Kids walk home BY THEMSELVES!!! Oh, the humanity....

[SSScout]

Montgomery County (Murlin) parents being "investigated" for child abuse because they allow their kids to walk home from local park without adult escort.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-county-neglect-inquiry-shines-spotlight-on-free-range-parenting/2015/01/17/352d4b30-9d99-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

 

And we try to run a "Patrol Method", "boy led" program................

[scoutergipper]

I didn't grow up in Maryland, but I walked to and from school, or rode my bike, sometimes all alone, mostly with only one other kid from across the street. During Summer, I would rarely see my mother between breakfast and dinner. "Be home by dark" was the rule. If I was needed during the day, my dad would whistle loudly, which could be heard all over the neighborhood.

 

The world has not changed, but people's perception of it has. Today's parents are not only terrified someone will grab their kid, but they are much more amenable to bowing to the Nanny State's demands. Scouting is one of the few places where a kid can assert his independence - a selling point to boys that is of course ignored by BSA because it will turn off parents who are certainly in a position to serve as a gatekeeper over their own children - provided the government gives them permission.

[Stosh]

The terrorists have won. Americans are now paranoid and terrified of anything and everything. And the really sad thing about it this terror is being taught by the parents to the children by the way they are treated. Second generation paranoids on the way.

 

Stosh

[qwazse]

I fondly remember the summer after first grade walking with my cousin (visiting from out-of-town) about a mile to the community park, then dropping by an uncle's bar for a hamburger and soda.

 

Yes my mom was afraid of nearly everything, but she was more worried about what would happen to me if I stayed home when the "adult features" on PBS started coming on.

[Rick_in_CA]

An interesting article SSScout, thanks for sharing it. One section struck me:

Simon said that when he and his partner send their 8-year-old and 10-year-old to a playground two blocks from their home, they cannot help but worry. But not as some people might expect.

 

“We are more scared of another person calling the police on us than we are that anything bad will happen†to the children, he said.

One of the parents in my cub pack told me something similar about why she doesn't let her son walk to and from school. A classmate of his used to walk, and someone called child services.

[Cambridgeskip]

I'd be interested to see what exactly the people that have reported the parents are for are actually concerned about and have they actually sat down and thought about it?

 

The reason I ask is that when I was a kid I was allowed to walk to school, to the park and to cubs on my own by the time I was 9 years old. Yes my mum worried but I'm 36 now and she still likes to check that I'm eating properly and have enough clean socks. That's what mums do! What I wasn't allowed to do though was walk to my grandmother's house, which was a lot closer than my school, or park or cub pack, on my own. The reason being I had to cross an extremely busy road, which didn't have any kind of pedestrian crossing on, to do so. My parents had concluded, quite reasonably, that I was at far more danger from traffic crossing a busy road than I was walking the mile or so to school.

 

Have the adults who have complained actually sat down and properly thought through, what is the danger here? What is it reasonable for a kid of that age to take on? Or have they just thought "Danger danger danger!". I suspect the latter.

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

I'd be interested to see what exactly the people that have reported the parents are for are actually concerned about and have they actually sat down and thought about it?

 

The reason I ask is that when I was a kid I was allowed to walk to school, to the park and to cubs on my own by the time I was 9 years old. Yes my mum worried but I'm 36 now and she still likes to check that I'm eating properly and have enough clean socks. That's what mums do! What I wasn't allowed to do though was walk to my grandmother's house, which was a lot closer than my school, or park or cub pack, on my own. The reason being I had to cross an extremely busy road, which didn't have any kind of pedestrian crossing on, to do so. My parents had concluded, quite reasonably, that I was at far more danger from traffic crossing a busy road than I was walking the mile or so to school.

 

Have the adults who have complained actually sat down and properly thought through, what is the danger here? What is it reasonable for a kid of that age to take on? Or have they just thought "Danger danger danger!". I suspect the latter.

 

 

Skip,

 

No one complained about the parents. A police car drove past the kids walking home and picked them up. They took them home, spoke to the parents and then called protective services. Funny, on my way to work this morning, I drove past four grade school kids in a "rough" part of town walking to school and thought about this story.

[SR540Beaver]

Back when I was a kid in grade school in the 60's, we had no school busses. There were no daycares that picked up either. Most moms stayed at home, but many families only had one vehicle. Everybody walked to school. My elementary school was three blocks from our house and I walked it everyday from kindergarten except in bad weather. There were probably 6 or 7 kids that lived on my block and we all walked together or one of the moms took us in bad weather. I began walking to school and back in kindergarten at the age of 5. I'm still here to tell about it at 57.

[T2Eagle]

SR540,

 

If you read back through the story, someone actually called the police specifically because the kids were walking home alone, and this wasn't the first time. CPS had previously told the mom that it was illegal for the six year old to be in a park supervised only by a 10 year old.

 

It's a crazy story. When I saw it here one thought I did have is that maybe the powers that be that won't allow Patrol campouts without an adult really do have our best interests at heart because the rest of the adult world has gone mad.

[Petey091]

I grew up in this area and know it well. You have to understand that back in 1975 the Lyons sisters disappeared while walking to a local mall. This case remains unsolved and has recently been back in the local news due to some new leeds. So people in this area are sort of a little more aware of unattended children also the police district station is just around the corner.

 

I do believe that in general our society has become overly protective of our children. So I will leave you with this video.

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=C-VacaaN75o

[mattman578]

I used to walk father then a mile when I was 9 or ten to buy cigarettes and go fishing what is this world coming to

[Oldscout448]

Petey, I too grew up in that area and spent a fair amount of time at the mall where the Lyons sisters were last seen. I know its been in the news again because they think they may ( at long last) have a good idea where they were taken.

But things have changed indeed they have.

In 75 I was 16 walked and biked for miles around, to go hiking fishing etc

Sometimes with my scouting buddies but most often alone

I now live a little north of there but still in Maryland ( sorry SSS I'm not from Ballmor)

Last summer my 16 year old son decided to walk to his friends house about 5 miles away. He had just come back from Philmont so 5 miles at sea level was nothing much.

Local police saw him walking down the road, stopped him, asked where he was going, then called me. Told me I had to come and get him or they would have to take him to the police station ( for his own safety ) " Safe from exactly what?" I asked the officer when I got there. "Well he might gethit by a car or something. No sidewalks on this road you know"

Now he seemed to be a nice enough fellow in his mid 20s I guess,

I almost told him that my son as well as his four siblings had been walking these very same roads for 25 years or more, and had the brains to move out of the way when a car came by.

But I just sighed and told scoutson to get in the car, I would drive him the rest of the way

[Rick_in_CA]

Last summer my 16 year old son decided to walk to his friends house about 5 miles away. He had just come back from Philmont so 5 miles at sea level was nothing much.

Local police saw him walking down the road, stopped him, asked where he was going, then called me. Told me I had to come and get him or they would have to take him to the police station ( for his own safety ) " Safe from exactly what?" I asked the officer when I got there. "Well he might gethit by a car or something. No sidewalks on this road you know"

 

They stopped a 16 year old??? He can drive himself, but not walk somewhere? This is really messed up.

 

[TAHAWK]

In our area children "of tender years" are regularly given back to physically abusive parents and end up dead. Woops!

[Scouter99]

Last week's episode of Invisibilia on fear led in with an interesting study on child independence. http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/377515477/fearless?showDate=2015-01-16

This article from The Atlantic also discusses the same study as well as the backlash against overprotective rearing in some communities http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/