Mom Arrested for Letting Kids Walk to McDonald's Around the Corner

Here we go again.

Dreamstime

A South Carolina mom who let her 9-year-old nephew walk her 3-year-old son to the McDonald's less than a quarter mile away has been—I'm sure you can finish this sentence in your sleep by now—arrested and charged with child neglect.

The reason? According to WSPA News 7:

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes to get to the eatery, putting their safety at risk.

The mom, Tiesha Mesha Hillstock, 24, told the police the unthinkable: She had trusted the older boy to "take care of his cousin."

Which, apparently, he was doing. Nonetheless, when the kids were spotted without an adult, or drone, or armored tank to keep them safe, the cops swooped in and accompanied them back to their home. Then the Spartanburg police department then issued an arrest warrant for mom.

Because anytime a child is unsupervised, a parent must be arrested. It's as simple as that. Note that in another independent child story that is getting a ton of attention today, a 9-year-old Pennsylvania girl has been reporting on a real-life murder for her self-published newspaper. And people are mad at her, too, for not playing with dolls or having a tea party. They have written her nasty letters.

Now imagine if your own childhood had been lived under constant, state-mandated adult supervision. How many adventures would you have had? How much joy? How many memories with your friends and cousins?

Seems like America would like nothing better than to raise children who are completely inert unless an adult is on-hand to make sure nothing happens.

And nothing will. 

Comments

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Now imagine if your own childhood had been lived under constant, state-mandated adult supervision. How many adventures would you have had? How much joy? How many memories with your friends and cousins?

In my childhood (in the 60s/70s) there would have been no joy at all. Not to drop the "uphill in the snow both ways" card out but we didn't have Nintendos and iPads and malls and whatnot. If we hadn't been able to get outside and occupy ourselves going to our one "downtown" street or the nearby woods or out on Seven Hills Road* we would have gone insane, and would have driven our mothers around the bend as well.

*This was southern Illinois so these so-called hills were little more than slightly large bumps in the road.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

During the summer, I left home after eating breakfast while watching the Three Stooges. I came back when the streetlghts came on. Maybe I came home for lunch; maybe I didn't.

It seemed larger at the time, but our radius of activity was about five miles. I could've been anywhere within 75 square miles and across any number of streets and past quite a few houses and businesses.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

And now you're libertarian.

Now you see the problem.

[Just say Nikki]

Not to drop the "uphill in the snow both ways" card out but we didn't have Nintendos and iPads and malls and whatnot.

Back in the day we used to have things called "books."

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

Fucking one percenter!

[Doctor Whom]

I have yet to see one with a decent cat video.

[jarflax]

Here you go.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

Elitist scum

[Episiarch]

I've heard of these. Are they anything like my Kindle?

[some guy]

They are exactly like the Kindle, only heavier and better smelling.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Well, if we're going to go old school with stuff like books and bikes and whatnot, "better smelling" should be reserved for mimeographed handouts.

[some guy]

Ok, I had to look that one up, so you're officially old.

[thrakkorzog]

He's not that old, even back into the 90's it wasn't unusual to see kids with noses stained from huffing ink.

[SKR]

Crap, I guess I'm old too because I definitely remember mimeos.

[Zeb]

I remember getting to make my own mimeograph handout for the class for some project. Good stuff.

[Zeb]

Actually it was a spirit duplicator.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

As a bonus, the fluid the school used was manufactured by A.B. Dick. That was just hilarious to us.

[jarflax]

+1 3rd grade chuckle

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I am, yes. I'm so old that my school served fish on Fridays and there were no protests about establishing a theocracy. Hell, it was fried fish.

But I still remember what mimeo pages smell like. And a freshly opened Big Chief tablet -- again, no protests -- as well as freshly sharpened pencils and the big, blocky Crayolas with one flat side so they wouldn't roll down a desk.

[Rich]

And no one knew about peanut allergies, so PB-stuffed celery was a lunchtime staple.

[B.P.]

Large sheets of poorly milled paper for kindergarten and first grade with huge lines and pieces of wood embedded here and there.

