My son is 8 and we live about a 5 minute walk from his school. The entire walk is down a lively pedestrian mall, he has to cross one, narrow, 30kph, crosswalked road that’s constantly being crossed by other kids and parents as it’s the main route to get to the school from all of the nearby flats. The teacher got visibly agitated and shocked when I suggested the possibility of him walking to or from school by himself and said she vehemently disagrees with it and that she didn’t even let her 4th grader walk alone. He has a locked down smart watch he can use to call us if there are any issues.
And I’m not even in the US, I’m in central Europe. These people are honestly kind of batshit insane.
Officials in the case decided to press charges against Parkinson, and last week she was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and placed on Virginia’s child-abuse-and-neglect registry, where she will remain for seven years.
I am all in favor of delinquency, but I don’t understand what delinquent behavior she could possibly have contributed to in this case? Walking in public? Having an interest in waterfowl?
She allowed a 5yo to go to a pond on his own.
No five year old is mature enough to understand and recognize the dangers involved.
Drowning, sure. But also, I’d be willing to bet there’s at least one person there who would harm that kid. There’s also the potential for traffic and getting lost on the way home; if trying to eat something dangerous and all manner of other things.
Damn, have you interacted with any 5 year olds? They’re smarter than you think.
The incidence of kidnapping was WAY higher in gen-x days with no cell phones to rat out the pervs. And even when it was way higher, most child abuse happened by someone well-known to the victim. Stranger-danger was unbelievably rare.
My entire school in the 4th grade (so 9yo) lived next to a busy highway used by full 80t logging trucks, dump trucks, semi-trucks with full loads, in an area where snow is common in winter. We’d trudge down the boulevard of the highway, alto sax or trombone cases in hand, lugging it all to school and back. The whole class would. All grades would, from 4-7, hair and clothes flapping in the wind as a semi would roar past.
Then from the 8th grade we’d attend the school in the next town over. We’d get ourselves to the bus stop and disappear for 8 hours, completely out of contact, the eldest child with a house key and no ID, no phone, no tracker watch, no geofencing.
Tell me again how modern life is dangerous.
You’re making a statistical claim and the statistics don’t support you. Although you personally are paranoid, in reality, children have gone around the neighborhood almost entirely safely for almost all of human history.
Of course there is some element of risk. That’s true for life, for everyone, forever. But until you have solid data that says the kids shouldn’t be able to go a very short distance to a place that they know how to get to safely, then you’re speculating about what could possibly go wrong. And that’s just a waste of time from a public policy perspective.
No five year old is mature enough to understand and recognize the dangers involved.
I think the mother is better qualified to make that call than you.
Children eventually become adults, and they don’t magically become autonomous on their 18th birthday. It’s something responsible parents teach, and it starts young.
There’s a long running Japanese show called “Old Enough” where kids younger than this go off and do errands.
There’s a long running Japanese show called “Old Enough” where kids younger than this go off and do errands.
You know there’s at least one adult watching that child as they go off and do errands, right? the child isn’t unsupervised.
Children eventually become adults, and they don’t magically become autonomous on their 18th birthday. It’s something responsible parents teach, and it starts young.
And the key word here is “starts”. The leading causes of death of children between 1 and 19 are mostly things that that child could have encountered.
they include:
- Firearms.
- being ran over by a car.
- Poisoning
- Suffocation
- Drowning.
And before you’re like “But they were in a gated community!”… I’ve worked security for gated communicates. people still drive like shit, and people are still people, and I’ve never met a 5 yo that was old enough to know the difference between a sweet tart and rat poison tablet- at least not before chomping on it.
Are you trolling? You just perfectly summed up everything that’s wrong with the US
I feel like I am in a Monty Python sketch right now. She “contributed to delinquency” because he could have gotten in trouble that he didn’t get into if things had gone entirely differently?
Yes.
The government decided that children that young should be supervised. She failed to provide that supervision.
The child coming back safe that time doesn’t count- it’s a dangerous world.
But they didn’t charge her with endangering him, that’s a different thing.
Edit to add: And I suspect they didn’t because he was, self evidently, not in danger. So I remain confused about why this became an entire affair.
