I Let My 4 Kids Play Outside, On a Sunny Saturday. The Cops Wrote Up a Report.

[Anti Federalist]

I Let My 4 Kids Play Outside, On a Sunny Saturday. The Cops Wrote Up a Report

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

http://www.theagitator.com/2012/08/1...e-up-a-report/



Hi Folks! Lenore Skenazy from Free-Range Kids again. Tell me when you start getting sick of these stories: The ones where parents let their kids actually PLAY OUTSIDE and the cops come a-calling. I get these letters ALL THE TIME and am at my wit’s end, as I don’t know what to tell these traumatized parents. In fact, I just asked a cop on a post below this one (aptly titled, “Ask a Cop”). So here’s the latest letter. Since when does the government get to decide whether or not our kids are allowed to FROLIC?



Dear Free-Range Kids:

I might be labelled as an overprotective parent. I don’t allow my children to spend the night at anyone’s house, and also don’t allow anyone to spend the night here unless I know the parents very well. This is due to my own childhood trauma.

That said: I have had social services called on me twice and the police interrogate me 4 times, because apparently I am one of only two families that allows my children to play outside at all in our neighborhood (which is very safe . Just today, I allowed all four of my children (they were all together) to go play in the field adjacent to my house. I could literally see them outside my kitchen window. My 10 year old ran home to tell my husband and I that a cop had stopped and was interrogating my oldest daughter.

No, this was not after dark, it was at 4pm on a Saturday. So my husband walked out to see what was going on, and the police officer even wrote up a report, stating that the children were left outside unsupervised.

So, since I am new to Virginia, I asked my neighbors if this was a “Virginia” thing. Their response was, “Well, you know it just isn’t safe anymore to allow your kids to play outside.” I thought I was overprotective making them carry cellphones to check in every 30 mins, and only allowing them wander off 1/2 of a block. Seriously? We asked the police if they were doing anything wrong, he said, “No they were very respectful kids, I just wanted to make sure they were okay because it was odd seeing them outside unsupervised.” We are not talking toddlers, we’re talking teens, pre-teens and one 5 year old all together.

– A Mom of 4

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

I am counting the days until the police/cps are at my door for my Wife and I allowing our children to play outside.

[Indy Vidual]

Anyone know if New Hampshire has this problem?

[Anti Federalist]

Anyone know if New Hampshire has this problem?

If it does, I haven't heard of it.

[fisharmor]

Be fair people, I live in Virginia and I haven't heard of this problem.
But then there are two Virginias: HOA Virginia, and free Virginia.
I live in free Virginia, where my neighbors have delivered my 3-year-old nonverbal daughter to my front door on more than one occasion after she has gotten out and wandered off.
HOA Virginia would have had me committed long before I had children, probably after the first time they caught me stick welding in the back yard.

[Anti Federalist]

Be fair people, I live in Virginia and I haven't heard of this problem.
But then there are two Virginias: HOA Virginia, and free Virginia.
I live in free Virginia, where my neighbors have delivered my 3-year-old nonverbal daughter to my front door on more than one occasion after she has gotten out and wandered off.
HOA Virginia would have had me committed long before I had children, probably after the first time they caught me stick welding in the back yard.

LOL - Funny you should mention that.

My ten year old daughter was helping me braze a broken push mower handle bracket just last week.

[cjm]

So, since I am new to Virginia, I asked my neighbors if this was a “Virginia” thing....

As a couple people noted in the comments, it might be a Northern Virginia thing. I have posted on other threads with regard to parents not letting their kids roam these days, but that was primarily for the age 4-9 set. The teens and pre-teens here in SW Virginia all roam "unsupervised" throughout our city neighborhood (not suburban, not gated community) all the time. Although it would be a little surprising to see a couple of seven-year-olds playing in a park by themselves, seeing 2-3 ten-year-olds at a park by themselves is unremarkable down here.

[cjm]

I live in free Virginia, where my neighbors have delivered my 3-year-old nonverbal daughter to my front door on more than one occasion after she has gotten out and wandered off.

I guess I live in free Virginia too. I had a neighbor bang on my front door for several minutes when I had a 3 year old escapee while I was napping. Instead of calling the police when I didn't answer, he just went around back and banged on the back door until I woke up and answered. And we didn't know each other back then. He was just being a good neighbor trying to get this crying kid back into his house since it was cold outside.

