Mom Charged for Letting Her Daughter, 11, Wait in Car

Everything is dangerous when it comes to kids. Even a normal wait in a car.

Crimfants / Flickr

A mother in Bristol, Connecticut, was charged with leaving a child unsupervised in a car Wednesday. How old was the helpless tyke?

Eleven.

Why was she in the car? She asked her mom if she could stay there.

Was she in danger of boiling to death? According to WFSB:

When officers opened the car doors, they said the child was responsive and not in distress, and that the car was not "excessively hot."

In other words, the 11-year-old girl was indisputably fine. Not overheated, not abandoned, not upset—nothing. 

So don't just ask why the mom was charged with a crime, ask why is this a crime? Why does the law get to decide how a mom should raise her kids? Why does the law treat a self-sufficient 11 year old as a helpless forsaken baby? Why does the law allow cops to harass tweens and moms just going about their day? 

The answer: Our laws leap to the very worst case scenario first—a child could die!—and refuse to make any distinction between an infinitesimal risk and a huge one. Everything is dangerous when it comes to kids. Even a normal wait in a car.

The mom is scheduled to appear in court on July 21.

Meanwhile, another mom was just charged with a similar crime. Read about it here. Among the interesting details in this case: The mother had her sister-in-law watching the car and the kids the entire (short!) time she ran the errand, and now she's terrified the state will take her children away.

Comments

[Almanian!]

The mom should be charged with Carbon Crime for creating another being that will spew CO2 into the atmosphere, bringing on the Pockyclypse.

Fuck this bitch - I hope she burns rots in jail.

/EcoProgTard

[Mickey Rat]

"Pockyclypse."

The world is going to be destroyed by means of Japanese snack foods?

[Curtisls87]

No, I believe by Mel Gibson.

[Logical 1]

"Our laws leap to the very worst case scenario first?a child could die!"

Normally I would agree that Connecticut is a super nanny state but actually, a child left in a car did die just last week. A guy drove to work with his kid in the car and forgot to drop the kid off at daycare. When the guy left work at the end of his shift and found his kid still in the car it was too late . . . Very sad. He's from the wealthy suburb of Ridgefield so it didn't get as much press as the "blue-color" Bristol case.

[Logical 1]

Oops, meant "blue-collar"

[AS]

That kid was a little baby, who cannot get out of a car on its own. A 11 year old can.

[perlhaqr]

ELEVEN. THE KID HERE WAS ELEVEN.

Unless the kid was severely retarded (in the technical sense of the term, unclench your cheeks, panty rufflers) it is perfectly reasonable to expect a child of eleven to be able to A.) determine if they are uncomfortable because of the heat, and B.) exit the vehicle if they are.

[John222]

As I recall, that guy regularly dropped his child at daycare before work, not a one time unusual occurance. Also, if it's the same story I'm thinking of, there was evidence that one or both parents had been doing Internet searches for how long it takes a child to die when left in a car.
Not to mention, there is a huge difference between leaving an infant strapped in a car seat and an 11 year old who can open the door and get out.

[JohnD]

If you are talking about the Atlanta case, you got your facts wrong. The police found evidence that this was actually murder. He and his wife had researched how long it takes for a child to die in hot car. The child was insured for $22,000. He father actually went to the car in the middle of the day to "get something" and supposedly still didn't notice his child was still in the car.

The police got it right.

[blcartwright]

my wife's 1st cousin's husband did the same thing many years ago to their toddler, strapped into a car seat. this was an unrestrained 11 year old. hell, my 5 & 6 year old granddaughters have no problem buckling themselves up, later unbuckling and opening up the door of the minivan. of course, I urge them to wait until I've parked and turned off the ignition. I'll probably be arrested because my wife has the boosters seats in her car, not in the minivan which I use to bring the kids home from church. I will say that I would never put the vehicle in drive without seat belts being in use.

[Drake]

By 11, my son always wanted to stay in the car and play video games instead of being dragged through a store.

When I was a 11, I wasn't even telling my Mom when I was leaving the house to play baseball or whatever with the neighborhood kids. I got on my bike and left until dinner.

