This Isn't Kenya: Maryland Parents Investigated by CPS for Letting 10 and 6 Year Olds Walk Home One Mile from School

PTO wrote:

Allen -agree on a 10 year old boy but in today's world a girl 10 and younger needs to be protected from the freaks of the world.

Were I live there is a public park that I have been running in for almost 30 years it is well known that a certain area of the park is were flamers park and walk back into the field's to do what ever they do back there. There have been a few police stings there resulting in arrests.

Would any body feel safe letting there young kids walk alone near this area of a public park.

.

I would tell my kids to stay away from secluded areas of parks if I lived in a city, not because of "flamers" having sex (who cares, dude, they're closeted gay guys, not pedophiles), but because drug users and homeless folks tend to hang out there. I would not, however, support CPS investigating parents who let their kids in the park. That should be reserved for suspected abuse, not questionable parenting. And what's the outcome when you take a kid away from his parents? The foster care system is 1000000 X worse than walking home alone.

I do have to point out, playing devil's advocate, that crossing streets in my state, Florida, is extremely dangerous for anyone, so it does pay to have someone responsible around if they are crossing busy streets. Some 10 year olds are surely more than capable of crossing safely, by adult standards. At the same time, even I almost get hit by cars on a regular basis on my runs. Just this morning, a Saturday morning when no one is in a rush, I was waiting briefly at a light, perfectly visible to the drivers across the way, and started running across when it changed. A woman in a white suv on her cell slammed the gas pedal down to take a left turn nearly right through me, and if I hadn't been running (and yelling at her), she would have nailed me at probably 35 mph already (she was first in line at the opposite light). Now was she contrite about this? No, she had her face screwed up into a look of anger and was yelling at me, as if I had done something wrong. This is not in any way exceptional in this city. In fact, when my daughter's kindergarten class was walking as a group (to the high school for some sort of yearly ceremony), with teachers accompanying them and parents in tow, at the light of a major intersection, there were STILL cars trying to take fast right and left turns through the groups and my baby son in the jogging stroller and I were almost hit. So, people do have a legitimate point in accompanying their kids to cross these streets here. That doesn't mean the police have any business in arresting parents for letting their kids out alone but let's not claim that the traffic is safe.

I would disagree with you that it is adequate for kids to be active in sports programs and with their parents. Unless the parents are always out doing things with the kids, the kids are mostly shut up in cars and houses doing nothing, in contrast to my era when we were virtually always outside walking, running, or playing. I have two and 7 year old kids now and they don't get that much activity under the normal plan, particularly because they are in the car to and from the elder child's school and "activities" and have to stay inside most of the time with their mother and when I'm home preparing meals for them. The schools often have no recess during the day and not very much P.E. So, when I take them out to the park on foot or bike, and I let them actually play at the park for a significant amount of time (most mothers today that I see bring their children to parks only for a few minutes at a time and not every day), that is much more exercise than they get on the modern plan. It is so dangerous to get across a major street between us and the park that the other parents never even walk there (they drive).

Anyway, that's all a lot of talk. The evidence for how all this has affected this generation of children is in the obesity and diabetes stats, which are through the roof compared with the 1970s and even 1980s.

runningart2004 wrote:

It was a 10 yr old and 6 yr old and it the state of Maryland you have to be 13 to be unsupervised. That's why CPS was called out.

Alan

So what about just a 10 year old or two 12 year olds. Do you think the CPS should be called out then as the law says?

Having just become a parent myself I can understand how someone can worry about their children. However, the state should have a more considered view especially considering that the car culture is helping to cause child obesity

PTO wrote:

Allen -agree on a 10 year old boy but in today's world a girl 10 and younger needs to be protected from the freaks of the world.

Were I live there is a public park that I have been running in for almost 30 years it is well known that a certain area of the park is were flamers park and walk back into the field's to do what ever they do back there. There have been a few police stings there resulting in arrests.

Would any body feel safe letting there young kids walk alone near this area of a public park.

.

Hummm... maybe the authorities time would be better spent patrolling for sexual deviants and criminals vs. harassing innocent children and their parents?

jjjjjj wrote:

I do have to point out, playing devil's advocate, that crossing streets in my state, Florida, is extremely dangerous for anyone,

Well yah but isn't Florida where everyone goes to die? Even young people?