[MelissaWV]

On my way home, I was treated to a really nice sight: mom taking some awesome photos of her two girls (maybe ten years old or so?) splashing and sliding through big ole rain puddles on their property. They were wearing the appropriate shoes though I would have gone barefoot. I was jealous. Those same girls are part of a small herd of children that goes all over our block. No one calls the cops on them, and even the officer who lives in the neighborhood doesn't bother with them unless they are doing something wrong.

That said, whose property were the free-rangers on?

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

That said, whose property were the free-rangers on?

Good point. And if not invited, same with the officer.

[LibertyRevolution]

I'm pretty sure that it is now illegal to let your children play unsupervised, I would check your local ordinances.

The mall here has leash laws for your children, you have to either stroller, hand hold, or wrist leash your small children.
Property owner has to protect himself you know..

welcome to amerika! have nice day.

[MelissaWV]

Good point. And if not invited, same with the officer.

Playing devil's advocate, I envision it along the lines of the officer being pulled over on the street and calling the kids over to ask what they're doing. I will fully admit that I used to wander around swamps and creeks around our home without a thought to whose property I was on, but if the property owner or a police officer acting on their behalf had told me to leave it, I would have done it. Common sense.

Of course, the field could have been the author's. It's entirely unclear.

[jbauer]

Hell they tried that with the no kids on farms bill that failed. I figured that was the way I was going down.

I am counting the days until the police/cps are at my door for my Wife and I allowing our children to play outside.

[Dr.3D]

No wonder the police are worried about unsupervised kids having something bad happen to them, it appears the police are so busy looking around for unsupervised kids, they don't have time to catch the people who are actually doing bad things to kids.

[QuickZ06]

No wonder the police are worried about unsupervised kids having something bad happen to them, it appears the police are so busy looking around for unsupervised kids, they don't have time to catch the people who are actually doing bad things to kids.

Shocking I know.....but then again doing "real" cop work is hard and requires thought, they dont like it when cops actually use their brain, goes against their cause.

[cjm]

I'm pretty sure that it is now illegal to let your children play unsupervised, I would check your local ordinances.

The mall here has leash laws for your children, you have to either stroller, hand hold, or wrist leash your small children.
Property owner has to protect himself you know..

welcome to amerika! have nice day.

I did a quick internet search and found this....

Virginia does not have a statute to determine the minimum age at which a child may be left unsupervised and neither does the city of Fredericksburg, according to police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe.

...unfortunately, the article later stated this:

If police have concerns about inadequate supervision, they generally refer the case to Child Protective Services. Here are the Supervision Guidelines used by city police:

Age 7 and under: Should not be left alone for any period of time. This may include leaving children unattended in cars, playgrounds, and backyards. The determining consideration would be the dangers in the environment and the ability of the caretaker to intervene.

Age 8 to 10: Should not be left alone for more than 1½ hours and only during daylight and early evening.

Age 11 to 12: May be left alone for up to 3 hours but not late at night or in circumstances requiring inappropriate responsibility.

Age 13 to 15: May be left unsupervised, but not overnight.

Age 16 to 17 years: May be left unsupervised. In some cases, for up to two consecutive overnight periods.

So in the absence of legal limits for leaving children unattended, the police have the option of "using" (enforcing?) guidelines?

Someday you'll need both a lawyer and a guideline-yer to represent you in court.

[pcosmar]

Jeeze,,this $#@! almost makes me glad I have no kids.

[Yieu]

//

[MelissaWV]

So... any word on whose field it was?

[Natural Citizen]

So... any word on whose field it was?

As far as the kids are concerned? It was Earths field. Maybe if we stopped getting in their way all of the time then they would have an opportunity to really be able to pay attention to the world and explore how things work. Maybe get to ask a few questions of their own about something they have seen or maybe see something and ask what it is. How does it work? But no. We can't do that. We must always deter them by getting into their way with the old stop it or you'll hurt yourself or stop it you'll break it or stop it you look silly and the rest of the feel good list that serves only to keep the parents keeping things just the way they are.

Is no wonder we cannot produce a generation of critical thinkers, explorers and builders anymore.

[MelissaWV]

As far as the kids are concerned? It was Earths field. Maybe if we stopped getting in their way all of the time then they would have an opportunity to really be able to pay attention to the world and explore how things work. But no. We can't do that. We must always deter them by getting into their way with the old stop it or you'll hurt yourself or stop it you'll break it or stop it you look silly.

No wonder we cannot produce a generation of critical thinkers, explores and builders anymore.