[Almanian!]

Yeah, 2nd paragraph, especially. We kind of did the same with our kids. There were other kids in the hood, so they'd all play outside till dinner.

It was an awful, horrible, dangerous time for children...

PS Granddaughter is now 10 weeks old. Can't wait till she's about 8 so I can take her to the range and teach her the fun of the Second Amendment Sandbox (as I refer to it).

[anon]

All that freedom might give people the wrong impression though!

[Loki]

Can't wait till she's about 8 so I can take her to the range and teach her the fun of the Second Amendment Sandbox (as I refer to it).

Clearly you're a monster. CPS has been dispatched. /sarc

[blcartwright]

I started shooting at 6, hunting at 12. The guns were not hidden away, never to be spoken of (so that I'd have no idea they were dangerous if I found them and played with them like mom's dildo). My dad had a rifle rack in the TV room, with some hand guns lying around. The ammo was under lock & key.

[GroundTruth]

kewl! Lucky kid! Best teach her how to read that Constitution too, and how to debate, 'cause she is going to do plenty of that!

[kinnath]

11, I became a boy scout and got a knife, an axe, and a box of matches.

[gimmeasammich]

Seconded. When I turned 12 my dad bought me my first Remington 870 12 gauge, and my grandpa gave me his Model 70 in 7mm Rem. Mag. And I was allowed to keep these in my room. In fact my mom specifically would ask if I had my shotgun "just in case" on those nights that my dad had to work overnights at the E.R. This isn't some sort of, "Back in my day," bit from 50 years ago, it was the mid to late nineties.

[optimusratiostultum]

Back in my day we threw rocks at each other for Fun!

[Monte Cristo]

Hell, during the summer I would get yelled at if I was in the house between sunrise and sundown.

[Taggart]

I just leave my 10 year old home alone when I go run errands. No reason to drag her around and have her sit in the car playing video games when she can play them at home, with a bathroom and air conditioning.

[Suicidy]

Half the time my buddies and I would run around with pellet guns at 11. On our way to the woods to shoot at makeshift targets. Now, because of faggot progtards, a SWAT team would be called if a handful of 11-13 year olds were brandishing pellet guns on their way to the woods.

[blcartwright]

when I was 8 I would tell my mom "I'm going to play in the woods, I'll be back for supper"

[Jordan]

Shit like this makes me more terrified of becoming a parent then the thought of sleepless nights and dirty diapers.

[Almanian!]

It's funny how fast you forget all the trials an tribulations. 20, 21 years or so....:)

Raising kids is no picnic - but I'm just glad my kids are all adults now and I don't have all this nanny/helicopter shit going on. Worse than ever.

Still remember Daughter #1's first day of college. We were all laughing and carrying on and "OK, we'll GTFO so you can have fun with your dormmates"....and we look down the hall to see another girl and her parents, huddling, crying like she's being sent to Juvie and they'll never see her again.

THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT, PARENTS! YOU WANT THEM TO GROW UP, LEAVE AND BE SELF SUFFICIENT! THAT'S SUCCESS!!

[lap83]

Emotionally insecure parents are awful. I'm glad mine weren't like that. It's one thing to say you'll miss them. It's another to act like you're a 5 year old whose dog is being put to sleep.

[Brett L]

I drove myself to college because I had orientation the week before classes. My parents lived 3 hours away and probably didn't see my dorm-room until October. And my roommate's family (who I knew well) took us both out to the Salt Lick (my first experience), we took a bunch of shit from his Air Force pilot brother about pushing the beds together and buying track-lighting, and that was it.

[jesse.in.mb]

My roommate: "If the don't want to get leave at 18, you've done something wrong."

[Zeb]

Your roommate doesn't speak English too well.

[jesse.in.mb]

*All errors are my own and do not reflect the literacy of those mentioned.

[anon]

If the parent doesn't want their kid to GTFO after 18 years, there was something wrong all along anyways.

[Zeb]

I don't think so, necessarily. Depends on the family. I lived with my parents into my 20s, then I bought a house. They had the space and we all figured why waste a bunch of money on renting some shithole when I could save money quickly and do what I really want to sooner? Of course, you have to have the right sort of relationship with your parents for that to work.