[lap83]

"They are exactly like the Kindle, only heavier and better smelling."

You must live in a desert.

I love my books but I said goodbye to 90% of them and now almost exclusively read e-books after living in a crappy apartment which flooded and became filled with bugs. Fun fact: did you know that cockroaches love to live, eat, and lay their eggs in books?

[EvilWayz]

OH that's just wonderful. Now I must store my first editions in a manner where they won't be food but I can still look at them.

[Swiss Servator]

Ah, the sedentary option to childhood. Books were for when it was too dark out to play ball, bike, climb trees, etc.

[Brian]

This reminds of a time I was waiting at the doctor's office. This elderly couple was watching this teenager text on their phone the entire time.

"Kids nowa'days," said the old woman. "All they do is keep their noses in their phones and their ipads, all day. They don't use their brains anymore."

"Uh huh," said the old man.

Then, they turned back to the waiting room television, playing a re-run of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? They watched in silence.

"This is one of your shows, isn't it?" said the old man.

"Uh huh," said the old woman.

If kids are given a chance to watch television, play iPad, or.... go outside and play in the woods, it usually only takes about half an hour of TV for most of them to say "Fuck this! Let's go outside!"

And if mommy and daddy can't let precious little snow flake go anywhere unsupervised, so they're cooped up in the house all day, they shouldn't be surprised if the TV comes on.

[toolkien]

...we used to have things called "books."

What are now known today, by the Nannies, as Mass Paper Cut Inflicting Carnage Conduits. The less said about paper mites the better.

[Doctor Whom]

I grew up near extensive open spaces (many now covered in townhouses and parking garages). Some of my happiest childhood memories are of wandering along the creeks and through the woods looking at the vegetation.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Vegetation?

[Brian]

That's the great thing about being a kid: a handful of undeveloped acres seems like an entire wilderness to explore.

As a kid, I remember going on "hikes" through the back woods behind the houses. After several miles of bushwacking, I would arrive at the river, whose banks ran directly up into the nearby mountains, to a wilderness I never reached the end of.

Then, as an adult, I came back and realized that it was about half a mile of woods, a creek, and small wooded hills.

[Cloudbuster]

That's why you don't go back. The river and mountains of your memories were better.

[Brian]

It doesn't change the memories.

[R C Dean]

No kidding, EES. Sounds like we grew up in the same era. "Be back when the streetlights come on, and not before", etc.

I grew up in a small Texas town, and I cannot imagine having a better childhood. We roamed relentlessly on foot and on our bikes, singly and in packs. We hunted for lizards in parks and vacant lots, played tackle football, army with toy guns, etc.

If I had had to live under the kinds of restrictions that are imposed now, I'm sure I'd wind up drugged into submission like millions of kids are today.

[SFC B]

I grew up in a fairly well-developed suburb of Houston, but it was still walking a half mile to middle school, riding our bikes most anywhere within a 5 mile radius. We didn't play much in the street but we'd go to elementary or middle school and occupy their expansive empty fields. It was a ton of freedom and it was wonderful.

I really hope that my kid gets to enjoy something similar. It's not our plan to restrict him, but there is only so much fighting with busybody neighbors and arguing with cops I can take.

[Rhywun]

I grew up on the city/suburb border so I got the best of both worlds in either direction. And it's amazing how kids used to just bike and explore *anywhere* (like down the hills behind the businesses along the main drag or through folk's quasi-farmland) mostly without getting in trouble or really raising any eyebrows at all.

[Zeb]

That isn't all gone, happily. At least where I live, I still see kids walking all over town unsupervised and no parents are getting in trouble for it.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Same here.

Knocks on wood.

[sweetheart1]

My Uncle David got an almost new green Mercedes SLK-Class Convertible from only workin part-time on a pc at home... go CHECK IT HERE????? http://www.elite36.com

[Night Elf Mohawk]

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes to get to the eatery, putting their safety at risk.

The officer says the boys had to cross a living room and pass several tables with sharp corners as well as numerous electrical outlets to get to the kitchen, putting their safety at risk.

[straffinrun]

Oops, my comment needs adult supervision.

