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one_voice

(20,043 posts)
Mon Jul 14, 2014, 05:13 PM Jul 2014

A Nice Jailing Should Teach This Terrible Mom To Let Her Nine-Year-Old Daughter..... [View all]

Go To Park By Herself

Here is a feel-good summertime story from our occasionally sane pals at Reason: a woman — she’s no “lady”! — is in jail and her nine-year-old daughter is in The System, because the woman let her go by herself to the park, several days in a row. Did we mention this 9-year-old girl was BY HERSELF?

We will wait while you wail and gnash your teeth and punch yourself in the face about these terrible so-called “parents” who endanger and abandon their children by letting them go to the park in the daytime in the summer where at least 40 other kids are playing at the same time. We just thank our lord and savior Jesus Christ that other parents were there to call the police on the “mom,” who was “working” at McDonalds at the time, for abandoning and endangering her nine-year-old, by letting her go to the park.

We mean, it’s no “leaving a 12-year-old in the car,” since wonderful community-minded Slate readers have already explained that “leaving a 12-year-old in the car” is a terrific opportunity to get your 911 on.

Debra Harrell works at McDonald’s in North Augusta, South Carolina. For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald’s has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.

Harrell said yes. She gave her daughter a cell phone. The girl went to the park—a place so popular that at any given time there are about 40 kids frolicking—two days in a row. There were swings, a “splash pad,” and shade. On her third day at the park, an adult asked the girl where her mother was. At work, the daughter replied.

The shocked adult called the cops. Authorities declared the girl “abandoned” and proceeded to arrest the mother.

And now the girl is under the protection of the Department of Social Services, where she will never have to worry about going to the park again. Let us all give a prayer of thanks.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/554155/a-nice-jailing-should-teach-this-terrible-mom-to-let-her-nine-year-old-daughter-go-to-park-by-herself#r6vqGzaxj4r1oDGu.99




Wouldn't it make more sense to help this mother get child care?
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What's she doing, working? Doesn't she know she's a woman? Scootaloo Jul 2014 #1
Now let's here from the "Social Services Can Do No Wrong" crowd -- pnwmom Jul 2014 #2
Wait, are we supposed to be for or against Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jul 2014 #5
A black woman arrested for doing something that millions of white moms geek tragedy Jul 2014 #3
+1 geardaddy Jul 2014 #49
If I came before dark when I was 9 my mom would think I was sick. Lochloosa Jul 2014 #4
I rode my bicycle to a neighboring town when I was 9 Art_from_Ark Jul 2014 #24
So did I. My brother and rode all over the Westside of Ft. Worth rickyhall Jul 2014 #27
Should have added: HubertHeaver Jul 2014 #37
... awoke_in_2003 Jul 2014 #41
Another victory for Helicopter parenting. Warren DeMontague Jul 2014 #6
I love going overseas ClarkeVII Jul 2014 #7
Welcome to DU LittleGirl Jul 2014 #32
i have a park across the non busy, residential street. houses surround this two block park. seabeyond Jul 2014 #8
They were upset the child was... one_voice Jul 2014 #13
I am not sure what you are trying to say; greiner3 Jul 2014 #35
No, not at all. one_voice Jul 2014 #39
It sounds more like no parent or adult relative handy and no neighbor designated as a amandabeech Jul 2014 #34
That's nuts MrScorpio Jul 2014 #9
Maybe she's an African American kid alone in a park? Generic Other Jul 2014 #20
I guess I should be in jail too PumpkinAle Jul 2014 #10
Time after time we read about this...Where are the churches to help with this...Don't they have.. Tikki Jul 2014 #11
That seems so bizarre! delrem Jul 2014 #12
9 year olds babysat siblings Generic Other Jul 2014 #23
I babysat my twin cousins at 10 in 1958 HockeyMom Jul 2014 #25
I was baby sitting at 11 JustAnotherGen Jul 2014 #28
Yep I guess I am old too. zeemike Jul 2014 #26
Same here. If we didn't leave the house, it was "fer cryan out loud can't you kids go out and play?" NBachers Jul 2014 #38
Yep. Moms in those days didn't want kids hanging around the house Art_from_Ark Jul 2014 #44
This is an area I have to side with the right wingers about the "Nanny State" Bandit Jul 2014 #14
How is it "abandoned" when mom gave her a cell phone, and knew where she was? bluesbassman Jul 2014 #15
Very much like my childhood... one_voice Jul 2014 #17
same here.. my three "free range" sons left after breakfast SoCalDem Jul 2014 #19
I just looked at some of my childhood homes on Google Earth Half-Century Man Jul 2014 #40
I owned Andersen AFB in my youth Generic Other Jul 2014 #43
When I was nine, I pretty much roamed free in the summer. NaturalHigh Jul 2014 #16
Me too. Enthusiast Jul 2014 #21
SC law says 8 is the minimum age for "home alone" SoCalDem Jul 2014 #18
The thought that when I was 9 that I needed any adult supervision joeybee12 Jul 2014 #22
When I was 7 or 8 and I was able to go to a place called Politicalboi Jul 2014 #29
BECAUSE of her being a girl child? littlemissmartypants Jul 2014 #30
When I was 9 and my brother was 3 Terra Alta Jul 2014 #31
I was a latchkey kid at 9 years old. Yavin4 Jul 2014 #33
Geez. We were allowed to walk home from school alone in 3rd grade. thesquanderer Jul 2014 #36
Prominent newspaper Advice Columnist advocated this in print.. kickysnana Jul 2014 #42
I don't really recall this kind of crazy overprotectiveness, 30 years ago Spider Jerusalem Jul 2014 #45
Seriously? We'd get on our bikes in the morning TBF Jul 2014 #46
Shit for brains, and a dried-up peach pit for a heart. QuestForSense Jul 2014 #48
This is an utterly ridiculous reaction rjj621 Jul 2014 #47
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