[anon]

Just cause they let you stay doesn't mean they wanted you to! :p

[GroundTruth]

LOL, when my sister was about 24, my parents informed her that they were moving. It came as a terrible shock apparently. (My brother and I had both left at 17 or 18, and aside from a 6 month stint before I started my next /current job [30 years now at it], neither one of us ever looked back.)

[Aresen]

"right sort of relationship with your parents for that to work."

*koff* *koff* *koff*

[Curtisls87]

I have no problem with this. While I left home at 18, never to look back, I encouraged both my daughters to live at home while going to college. They both did this for about 3 years, and then moved out on their own. I think if their is a purpose in mind for it, fine. If it's just junior sitting in the basement with his bong, or it's some sort of attachment parenting defect, then clearly there is a problem.

[JohnD]

I joined the Marines immediately after high school. After I got out, I moved back in for a couple of months while I looked for a job and an apartment. Never moved back in. They didn't have that much room and I wanted to be on my own. We were all satisfied with the arrangement.

[Thomas O.]

Yeah. My relationship with my parents was less than stellar in my teens... I was ready to find my own place by the time I graduated high school. And I had my own full-time job and apartment only a month after turning 20.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

It really does depend on the family. I lived with my mom through college (which was a godsend when it came to paying tuition) and my grandparents off and on for several years until I left the state permanently about six years ago. It was mainly when I needed to save some money for a few months before moving on to wherever it was I was going, but they were always glad to have me around for that time and I'd give them some rent money for food and utilities and a little extra. A friend of mine has lived with his parents all his adult life except for college and the couple years he was married, but he's been living there long enough that now he's the primary breadwinner and is essentially the head of household.

It's not like you have to give up a social life when you live at home, you just have to be respectful, realize that it's not your place, and act accordingly.

[Reverend Draco]

It's funny. . . before the government/corporate alliance become so pervasive, it was not uncommon to have 3 (or more) generations of a family living in the same home. The elders watched the infants & children while the middle group went to work. Kids weren't left unsupervised, they were taught respect for other people & their property, and they were fairly well-educated.

But it's hard to sell 3 families worth of major home appliances when all 3 generations live in the same home - so a concerted effort was made to paint adults living with their parents as irresponsible parasites.

The irredeemably ignorant bought it, hook line and sinker.

[JD the elder]

Flash back to when I was about 19 and home from college on break... *wavy lines*

Me: "You know, Mom, even if I'd gone to college in our home town, I think I would have moved out of the apartment."
Mom: "Oh, you would have moved out."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It starts in pre-school. The number of mothers freaking out over dropping Jimmy off on his first day of school boggles the mind.

[Invisible Finger]

Why? Most teachers are nutjobs that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children.

[JohnD]

So are most parents.

[Brett L]

I've already started training my wife. "You look like nice people. Here, watch our baby." She thinks I'm joking, but no.

[Mickey Rat]

You are so going to prison.

[some guy]

When my kid finishes high school he will get the following speech:

"Son, you have until Sept. 15 to move out. I suggest you go to college, but feel free to ignore me. You can visit whenever you want, so long as it doesn't start to annoy me. We'll have the guest room ready. Have fun. We love you."

Then I will pull out a pen, paper and measuring tape and start planning to turn their room back into my game room.

[GroundTruth]

Sounds like you've got what it takes to be a good parent... seriously. Please have several, perhaps you can outbreed the loosers.

[GroundTruth]

I am serious! Go for it! Please!

[MP]

I had no idea such laws existed. Apparently, they are all over the place. Here's the CT statute (PDF):

Any parent, guardian or person having custody or control, or providing supervision, of any child under the age of twelve years who knowingly leaves such child unsupervised in a place of public accommodation or a motor vehicle for a period of time that presents a
substantial risk to the child's health or safety, shall be guilty of
a class A misdemeanor.
Nice and vague...giving cops plenty of latitude to make judgement calls.

12 seems a bit ridiculous. Even 6 is pushing it. But it's CT. It's part of why I got the fuck out of that statist hell-hole.