[straffinrun]

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes and officers to get to the eater, putting their safety at risk.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

It's a well known fact that homes and businesses are always lying in wait ready to uproot themselves from their foundations and pounce upon unattended children.

[Glide]

Damn it, you stole the joke I came down here to make. But very well done, even though I thought of the same joke your wording was funnier.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

The real tragedy here is that she is sending her kids to eat at McDonalds.

[SusanM]

How does this happen in the south? I thought they were a little more free range down there.

[tarran]

The DCF/LEO subculture is far more homogenous across the country. The curricula for classes in social work and "criminal justice" (so-called) use a small pool of textbooks and concepts and there is great commonality between what is being taught to a would be cop in MA and a would be cop in South Carolina.

[SusanM]

I see.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

*Kids are too fat
*Walking a few blocks alone is illegal

"The mom, Tiesha Mesha Hillstock, 24, told the police the unthinkable: She had trusted the older boy to "take care of his cousin.""

She had a kid at 15. Clearly unfit and had this coming. Totality of the circs

[Hamster of Doom]

If she's her nephew's mother, age at time of conception is the lesser WTF.

The line for the southern jokes starts *here*.

[Chipwooder]

A married West Virginia couple decide to get a divorce. They go before a judge, and after reviewing their petition he tells them "This is the right decision. I'm going to dissolve your marriage." When they turn to leave the courtroom, he calls after them: "Remember, now, just because you're no longer husband and wife doesn't mean that you're no longer brother and sister!"

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

Look, you can't expect me to accurately read the article. Trump told me book learning is for beta cucks

[Hamster of Doom]

*hand-waves*

No big. I figured.... no. Too easy. Someone else snap that one up, I've only ever done this meme when it offered a big black cock joke.

The line for the big black cock starts *here*.

[BYODB]

I admit, I did the math as well and was unimpressed with the mothers decision making in her teens. Then I realized I don't care about whatever the hell she does as long as it isn't resulting in any harm, and that 9 years later her kid is still alive and clearly responsible enough to not die in traffic.

Ergo, at face value, it seems she's doing well enough.

[Robert]

Could've been her husband's by a previous marriage. Or anybody's by adoption.

[Babybunny1967]

A South Carolina mom who let her 9-year-old nephew walk her 3-year-old son to the McDonald's

I guess you missed the very first sentence of the article. She was around 21 when she had her son not 15.

[Chipwooder]

When I was 10 years old, I routinely was the babysitter for my 2 year old sister. I requested the job myself because I was doing all the work anyway the high school girl my parents had been paying would spend most of the time on the phone with her friends or watching TV. A year or two later I'd frequently watch my sister as well as my two young cousins, three kids between the ages of 2 and 5, while my mother and aunt went to get their hair done or whatever else it was they did. At these same ages, say 9-13, my friends and I often would ride our bikes 2-3 miles to a nearby shopping center to play video games at the arcade (Galaga, baby!), eat at the McD's, get ice cream at DQ, and so on. This was around 1985-89.

Clearly, my parents were monsters whose children should have been taken away from them.

[Rhywun]

watching kids, Galaga

Jesus, we had the exact same childhood. Except mine was a couple years earlier.

[The Hyperbole]

I can out-Galaga anyone of you chumps.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

THIS IS ON.

[Swiss Servator]

YOU FOOLS, YOU STAND NO CHANCE AGAINST ME!

[Rhywun]

"I HUNGER, COWARD!"

Oh wait, different game.

[thrakkorzog]

Sorry, I'm more of a Missle Commander.

[thrakkorzog]

And as soon as I typed that I realized how it could be misconstrued. It wasn't intended as a euphemism, I just spent a lot my time growing up preventing cities from being nuked.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"Police say the two children were spotted alone at the McDonald's on Sunday evening. They then walked with the officer back to Hillstock's home, less than a quarter-mile away.

Hillstock told the officer that she trusted the 9-year-old to take care of his cousin.

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes to get to the eatery, putting their safety at risk."

