my own a lot when I was a kid.

Then again I remember every kid seemed to have a to-do list ready if they had the house to themselves. And we waited...

And we waited...

And we waited...

We often kept an eye out on each other also. It was a healthy time to grow up it seems to me. People now seem to be awfully scared of everything. Then the shit we pull now we probably should be sleeping in underground bunkers.



“I was so poor growing up - if I wasn't a boy - I'd have had nothing to play with”

Rodney Dangerfield

 

[jmdrake]

That's insane! I bet the scum that called the cops let their kids watch slasher movies and think they are good parents.

 

[Rudeman]

12 is Jr. High age isn't it? I used to play outside all the time and I was younger than that. Only rule was I had to be home before it got dark/dinner (whichever came first).

 

[Kluge]

Christ's sake, I was 10, living in a foreign country and was outside alone all the time. How will a kid learn anything without being able to investigate on his own?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

WTF? When I was that age I just had to let the folks know I was going and I'd stay out with friends all day. (both when I lived in the Phoenix suburbs and in a more rural Ohio area) How are kids going to learn basic social skills being inside and under surveilance 24/7?

 

[Tod]

When I was less than 10 I could basically go as far as I could ride my bike and still make it back in time for supper.

 

[Anti Federalist]

My boy loves the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series.

He presses each new edition off on me to read as soon as he's done.

So I read the latest, last night, and I found it to be good news that the author, through the main character of Greg, commented extensively on how his schoolyard playground was now "like a prison yard", since they took all the playground equipment, the kids were prohibited from running or touching each other, (they had to play "Power Walk Air Tag")from bringing any kind of toys or games along, and because of that, how one single Lego block was selling for half a buck on the schoolyard black market.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

When I was less than 10 I could basically go as far as I could ride my bike and still make it back in time for supper.

City, suburbs, or rural area? /curious

 

[John F Kennedy III]

When I was 7 in little league the coach used to drive with us sitting in the bed of his pickup truck.

 

[oyarde]

I bought and registered my first boat when I was 12 , I already owned a racing bike , had a savings , checking accounts ,a few shares of stock , owned a lawn mower , a.177 pellet rifle , a bow and a quiver full of arrows , a tomahawk , ice pick , machete , traps , fishing poles , tackle box , had my own livestock ...

 

[oyarde]

Of course if someone had called the Law on me , they would not have bothered to stop and talk to me and I would not have gone out of my way to listen....

 

[kpitcher]

A woman was doing the talk show rounds awhile ago by sending her kid on the NYC subway alone. Someone was at the destination to pick him up. She's got a website called free range kids http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ - can't say I've read it, just remember the news story and a google search showed that.

 

[Noob]

When I was that age I could walk right to downtown to the stores, walk all over town, go to the pizza place play the arcade games, order pizza, walk home.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

When I was really young, like 6 or 7 I was supposed to stay in our yard. Shortly after that it was our street and then neighborhood. By 11 or 12 I was riding my bike to the library a mile away and walking to the nearest grocery store - maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile away. Sometimes I'd ride the bus alone to the nearest shopping center which was about 5 miles away.

edge of suburbia and country side.

-t

 

[DamianTV]

Get the hell out of the Cities.

Those shit holes are going to get exponentially worse.

Lets expand on that...

I dont think that the problems are inherit to big cities. The problems are inherit to Stupid People. You know who we are talking about. The ones that call the cops when the little girl opens a lemonade stand. The ones that think youre kid should be microchipped at school. The ones that believe that every alphabet soup letter of the government is there for our benefit. The ones that think it is OKAY to Tazer a 12 year old because mommy was late on her taxes. It is these very Stupid People that exacerbate the problems we have by repeating the trash that comes out of the MSM as if it were actually true, thus perpetuating the lie.

Cities themselves arent the problem. There are plenty of smart people that live in cities too. Cities just tend to have a higher density of idiots per square mile than those that need to be independant.

 

[devil21]

WTF? When I was that age I just had to let the folks know I was going and I'd stay out with friends all day. (both when I lived in the Phoenix suburbs and in a more rural Ohio area) How are kids going to learn basic social skills being inside and under surveilance 24/7?

That's kinda the point. My social skills suck and I had a lot of access. Can't imagine how shallow and empty of empathy or passion those sorts of kids will be as adults.