[Mad Scientist]

for a period of time that presents a substantial risk to the child's health or safety

They've got her there. She should have known there were police in the area who would willingly endanger her child.

[Zeb]

It's one of those overreactions to a few tragic incidents, I think. Some babies died from being left in hot cars, so now your 10 year old can't wait in the car.

I would think that she should be able to get off pretty easily because of the "substantial risk" part, but maybe that's just my optimistic nature.

[anon]

It's one of those overreactions to a few tragic incidents, I think. Some babies died from being left in hot cars, so now your 10 year old can't wait in the car.

So convict the parent of manslaughter or murder. Boom, problem solved, no need for more bullshit laws.

[Zeb]

If I were in charge, that's what would have happened. But legislators gonna legislate.

[Bgoptmst]

I would blame the cars ... just saying.

[Suicidy]

Maybe if the progtards had their numbers reduced, thus would all go away. After all, it wouldn't be like hurting real humans............

[Mickey Rat]

"Nice and vague...giving cops plenty of latitude to make judgement calls."

Gee, it covers everything from 1 second to a day plus. When are people going to understand that the law does not do gray very well?

[Thomas O.]

At least in Texas there is no vagueness. You can leave a child under 7 in a car unattended for up to five minutes. (Penal Code sec. 22.10)

[some guy]

People often argue against BS specific laws (like BAC limits). But those laws do, at least, discourage the LEOs from using their notoriously poor judgement.

[GroundTruth]

MP.... where did you decide to go? (Serious question.... if I could convince my better half, I'd be out of Mass. so fast that you'd think, well, it would be pretty fast)

[JohnD]

And too many cops are ignorant thugs, unable to exercise good judgment.

[briannnnn]

Well since Americans are children until their 26 now...

[briannnnn]

It's they're dumbass!

[Almanian!]

Whoa! Don't be so hard on yourself!

You have the rest of the commentariat for that...

[some guy]

He thinks self-flagellation will save him...

[briannnnn]

HAHA! I'm like Rabbit in 8-Mile!

[DesigNate]

Way to steal our pendant thunder!

[briannnnn]

Did you mean pedant? Because I like your way better!

[Adam330]

According to the law, at what age exactly can you leave your child alone for even a second? Do parents have to sit in their kid's bedroom all night just in case a burglar comes through the window? This is pretty insane.

[Almanian!]

26

duh!

[JohnD]

You are talking about laws made by liberal morons in a very blue state. Why do people want to live in a place like that?

[Aresen]

I wish a few judges would have the balls to call the cops who make these arrests up in front of the bench and, prior to dismissing the charge, tell the cop he was being a dumbass.

[Aresen]

I just noticed that the cops were "called to the scene", which means some asshole phoned in a complaint.

Great FSM, I hate busybodies!

[thom]

When I worked in Maryland, some of my co-workers who lived in Montgomery county told me that people in their neighborhoods would call the cops if children were playing unsupervised in their own front yards.

[croaker]

Throw rocks through their windows after midnight every time it happens. That shit will stop right quick.

[wwhorton]

Montgomery County. Ugh. What a shithole. It's like Portland without the folksy charm. I'm not sure where Pajamaboy lives, but he'd be right at home in Silver Spring.

[Rasilio]

Shit I've been doing this regularly since my oldest was like 9.

The minivan had a numeric passcode to open the doors and a tv entertainment system in it. If we were going to be out of the car for less than 30 minutes we'd leave the kids in it watching a movie with the ac running and the doors locked. We'd also leave the oldest with one of our cell phones. I challenge anyone to demonstrate how the were in any more harm doing that than they would have been just walking across the parking lot in both directions.

[sarcasmic]

They don't need to demonstrate harm. Only that you failed to obey words that someone with power put onto paper. That's the crime here. Failure to obey.

[anon]

That's the crime here. Failure to obey.

You may say it with sarcastic intonation, but it really is how most cops operate. "OBEY!"

[sarcasmic]

And most crimes don't have victims. They are just a failure to obey words on paper.

[anon]

BUT JERBZ! And SAVE TEH CHILDRUNZ WITH OUR HEROZ THE POLICE!