TAA wrote:

jjjjjj wrote:

I do have to point out, playing devil's advocate, that crossing streets in my state, Florida, is extremely dangerous for anyone,

Well yah but isn't Florida where everyone goes to die? Even young people?

Ha ha ha! yep!

your tax dollars hard at work.

what a joke - used to do a similar walk with the kids on my street every school day (in the 90s). no issues. knocked over a neighbours snowman, classic

That is how the Champions from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda made their future long be4 we knew they exist. I protest for posterity..leave the kids to walk.I walked since I was 5 for more than 4 miles to school every day!

That is how the Champions from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda made their future long be4 we knew they exist. I protest for posterity..leave the kids to walk.I walked since I was 5 for more than 4 miles to school every day!

PTO wrote:

Here's a fact captain obvious I have already raised my two kids one is 30 and one is 28 both doing great. I often take my grandkids on weekend's and stick to the same rules we always followed.

Do you even have kids or are you just some over smart jerk-off that thinks the world is beautiful place.

I live in the city not some oz land were you think its safe for young kids to walk to the streets.

I am glad CPS is around look for a show called Shameless on Showtime that shit is real maybe not in your perfect world but I see it.

Good luck to you raising kids its harder than any race I ever ran. I won !!!

I think his point is that in a given year, there are maybe 100 children abducted by strangers, while there are over 4000 children under age 16 that are killed in auto collisions.

When I was in elementary school (grades 1-6), the minimum distance to school that entitled a free bus ticket to the kid was 3 km. So anything shorter than that was considered as a distance that a 7-year-old is capable of going by foot or bike.

Still, in Finland, 75% of kids walk or bike to school according to a recent study, which is comparable to many African countries. Actually no other Western country has such a high number, with Australia, Canada, and Ireland having less than 40% and USA less than 20%.

I'm not saying that it helps to keep the Finnish kids fit, because it isn't. They are still quite sedentary and increasingly fat.

I think it is ridiculous that the agencies are wasting their time on this. Surely there are issues that require more attention.

However, the fact that the kids carry a card explaining the situation means that the parents KNOW that is controversial and KNOW it is against local guidelines and KNOW that they're just stirring the pot and trying to make a point.

The parents are tools for using their kids as tools. Sorry, Mom and Dad, but you must make other arrangements for your kids to and from school until they're old enough.

My guess is that the someone has expressed their concern to these parents before. Cops maybe even given these kids a ride home before. Why else would they have cards? I think we are missing the backstory.

I think the law is too conservative here. 10 yr old should be old enough to walk to school or the park alone.

Alan

Jeff Wigand wrote:

I think his point is that in a given year, there are maybe 100 children abducted by strangers, while there are over 4000 children under age 16 that are killed in auto collisions.

How many are killed by lions, rhinos and snakes?

runningart2004 wrote:

It was a 10 yr old and 6 yr old and it the state of Maryland you have to be 13 to be unsupervised. That's why CPS was called out.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a 10 yr old walking to school. The issue here is the legality of it and the parents letting small children have free range and roam around unsupervised. This was obviously going on for a while. Some teacher or parent probably got ticked off and called.

And about the 10 and 3 yr old....if parents are letting a 10 yr old, I don't care how tall, take 3 yr old out in a stroller unsupervised. ..that's negligence or laziness on the parents.

There is a middle ground between being overprotective and underprotective, between being a disciplinarian and a buddy.

Alan

That is incorrect about the Maryland law. Read the article again.

I'm perfectly fine with a 'responsible' 10 year old supervise their younger brother or sister in situations like this. Not all 10 year olds are capable but these parents obviously raised the kid to be responsible.

I live in a small rural town and I see the school bus stop 1 block from the elementary school to pick up kids. O N E F R E A K I N G B L O C K.

The kids could, literally, cut through their yards and walk 20 yards and be on the school grounds.

rojo wrote as best he could:

A few corrections.

The link wasn't working. I've now fixed it.

The kids weren't walking home from school but rather the park.

Now that I've got that out of the way. yes distances are a long way for kids. But so what. Weldon and I rode our bikes to school. I think we started in 2nd grade. Maybe it was 3rd? It was 0.80 of a mile. Yes I had someone with me and we met our friends at the end of the street but in 2nd grade we'd be what 8 and 9 in third grade.

Now clearly weldon and myself (sic) are geniuses but it didn't seem to be too big of a deal.

Then why can't you write at a college level?