Mom gets charged with felony child neglect for letting her 7 year old walk to park 1/2 mile away

Have you been to Florida? I wouldn't let a 16 year old walk to the park alone. :grin:

When I was 7, during the summer, I would get up, eat breakfast, grab my bike and be gone for most of the day with my friends. No adults anywhere around.
 
Wow, that is pretty nuts. PSL isn't the nicest town in Florida, but it isn't like the kid was sent to walk half a mile through downtown Camden, NJ.
 
Here's the thing. I had a house key from the age of 7 when we moved to California and I walked home from school and was by myself until 5 or 6 pm when my parents got home from work every day. I'd be afraid to let either of my kids walk home from school these days and I don't live too far from where I grew up. Should the mom have been charged with what she was? I don't know. I do know that I'm too much of a control freak to do the same thing around here.
 
There is a lot of grey area here, I guess. I worked as a lifeguard all through high school, and mainly worked, in the summers, at community playground pools.

A lot of the kids would be there 9-5 every single day, because they wanted to be there, they loved it. Some kids were there because the parents sent them there for a few hours. And others were basically on their own. 8 hours with no water, food, or sunscreen, every single day.

If you're looking at 50 kids, yeah, a certain percentage are being neglected. But you can't make a judgment call like that based on a few minutes, because they're a minority.

The concerned woman should have called the mother first, if possible.

Police get called, they have to investigate, that's their job. They could have apologized, seen that there was no neglect, and gone on. Or they could have given a warning.

Police are meant to help communities, in theory.

Unless there's something we're not being told. Maybe the kid had to cross a freeway or something, or is sleeping in an old fridge. Who knows?

But yeah, more likely than not, this is just stupid.
 
I agree, there could be more to the story, but there's no way the police can justify a felony charge based on what's in the article. :embarrassed:
 
Have you been to Florida? I wouldn't let a 16 year old walk to the park alone. :grin:

When I was 7, during the summer, I would get up, eat breakfast, grab my bike and be gone for most of the day with my friends. No adults anywhere around.
Same when I was growing up. Most of the time we didn't even let our parents know where we were, either.
 
Our rule was be on the block when the street lghts came on.This was The Bronx in the '70s.We went wherever our bikes could take us. Orchard Beach was about a 5 mile ride and we went there all the time.
 
When I was a kid we could play outside until dark at that age. We just took off on our bikes at sun up and came home at sun down. The local fire department had a giant air horn that blew at 8 am and 8 pm, and you could here it for many MILES. I lived 12 miles or so away and I could easily hear it. Anyway, when the whistle blew, you knew it was time to start heading back home. Of course, where I grew up we were more concerned with bears than kidnapping.
 
over reaction in the extreme. it seems that the cops today have no brain in their head. they don't seem to be able to talk to anyone, or use ANY kind of common sense.
if they get called, someone is going to jail......or worse.

and as far as child services.....keep in mind, their budget is based on how many times they have to be involved in a event. they have a vested interest to stick their noses in every kids life.

nanny state/police state.
 
When I was a kid we could play outside until dark at that age. We just took off on our bikes at sun up and came home at sun down. The local fire department had a giant air horn that blew at 8 am and 8 pm, and you could here it for many MILES. I lived 12 miles or so away and I could easily hear it. Anyway, when the whistle blew, you knew it was time to start heading back home. Of course, where I grew up we were more concerned with bears than kidnapping.

I grew up in London when I was very young, so...

When we moved to Canada, we ended up in a town of about 13k, so my circumference became a matter of how far I could bicycle to-and-from before curfew.

Location, location, location.
 
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