[thom]

Society is the victim.

[JohnD]

My rule of thumb is "Death to all tyrants".

[Fist of Etiquette]

She should be charged for raising a child in Connecticut.

[Spoonman.]

Jury trial, hopefully?

[sarcasmic]

Doubt it. The prosecutor will threaten years and years in prison if convicted, and then offer a plea bargain. If she can't afford an attorney she'll get stuck with a public pretender whose job is to advise clients to take the plea bargain. It will never go to trial.

[Zeb]

Looks like the maximum for this is probably one year, class A misdemeanor, if you look at the link to the law someone posted above. Unless mom was really at a bar.

Oddly, it becomes a felony for which you could get 10 years if it is at night. When the car isn't going to get dangerously hot.

[anon]

Oddly, it becomes a felony for which you could get 10 years if it is at night.

Also, funny enough, everyone leaves their kids unattended for roughly 6-8 hours every night.

"Nice child you have there. Be a shame if something were to happen..."

[sarcasmic]

"Plead guilty if you ever want to see your child again."

[Harvard]

I'd take the ten and hope for release after 3.

Then....take my time...devote the rest of my life....and go hunting. Everyone, from busybody citizen, arresting officers, judge, prosecutor and fuckwad congressmen who introduced, sponsored and voted aye on the legislation would die torturous deaths.

[Harvard]

Did you get all that NSA??

[Marshall Gill]

Not only did the NSA get that, they also have the identity of every person who read it, and didn't report you. We are all complicit accomplices, now.

[Mock-star]

+1 nationalized legal care

[lap83]

At 11 you'd have the awareness to open the door when it gets too hot. The worst thing about this law is the implication that parents don't know their own kids.

[Hugh Akston]

That mom should be thankful the cops let her live long enough to see the state take her kids away.

[briannnnn]

If this had happened in Tennessee someone would have just smashed the window and obtained a free child.

[anon]

Ok, Satire is dead. Reality killed it.

[Edgehopper]

So, I had a thought the other day--we're arresting parents for child endangerment for leaving kids in a car for a few minutes, while we take in tens of thousands of kids left alone to cross the border into another country.

Maybe the starting point for this border kid problem is to issue outstanding warrants for child endangerment for any parent of a child sent alone across the border--which would presumably result in the deportation of any such parent who tried to cross the border?

[briannnnn]

http://www.breitbart.com/Insta.....-t-Make-It

[perlhaqr]

Heh.

++

[anon]

Btw, I grew up poor. My (widowed) mom worked from 4 pm to 2 am on a daily basis; I only saw her on the weekends. I was roughly 7 years old when this started I think?

That wasn't even a quarter of a century ago. How the fuck has everyone gone full retard so fast?

[pan fried wylie]

Derp is mediated by tachyons.

[WTF]

How the fuck has everyone gone full retard so fast?

The left controls both the primary and secondary education system, as well as the news and entertainment media.

[Invisible Finger]

And most urban payrolls.

[Suicidy]

Ruse if the progtards. And some people criticize me for advocating their mass extermination

[kinnath]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNFAsKwCCHw

Little girls are more trouble than they are worth.

[briannnnn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jItz-uNjoZA

[kinnath]

featureing Peter Dinklage with a stache

[sarcasmic]

Drunk Girls!

[toolkien]

Thanks. I searched the video on my phone and it took forever to load. I'm sure I'm some sort of list now...

[toolkien]

By the time I was 8, I had to get myself up and go to school on my own. My older brother went to another school further away so was up and gone already. My mom worked a factory job and had to be there by 7 A.M., and my dad was up and gone before I had to get up. So, up and out, go to school, and come home to an empty house for the next 1.5 hours. Every week day. Somehow managed to get to age 46, become a CPA, and maintain a rational view of the world. In the meantime, the country has gone full derp. I don't see how a country, state by state and the federal level, can survive being so neurotic.

The saddest part is I thought, before having children, that I was aware of the helicopter parent situation and would avoid it. I didn't realize that it been codified/mandated. I got my first sign when it became apparent leaving the hospital with my first child, that I was being reviewed and observed by the hospital staff and that if there was anything that didn't like, they'd be on the red phone to The Authorities.