Just consume, consume and consume some more.

What this has to do with trespassing, I will never know.

[TheTexan]

Culture of fear -> More tyranny -> More fear -> More tyranny -> ...

[cjm]

What this has to do with trespassing, I will never know.

I would think that if trespassing were an issue that the police officer would have dropped the "T word" and the mom would have included it in her story. Or more likely, she wouldn't have written it if the police had given her a trespass warning. A trespass warning would have triggered an "oops" response and a low profile, not indignation and a letter to a free-range-kids blogger.

My guess is that it was either public (government) property or that is was private property and the owner was out of the picture.

[S.Shorland]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/cops-int...y-outside.html

[oyarde]

Nonsense , give them a tomahawk .

[heavenlyboy34]

[oyarde]

Did you get to play outside HB ?

[John F Kennedy III]

Cops Interrogate Family For Allowing Kids To Play Outside


Social services harass mother for having ‘free range’ children

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A family has been harassed by social services and police for the egregious crime of allowing their children to play outside in another example of how the nanny state is running wild in America.


Lenore Skenazy, editor of the Free Range Kids website, was contacted by a mother in Virginia who related her story of how she was interrogated by police four times and visited by social services twice after her children were spotted playing outside unsupervised.

The mother said that despite the fact she is careful about allowing her kids to stay over at other people’s houses because of a related childhood trauma of her own, she is being harassed by authorities because she is “one of only two families that allows my children to play outside at all in our neighborhood (which is very safe).”

“Just today, I allowed all four of my children (they were all together) to go play in the field adjacent to my house. I could literally see them outside my kitchen window. My 10 year old ran home to tell my husband and I that a cop had stopped and was interrogating my oldest daughter,” the mother writes.

“No, this was not after dark, it was at 4pm on a Saturday. So my husband walked out to see what was going on, and the police officer even wrote up a report, stating that the children were left outside unsupervised.”

Although she makes her children carry cellphones and check in every 30 minutes, the mother was told by her neighbors that “it just isn’t safe anymore to allow your kids to play outside.”


When the mother asked the police officer if the children, two teens, a pre-teen and a 5-year-old, were causing trouble, the officer responded, “No they were very respectful kids, I just wanted to make sure they were okay because it was odd seeing them outside unsupervised.”

How fundamentally warped has society become when children are not allowed to play outside in a field right next to their own house without suspicion being cast on their parents by authorities and neighbors?

Paranoia about child abductions has been hyped by both the media and the state as a means of eviscerating parental rights and transferring such power over to the government.

In reality, America has never been safer for kids in decades.

As AOL News’ David Knowles documents, “According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 980,712 people under the age of 18 were reported missing in 1997, compared to 643,744 in 2008.”

Child abductions are declining rapidly year upon year, so why on earth are Americans increasingly terrified of allowing their kids to enjoy the freedom of the great outdoors?

This is another example of the nanny state gone wild.

Manufactured paranoia that has no basis in reality is being hyped to turn all parents into potential child abusers and in the process castrate the happy, normal, and adventurous upbringing that all children should enjoy.

Is it any wonder that so many children end up being put on Ritalin or other psychotropic drugs given that the happiest days of their lives and the key formative stage of their development is being strangled by such overbearing nonsense?

Parents are being harassed by police and social services for caring for their children in ways which a sane society would consider normal and healthy.

Back in 2010, we reported on the case of a father of two who was harassed and investigated by Child Protective Services and police for feeding his daughters organic food, refusing to make them drink fluoride-poisoned tap water and not having them injected with mercury-laden vaccines.


original article here:
http://www.infowars.com/cops-interro...-play-outside/

[oyarde]

, My kid would have said , sorry , I am not supposed to talk to you , you better leave now , before I have to get my Dad.

[Kylie]

, My kid would have said , sorry , I am not supposed to talk to you , you better leave now , before I have to get my Dad.

Word. My kids have been told to do the same be it in our yard or at school. I am the parent and I have good children because We raised them that way. They have a healthy distrust for people in uniforms too, ever since we had the cops show up at our house last year. The boy would not go in the house when I told him to and continued a conversation with the cop until I got rude and told the cop to quit talking to my kid....he did not have my permission to do so. His grandma hit the point home that the cops do that in order to catch you up in lies or halftruths or misspeaking. I think he got it after grandma had a $#@! fit on him. When its not just your crazy paranoid Mom telling you to STFU, but your grandma to, it tends to stick.