Because prosecutors are elected in the US, they do all kinds of stupid things.
The government decided that children that young should be supervised.
And we all know that the government is always just and never gets it wrong.
did I say the government was right?
the good news here is that, as part of that government by means of voting, you can go and change yours.
Parkinson told me that her son—who competently walked the security guard back to their house after politely explaining that he wasn’t allowed to get into cars with strangers—had become distraught upon learning that he had apparently done something very bad.
There it is. This should have ended it. A short discussion between the security guard and the mother, with the mother explaining that her son was fine should have been the end of this, and the security guard could rest easy if he saw the kid outside again.
I’m Gen X and you already know our stories--gone from dawn to dusk in the summer with a stop in for lunch. Why have we done a complete 180 on this? Why are parents so afraid of fucking everything, it seems?
Its the Republicans and their fear mongering, almost every network tv has overflow of cop/crime shows. They think they’re tough but whom is the real snowflakes in this country?
This seems like a big part of it.
Elder millennial, same here
Parents are afraid someone will call the cops on the kid, and the cops will call the state, and now your kid could be taken away, or you (the parent) arrested.
OK, but to be fair, we really really shouldn’t have been drinking out of hoses
I still do.
And there weren’t tracking devices in every pocket back then either.
Why do so many in the US feel entitled to make decisions for others?
I wish this was just the US. Having to fight the teachers here in Hungary so my 8 year old can walk down the pedestrian mall we live on and cross one slow road with a crosswalk to walk to school by himself. They’re dead set against it.
“because I’m right and everyone else is wrong!”
Unacknowledged sub/dom kink
The fact she was arrested is unbelievable.
Admittedly, I wouldn’t let my 5 year old have that much leeway, but I don’t know her kid or the neighborhood and he seemed pretty capable based solely on the article. I’d probably wait until they are eligible for numbered grades. I was walking solo to elementary school and I made it out ok, so I guess kindergarten might not be much different. I think 7-8 is much more reasonable, but each kid is different.
I walked home from kindergarten. It was like 10 blocks. There were a few turns. And there was never any problem because of course there wasn’t.
In a gated community, with private security patrolling. That’s probably safer than just being in the backyard unsupervised next to the woods.
That’s fair, though I don’t think the security was patrolling. I imagine it was just the gate guard or something, but like I said, it seems like it was something the kid could handle. My main issue is with the fact it was around a body of water where it’s possible not a lot of other people were. Maybe he’s an Olympic swimmer and would be fine, maybe he has the self restraint that all the Greek gods lacked, but all the sudden the wind carries a feather into the water and who knows from there. Again, I don’t know the kid or the area. I don’t think this was an appropriate response. I’m just saying for me personally, based on my experience with children in my life, I think 5 is a little young for that activity. I’d probably be fine with a longer walk to a friends house, to school, or to a park. I just don’t love the idea of young kids unsupervised near water.
The TV show Old Enough with Japanese kids running errands has kids 2-5, so I’m not saying it can’t be done, I just personally wouldn’t love the idea.
Edited for clarity
Security guards aren’t life guards. Totally different training, and even if the guard was a roving guard, it’s unlikely they’d be near the pond while the child was drowning. They are, after all, roving through the whole neighborhood.
Did you mean to reply to me? I never suggested that the security guard was a life guard. The person I was responding to suggested that guards were patrolling the neighborhood, and I was just pointing out that wasn’t my understanding based on the article. If you’re responding to the part of my comment where I suggested it was “something he could handle”, I was referring to the fact the child seemed capable of handling the situation he was in. Maybe that was unclear there, but in my prior comment I believe it was clear I was referring to the kid being able to handle himself, so I was referencing that. My whole point was basically that I would be too concerned to allow a kid in my care to do that, so I believe we are in agreement.
I did mean to reply to you, yes.
I read your comment about it being something they can handle as pertaining to the guard.
Bet that gated community has at least 2 pedos in it.
Jesus who decides the age in which a kid can ride the subway or walk to a gated community pond by themselves?
Thank you for your service.