Parents are merely agents on behalf of the state. Just like your labor, that they let you keep your child is on a revocable basis.

[DesigNate]

It can't survive. Eventually it will collapse under it's own weight.

[Brett L]

Protip from a newish dad to those who haven't had the experience yet: The nurses don't like it when you ask them how many babies have been stolen from the hospital when they are putting an RFID tag on both ankles of your newborn. They think its even less funny when you guffaw when they have to answer: "none".

[Mainer2]

Funny....you don't look newish.

[KimInGA]

no kidding. I had the same experience 5 months ago. Every wrist and ankle on my poor newborn was wrapped in plastic tags that I was not allowed to remove OR ELSE.

[mad.casual]

Not to mention that *you* need a plastic tag on *your wrist* to gain access to the area of the hospital that your family is staying in.

And, in a total of three weeks of stays in hospitals with newborns, I was the prime candidate in the wing for aggressively handling anyone, threat or not.

[GroundTruth]

Time to move someplace civilized dude. And take the kid before he (she?) gets infected with this terror.

[thom]

Somehow managed to get to age 46, become a CPA, and maintain a rational view of the world.

Check your privilege, man.

[Loki]

Somehow managed to get to age 46 ... and maintain a rational view of the world.

You're a libertarian, so the whole "rational view of the world" isn't true. /Tony

[Suicidy]

You would think that stupid fuck would be here defending the coos and their bullshit. Maybe Friday night is transsexual BDSM midget porn night at his place.

[GroundTruth]

Walked to kindergarten, solo, or with a buddy sometimes. Have told the story here numerous times, so I'll drop it.

We're raising a nation of wimps.

[ouija147]

My kid went with me to the store about a month ago and he said he wanted to stay in the car...

I said "okay"

I had a moment and worried about if someone would call the cops

[Brett L]

Need a window sign. "AC on, child okay, just wanted to stay in car."

[Aresen]

Simpler: Tie the kid up, gag him and put him in the trunk.

That way, no one will know he's in there!

;P

[Harvard]

We used to duct tape ours to the fridge for afternoon fuck breaks.

[Christophe]

There's 2 ways to read that.

[mad.casual]

"It's okay, my child is better able to handle this situation than you are."

[mad.casual]

It'd be great to be able to go with "Beware of child!" or "Caution: Children!" but that's like asking the police to shoot your kids.

[steve baker]

Would it be okay for kids to wait in cars if they wear their bicycle helmets?

[Capt. Rimmer]

When I was a kid my dad would let us stay in car while he shopped for stuff. There were three of us and we were all boys maybe 6, 8 and 10 - give or take a few years. The things we did while in those parking lots. My dad drove this old suburban and it was loaded with a bunch of crap like life jackets and an umbrella. One time I put one of those cheap orange life jackets on, grabbed an umbrella and got out of the suburban. My younger brother put his naked butt up against the window and I started pointing at it with the umbrella and acting like I was some circus host as people walked my. Most people were laughing but this one old lady freaked out and charged me. I barely made it back into the car and locked the door before she got me. She was huffing and puffing outside the car while my brother still had his butt up against the window. She waited and waited. Finally she bailed but not before leaving a note on the windshield. We grabbed the note and it read something like "Your boys were "nude" in the parking lot!" It was the first time we had ever heard the word nude. We laughed and laughed saying the word nude over and over again. Of course we trashed the note before my dad got back and he never found out.

[Sigivald]

Ct. Statutes 53-21A says "Any parent, guardian or person having custody or control, or providing supervision, of any child under the age of twelve years who knowingly leaves such child unsupervised in a place of public accommodation or a motor vehicle for a period of time that presents a substantial risk to the child's health or safety, shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor."

Note "presents a substantial risk to the child's health or safety", not "at all".

The law already does make the distinction that is being demanded, that of "between an infinitesimal risk and a huge one".

Blame the cops and the prosecutor for either not reading the statute or for not knowing what "substantial risk" means.

