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'Free Range' Kids Picked Up Again By Police In Maryland; 'Beyond Ridiculous,' Mother Declares
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 04/13/2015 12:27:33 PM

Posted on 04/14/2015 11:22:57 AM PDT by drewh

Two suburban Washington, D.C., parents are under scrutiny again for letting their 6- and 10-year-old children play in a park and walk home alone in a case that has stirred debate about "free-range" parenting and government powers.

For the second time in four months, police picked up the children of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv on Sunday as they were walking home alone from a park that's nearly a mile from their house. This time, instead of bringing the children home, police took them directly to Child Protective Services.

"It's beyond ridiculous," Danielle Meitiv said Monday. "The world is safer today, and yet we imprison our children inside and wonder why they're obese and have no focus."

The Meitivs, who live 6 miles from Washington in Silver Spring, Maryland, believe in "free-range" parenting, which includes allowing their children to play and walk alone in the neighborhood to teach them self-reliance and responsibility.

Danielle Meitiv said she and her husband began worrying when the kids weren't home by 6:30, but that Child Protective Services didn't call them until 8 p.m. to say the children were in their custody.

Police had picked them up on the walk home after another concerned citizen called.

The Meitivs were able to take their children home around 10:30 p.m.

"This morning my daughter wanted to go play in the yard and I couldn't let her out because I was making breakfast," Danielle Meitiv said. "Are they prisoners? She's 6 and she's not allowed to play in the yard?"

The case has drawn international media coverage, and Danielle Meitiv said the couple has heard from people all over the world. The majority have been supportive, Meitiv said, but some have expressed outrage at the couple's parenting style.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: alexandermeitiv; cps; daniellemeitiv; freerangechildren; freerangekids; homeschool; maryland; meitevfamily
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To: manc

I played Little League in another town until 8-9 p.m., 2-3 days a week.

I’d get out of school, change into my uniform and get on a bus to ride to the other town for the game.

Then, after the game, rode a bus to my home town and then walked the last one or so miles home...in the dark, by myself.

Nothing to it really, just what we were used to doing.


101 posted on 04/14/2015 12:38:41 PM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: Cowboy Bob

This is one reason many people don’t want large families - because it is hard to chaperone kids for ten years like whoever is reporting this family thinks should be.


102 posted on 04/14/2015 12:39:05 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: Vermont Lt

I agree.

The irony is that while the odds are very much against your child being snatched by some degenerate, the odds are actually rather high that your child will be snatched by Social Services.

If you go outside the norm in child-rearing, the kidnappers will show up with paperwork signed by a judge.

And once again, the “cure” is worse than the “disease”.


103 posted on 04/14/2015 12:39:30 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("Victim" -- some people eagerly take on the label because of the many advantages that come with it.)
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To: nopardons

You don’t; have to tell me about child services as I was raised in foster homes and the street so know about tem first hand and how they left me in places where violence was the normal and you fought with drunks in those houses at aged 9 to wen you left.

As for busy body well what time did they see the kid the first time? Do you know because I would be worried to see a 6 year old by themselves in a park at night with no parents about and do the parents just drop them off while they go out to dinner and can’t be bothered with their own kids.?

Too many questions before I pass judgment.


104 posted on 04/14/2015 12:40:19 PM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
When I was 10 and 11 my mother would drive my friend and me to the ice and roller skating rink that was at the old World's Fair ground, in Queens and we would skate all afternoon and my mother would pick us up around 5:00P.M. !

Kids, even little kids, used to be dropped off at the movies, alone, for an afternoon, to sit through two movies, coming attractions, cartoons, and a short on Saturdays. And sometimes I was forces to take my younger sibling with me, when we were around the same ages as these kids in the article.

105 posted on 04/14/2015 12:42:22 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Vermont Lt

Actually not far from me there was a kid who was taken and no I would not let them out at aged 6 by themselves after dark at a park where I can’t see them.

Hell I don’t even let two of my kids leave this street and they are much older than 6 and they do not certainly stay out after dark.

Parents should be parents and know where their 6 years old kid is at all times.

If this was a kid in the ghetto and then was killed by a gang banger by accident would you still be saying parents need to relax or saying where were the parents?


106 posted on 04/14/2015 12:43:38 PM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: Regulator

California has been run by fascists for 20 years, Maryland and Connecticut for only 5 or so.

