Posted on 03/03/2015 12:18:07 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
A Maryland couple who were investigated by state officials after letting their children walk home from a park without an adult say they will appeal a finding of "unsubstantiated child neglect" and will continue to let the children walk by themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
yep
When I was 6, my Mom taught me how to catch the city bus to go downtown for my dentist appts and swimming lessons. We were allowed to go anywhere, so long as we were home for dinner. No second cars then. Everyone walked to school.
thanks
Wow - we walked a mile to school in the morning, home for lunch, back to school, and home again at the end of the day. Right from 5 years old. Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. Different times.
bump!
I walked home from school down a busy street by myself at 7 yo but that was before the nanny state. I let my kids walk to granny’s down a gravel road in the country a 1/4 mile and people were upset.
I live in Montgomery County. This case is one where both sides are being dogmatic. The county is a classic nanny state; no question. But these parents appear to be on some sort of fringe too - this isn’t like back in my day where we were walking to school, riding our bikes, etc. in towns with 2 lane roads, nearby school fields, empty fields to play, etc. I was “free range” like many others here under those circumstances. MoCo has major arterial roads like Georgia Avenue - where these kids were walking - that are 3 lanes each side, no verge, and it would be easy as heck for them to get grabbed, particularly as they were walking in an area that isn’t among the most affluent here. The parents didn’t equip them with a cell phone. There is something off about this story.
We can thank the liberals for allowing the USA to deteriorate to the point where it is dangerous for kids to walk alone.
It was not this way! It became this way! Liberal policies are the reason.
Silver Spring is a high-crime city, and in many areas it’s not safe for anybody of any age or any racial background to be walking around alone. Other areas are quite bucolic and peaceful, with actual farmettes and large gracious houses. It would be interesting to know what part of Silver Spring this took place in. Georgia Avenue reaches from the nasty parts of DC up to the historic houses and forested beauty of Westminster, so it makes a difference what part of Georgia Avenue the kids were walking along.
“”I walked home from 1st grade about 2 miles every day””
Was that UPHILL or DOWNHILL in the snow???
When this subject came up in another thread several months ago, there was a video link and the intersection these kids walked through was a BUSINESS DISTRICT - high rises, businesses AND a convenience store which the article said the kids frequented. Didn’t look like a good setting to me regardless of the kids ages. It was NOT a residential neighborhood they were walking through. It probably started out like that but picture any residential neighborhood you are familiar with where it dumps out into a business district...would you want your little kids walking it?
“”MoCo has major arterial roads like Georgia Avenue - where these kids were walking - that are 3 lanes each side, no verge, and it would be easy as heck for them to get grabbed, particularly as they were walking in an area that isn’t among the most affluent here.””
Exactly what I just pointed out in my last post - from what I saw of the intersection when this was posted several months ago. I hope people take this into account and realize it’s not normal to send little kids to walk through an area like you and I pointed out and knock off the criticism about the nanny state. Sometimes some stories go BEYOND the kneejerk reaction of “THE GOVERNMENT” does this, does that rhetoric!
Eff the Montgomery County government.
Imagine how busy CPS would be if they bothered to patrol the urban areas looking for unaccompanied young children with no adult in sight.
It's much easier and safer to enforce the law against the law-abiding than it is to enforce it against the law-breakers.
Check out my #31 post.. Wouldn’t the high rises, office complexes etc., indicate that it was a business district and not a place with historic houses? I’ll look for the video that was attached to the like thread a few months ago. Not an intersection I would have sent my kids to walk in.
Yep. People - I know the geography and demographics in question. Very well. This isn’t a clear cut case of nanny state. Montgomery County is nanny state - but the “free range” involved here is dubious, and this comes from someone who was a “free range” kid back in the day. Having a 10 and 6 year old walk along the present day part of Georgia Avenue is very off.
I can’t find the video but found the below link and it speaks about Woodside Park and children being picked up near the Discovery Building which would indicate to me again that this is not a residential area. You both seem to be aware of the area so this should be sufficient for others. If I find the video, I’ll post it to convince the others here that it was not a neighborhood residential street they were on and not a matter of walking to/from school.
I was ALSO a “free range kid” but that was on a farm in New York State - with not a commercial business district or intersection in sight. Trips to the big cities like Ithaca or Elmira were cause for staring up at buildings and getting a stiff neck. LOL
Downtown Silver Spring - Discovery Building is right next to a big mass transit center on the edge of DC. - I live about 3 miles from there. I’m pretty free with my kids, but I wouldn’t let them wander around there
This is the best video I could find so hopefully it will put to rest that the kids were not on a leisurely stroll through a residential neighborhood. It does not show the George street sign I saw from the original story. Now I am off to find what other threads I can put on the right track...you guys are on your own now.
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