(And no, we probably don't need such a law at all; but granted its existence, it is properly and decently narrowly worded.)

[GroundTruth]

Boom!

That's my head exploding at the insanity that this is not just some busybody, but an actual law?????????

If I had kids, I sure as hell would not be living in CT.

[Brendan]

What I love is that the kids could be playing in the parking lot and it would be far less 'actionable'.

I remember spending dozens and dozens of minutes in the car from about 7 or 8 on up because we didn't feel like walking around the store with mom and she didn't want to track us down.

We absolutely loved going to the car, playing Gameboy, listening to the radio or sitting there doing nothing. When we got an A/C equipped car, we knew how to start it and not cause a single problem. Parking brake up, check. Car not in gear, check. Clutch in, key forward until engine starts. If the engine acts "lazy", light gas pedal until it acts right. Get out of driver seat, go to other seat, wait for mom.

I wonder if CT would try this 11 year old as an adult if they decided to run someone over.

[buybuydandavis]

"now she's terrified the state will ..."

That's what the laws of the hyperregulatory state are for.

[buybuydandavis]

"So don't just ask why the mom was charged with a crime, ask why is this a crime? Why does the law get to decide how a mom should raise her kids? Why does the law treat a self-sufficient 11 year old as a helpless forsaken baby? Why does the law allow cops to harass tweens and moms just going about their day? "

You know the answer. It's the same answer for all of them.

Because fuck you, that's why. Because they can. Because they like shooting at our feet and watching us dance.

[Madisonian]

It isn't as if we have an overburdened foster care system and dysfunctional child protective service as it is; we need to create busywork for carbuncles who work for the system by accusing competent parents of child abuse. Just think of the diverse and close-knit environment this child will have in some warehouse mingling with "unaccompanied" MS-13 gang members.

[GroundTruth]

Geesum crow.... we were regularly left in the car as young as 6 (how do I know? because I know where the store was, and when we moved) and told: "Sit down, be quiet and don't fight". Of course, that was Buffalo, so the chance was greater that we would freeze, but it's the same concept. And at 3 or 4, I was certainly left alone in the house having been told "be good". I lived, apparently. But perhaps this explains why I have zero tolerance for busybodies?

[Coach Panto]

These Nanny Laws can be resisted with clever denial of service resource attacks that call for decriminalization.
1. Organize a Decriminalization Resistance Task Force with anonymous membership. Advise all members to create false name email accounts which can be logged into with public computers. Using your own email account or your own computer to log into Resistance email accounts will identify you as a member, and you may be prosecuted under RICO even if no direct evidence links you to illegal activity.
2. Discuss and persuade all members buy prepaid cell phones, and switch them every 10 uses or 3 months.
3. When a nanny law is identified for decriminalization, Resistance members use the prepaids to call in false reports of a believable violation of the target law and swamp the police with reports for 14 straight days, or until the nanny law is ANNOUNCED to be not enforced by police policy.
4. If the law has still not been announced to be unenforced, report the resistance campaign to the press, and repeat for another 14 days.
5. If they continue to enforce the targeted nanny law after the two 14-day resistance call campaign, escalate the false call campaign to call in false violent reports for 7 straight days. Announce to the press the new campaign.
6. Stop the campaign after 7 days, but start is again with each new enforcement of the targeted nanny law.
We are in a war with supremacist government. Realize it, and fight.

[ZenDammit]

There's a sad unspoken racial angle to these stories too. Living in New Orleans I see black kids being left alone all the time and it's just understood that they can take care of themselves. And they usually do. Because this city has a 42% child poverty rate. These news stories are almost always about a white person reporting another white person for not helicopter parenting.

[Mmsndobson]

FATHERS YOU ARE INVALUABLE AND IMPORTANT! Why do I say this? As a mother I tend to over protect my children and my husband constantly provides me with perspective. My theory is that fathers have lost their voice in the parenting politics therefore situations and laws like these arise. IT IS FUBAR! Fathers stand up against this insanity!!

[Frozen Costume]

I don't understand the logic behind this at all. I get why a cop would check on the kid, just to make sure, but that should be the end of it.