However, Molloy and O’Malley both have strong passion for fascist control.


107 posted on 04/14/2015 12:44:27 PM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: manc
I don't remember what time the first incident took place ( IIRC, it was in the afternoon ), but this time, it was probably around 6:15 P.M., or so.

I don't know anything about the neighborhood this is happening, but obviously, the parents consider it to be "safe"; or did, before they were harassed.

108 posted on 04/14/2015 12:49:25 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: drewh
Well, it is Washington, D.C. !

Are there safe neighborhoods in DC?

Seems I was a "Free-Range" kid and never knew it!

Now the family has CPS up their ass, checking if the house is safe from guns.

109 posted on 04/14/2015 12:49:57 PM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: TexasCajun

No....it’s Maryland !


110 posted on 04/14/2015 12:50:44 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: drewh

Very encouraging to see people from a liberal hotbed like San Jose take offense to this behavior from CPS.


111 posted on 04/14/2015 12:51:05 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The fourth estate is the fifth column.)
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To: nopardons

That’s what I mean, there are too many unanswered questions before we pass judgment.

years ago a bomb went off in Atlanta and everyone said it was a certain Mr Richard Jewel, no evidence or anything and I thought there was something more to this and there was but I took a lot of crap for peaking out.

The media will always run the narrative but in most cases later the factual truth will come out, until then I won’t pass judgment.


112 posted on 04/14/2015 12:54:11 PM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: manc

peaking , edit speaking


113 posted on 04/14/2015 12:54:46 PM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: drewh

Hells bells, I was riding for miles up and down alleys with my buddie for miles when we were seven and at the same age I was walking six or seven blocks to and from school everyday. This is just more “It takes a village idiot thinking”, I wonder how these moron cops were raised, probably breastfed, diapered and taken everywhere in a baby carriage until they were in high school!


114 posted on 04/14/2015 12:55:16 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Mastador1

HUH what on earth does this have to do with how the cops responded when it was neighbors who called and child services who request the cops to go out there?


115 posted on 04/14/2015 12:58:05 PM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: fruser1
I have to disagree. How many school shooting were there in the 50’s,60’s, early 70’s? Carter era feel good judges etc. let most of the nuts out of the nuthouse as it was hurting “their” rights. Never mind our right to be safe. I tell my students how different the country was back then. It was safe to roam around and we did it all the time. Never had a problem and never heard of anyone having any problems in my neighborhood.
One incident occurred when I was about 13. I was allowed to go into the city (New Orleans) on the bus just about every day during summer break. I would hang out in the French Quarter and downtown all day. One day in a dept. store a man tried to get me to “go to the movies” with him. I hung out in the book section and knew the saleslady. I told him no and then went up to the saleslady and told her, pointing him out. He left real quick. No one ever told me not to go to the movies with a stranger but not one ever told me not to stick a knife in an electrical socket. I guess we were just smarter then. Although I had a friend that did the socket trick. What an idiot.
116 posted on 04/14/2015 12:58:48 PM PDT by prof.h.mandingo (Buck v. Bell (1927) An idea whose time has come (for extreme liberalism))
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Me in my youth:
"Mom, going out with my friends to catch rattle snakes"

"Be home before sunset, be careful!"

Not joking in the slightest.. We used to sell the skins at the local flea market and cook up the meat with Dad; now mind you, we were all 13 or 14 at the time.

117 posted on 04/14/2015 1:01:44 PM PDT by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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To: drewh

After breakfast, I was sent outside and was not expected back until lunch and dinner. If I came back any time between then, my parents would ask me what was wrong. If I said nothing, they would send me back outside.


118 posted on 04/14/2015 1:02:15 PM PDT by Marko413
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To: manc
They ALWAYS go off halfcocked; look at the Trayvon Martin, Gardner, and Ferguson reportage.

OTOH, from what we know about this family and what's going on in that part of Maryland, it appears pretty straight forward.

Today's parents fall into a number of different categories; the worst are the "helicopter" parents! There are a lot of people who infantalize their children, today, who remain "children" well into their early 30s.

119 posted on 04/14/2015 1:02:23 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: manc

If cops can’t make a freakin common sense decision it has a whole lot to do with it! I don’t care who called them, it was their brain on stupid when they got there.


120 posted on 04/14/2015 1:03:41 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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