Would you call 911 on another parent?

[chalmers]

Would you call 911 on another parent?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/03/03/would-you-call-911-on-another-parent/?tid=sm_fb

Would you call 911 if you saw a child sitting in a car parked outside a store, alone, engrossed in a video game?

Or a 9-year-old playing alone at a playground?

Or a 10- and 6-year-old walking purposefully, hand-in-hand, toward home?

Stories are mounting of people calling the cops on parents who let their older kids attempt a bit of independence. The parents are suddenly subjected to arrests, regular visits from Child Protective Services, a media storm and in one case, losing a job because of the attention. Their children become afraid to step outside, and so do they. These parents are charged with being neglectful, even though they have thoughtfully made the decision that their children are capable of accomplishing these tasks safely.

[jwirr]

1. Was teaching Sunday school when some of the kids in the

class started asking a girl about her abuse. She was ashamed and refused to talk to them but what I heard was enough to call Child Protection. They contacted the children in the family when they were at school and it got back to me that there was indeed abuse and it was being handled.

Yes, I would call on another family.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

2. As a teacher, I am required to call CPS if I suspect abuse, but

none of the scenarios described in this post would make me suspect. I started babysitting at 8 years old and walked miles by myself while growing up.

[hunter]

3. My siblings and I were largely feral children.

My own children less so, so I suppose there is a balance somewhere.

Two of my siblings left home at 16, not so much out of friction with family (there was always friction in a house with too many crazy artists about), but as much as because they could, having already acquired a bit of street smarts.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Things are out of balance here...

There is neglect and abuse, but there is also independence.

Get opinions from European parents who live without mindless fear and let their kids do all sorts of things that terrorize us.

[B2G]

5. Depends on the age of the child and

what they're doing.

9 and 10 year olds in this situation...no way.

[GGJohn]

6. NO.

As children, we were left alone at 8-9 years old to do what kids normally do, have fun, get into kids trouble, etc.
This calling 911 for any little thing has gotten way out of hand and needs to stop.

[pennylane100]

7. I have called the police several times

when I have seen a small child alone in a car. I always hover nearby and do not leave until a police car arrives.

I do not know what the proper course of action would be for the other two scenarios. Maybe the caregivers are nearby, it is a difficult call and luckily I have not had to deal with it.

[treestar]

8. 1. Age of the child would matter

old enough to play the video game. But if I had charge of that child I would not feel comfortable leaving them there to go into the store unless they were at least 10. Maybe even older. I'd be afraid of kidnapping or the like - unlikely, but what if it did happen?

2. no, I'd assume they were OK. Odd because the kid in the car is bothersome. But at a playground there are a lot of kids and adults.

3. no that would not seem worthy of calling cops at all.

[dumbcat]

9. When I was growing up (in the 50's)

the age of eight was the normal age to be allowed to roam around by yourself and with friends. On my 8th birthday my Dad gave me my first pocketknife, a Cub Scout folding camping type knife, and told me that I was now old enough to wander around the neighborhood, over to the park, the high school grounds, the pond in the woods, or the Hudson River to go swimming, and generally had about a 2 mile radius where everyone was happy. My buddies and I would go to the woods and build forts, go to the river and build rafts like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and waste away our days. The rule was be home before dark, but we usually got hungry before that in the summertime. This was the norm in my area of upstate NY.

At 14 I could come home from school on the bus Friday afternoon, change clothes, grab my pack, some food and my .22 rifle and inform my parents that I was going out camping with my buddies for the weekend, probably down by the Hudson River where we would plink at random things floating by for the weekend. My parents would usually just ask what time I planned to be home on Sunday. Nobody got upset, nobody cared. No one called the police about 3 or 4 kids on bicycles pedaling down the road with .22 rifles over their shoulders heading for the hobo camps near the river.

And amazingly enough, no one I ever knew was killed, attacked or hurt (well beyond maybe a broken bone or two) on these trips.

Times have changed.

[hunter]

10. To be honest, feral childhood didn't end well for many kids.

As a teen I knew kids who were doing drugs in the park or having sex with random strangers at the truck stop.

Most everyone I knew as a kid who went down those paths is dead, mostly of HIV, and a mess of other things, chronic drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, violence...

Had they been children of the 'fifties they might still be with us.

Antibiotics cured other STD's and the other viruses were not so deadly, except for the few that sometimes transform into cancers later, HPV, etc..