[Tearfang]

This law seems ripe for civil disobedience. On the court date everyone should coordinate with their kids to get them out of school and park next to the court building leaving their kid in a nice airconditioned car and insist that the cops arrest them all- causing an unignorable freeking absurdity. Unjust laws make the political class vulnerable. We need to make them ashamed to enforce their law, and ashamed to be in any way related to its passage.

[RAHeinlein]

Lenore - good article, but why feed the frenzy by showing a photo of a toddler?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Manual shifter on the steering column. That's what's sick. Pickups back in the day had bench seats and a five-mile-long floor shift lever.

[Brandybuck]

I learned on a three on the tree. But it was in a car where it belonged! My grandpa's truck, on the other hand, had a wooden pic-nic bench for the seat, and a length of rebar for the shift. You wore thick leather gloves when you drove, just so you could shift without lacerating your hand.

But kids these days are spoiled on sissy BMW slap shifters. Pansies!

[anon]

and spent many, many, many unsupervised hours exploring all sorts of unsafe places.

God yes; and those are still some of my best memories.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

2 shotguns, 22 Winchester rifle, BB gun, and a couple hundred acres to roam on by age 12. If it moved, I usually shot at it. Boating by myself at age 13. Camping trips with no adults by age 14.

No wonder I'm a sociopath.

[perlhaqr]

This, though in my case it was a car with a floor shifter.

[Aresen]

"a five-mile-long floor shift lever.

Which was damn painful to "encounter" while you and your GF were enjoying each other on the bench seat.

[gimmeasammich]

Yeah why is that shift lever so long? Growing up my cousins and I would ride with our grandpa in his F-250 Ranger to go check the ponds to cut firewood. Whoever was unfortunate enough to ride bitch would have to sit spread eagle and deal with that long shifter either being up against the dash board or right in your crotch.

[mad.casual]

Pickups back in the day had bench seats and a five-mile-long floor shift lever.

And, not-so-irrelevantly, the windows rolled down without the key in the ignition.

[Invisible Finger]

Sometimes she enjoyed herself on the shifter.

[DesigNate]

Nice 😀

[GroundTruth]

Kinky!

[Brett L]

Its the nature of levers. To get two inches of travel at the transmission on a three foot pole, you need a foot of movement on the other end.

[anon]

The ground clearance of the trucks made the transmission tunnel relatively small, which means that rod has to be long to be at a comfortable height.

Column shifters are still far inferior though, cause it's a real pain in the ass trying to shift while making a turn.

[gimmeasammich]

Ha, thanks for the explanations guys. I actually know why they are that long, I just had to have a segue to my, "Why does Grandpa keep putting his hand in my crotch?" story.

The nice thing about that truck was that the clutch had a lot of travel. It made it easier to learn how to drive a manual transmission, which is an art form lost on my fellow millenials. In college I was surprised to learn how many of my classmates had no idea how to drive one.

[Rasilio]

And then she moved off to college?

[anon]

Nah, rehab.

[Aresen]

Except for car enthusiasts and truckers, manual shifting is becoming a lost art.

I suspect it will disappear entirely before we get fully switched over to self-driving cars.

[Loki]

"Why does Grandpa keep putting his hand in my crotch?"

Because your grandpa's a sick fuck. He bought that truck specifically because it would give him an excuse to feel up his grandkids.

[Aresen]

You didn't start out as an only child, but you are now.

[gimmeasammich]

When I searched for my last vehicle, I could find very few vehicles that actually had a manual transmission. The ones that did cost more than an equivalent automatic. I know that they just don't make as many manuals as they used to, but I didn't know that there was enough of a demand for them to make them cost more.

[OneOut]

Manual transmission cars and trucks suffer tremendous deprecation when used as there is little demand for them as well.

[Mock-star]

Call me a luddite, but I like my cars to be manual transmission, manual door-locks, and manual windows. Nothing ever breaks and if it does, I can actually fix it myself.

Its getting harder and harder to find autos that I like.

[seguin]

I've stopped caring about new cars entirely. I have sort of an advantage there, I've been working on them since I was 15 or so, so older stuff to me isn't daunting at all.