Normally I like to read the article because I've noticed Lenore has a tendency to leave out relevant information to make things seem worse than they actually were. In this case though, they basically walked 400 yards and the cops didn't spot them doing anything dangerous whatsoever.

The horror. I'm surprised they weren't raped by pedophiles.

[Episiarch]

There were no priests around, thank God.

[Thymirus]

When I was a child, my mother's only condition for letting me loose was that I return home by sundown, whenever that was (depending on the season).

We'd ride bikes on ragged cliffs dressed in nothing but shorts and a shirt at ridiculous speeds, drive cars on private property or on backwater roads, play with full-size, realism-oriented replica BB guns, visit arcades and theaters and swimming pools and whatever else (sometimes taking public transportation across town on our own), and beat the shit out of bullies who'd try to fuck up our fun by thinking they could get away with crapping on us because we were young and small.

We learned responsibility, risks, had fun, and matured. That's life. I broke bones, wept like a little bitch when my knee was almost ripped off and you could see bone through my leg, and had plenty of run-ins with danger, because we tended to be reckless with some activities.

I'd never take a single second of it back.

Fuck this cop, fuck his supervisor, and fuck whatever cocksucker decided it would be a good idea to institute laws prohibiting kids from what I'd consider part of living.

You want to raise your kids to be permanently infantile little degenerates, go right ahead, but let others' children be.

[R C Dean]

See above.

I'd never take a single second of it back.

So much this.

During one brutally cold north Texas winter (yes, winters can be very hard in north Texas - there's nothing between you and the Arctic, after all) I was probably 9 and was playing by myself sleddding and whatnot in a park about 1/4 mile from the house. It had a stream in it, and I fell through the ice to my waist. I walked home in temps that were probably in the low '20s with a stiff breeze, and my mother put me in a tub of warm water.

And nothing else happened.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I might take back the time I wiped out on my bike going about 30 mph down a hill and the resulting evening of picking gravel out of my knees, elbows, and shoulder.

Hmmm... frozen stream in North Texas... 1983? 1984? Something like that, I think.

[Thymirus]

I lost control at a rise and flew into a tree on my bike, fucking up my shoulder joint. That hurt. A lot.

[Rhywun]

Every kid needs to fly off their bike and split something open and/or break something at least once.

[UnCivilServant]

We couldn't afford a bike, so I never learned to ride.

[Rhywun]

Geez, way to bring the room down.

[Lord at War]

It's even better when you talk your little brother into it! lol

[Jalestra]

Tailbone. I was trying to figure out how to pop a wheelie, didn't, hit the curb at full speed and flipped over my handlebars and landed on my ass, still holding the handlebars. I went home in a lot of pain, but trying to work out how to do the same thing without busting up my tailbone. I thought i discovered a new trick.

[R C Dean]

More like 1970.

When I lived in the Panhandle, we would have actual blizzards in the late '60s. I remember seeing drifts that overtopped the roofs of houses.

I had the exact same wreck on my bike.

I wouldn't take any of it back. Not one wreck, broken bone, bloody cut, none of it.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Oh, Panhandle. Yeah, DFW didn't get the full brunt of the cold that y'all did. We had relatives in Amarillo around that time. It was always entertaining to see on the weather how fucking cold it was in Dalhart.

[SFC B]

I would take back the time I was 7 and sledding in PA and went a bit too far off the cleared area of the hill. I hit a stump, sled stopped, I didn't, and my body used my face to plow its way through several feet of ice-covered snow. Actually cut my face up pretty bad. It was that day though I learned how badly a head injury can bleed, but not actually be a bad cut.

[Chipwooder]

I'd take back the time I was swinging on a vine like Tarzan over a creek deep in the woods behind our house, hit a tree, and fell probably about six or seven feet landing flat on my back. I'm sure I would have cried if every last molecule of air hadn't been knocked out of my lungs. That giant bruise on my back was a glorious wonder of different colors for a week or two.

[Cloudbuster]

I had a couple incidents like that. In retrospect, I definitely wouldn't take them back: I survived and how else would I learn not to do dumb stuff like that?

[Thymirus]

So, what's I surmise from your post is that, like me, you had a fun, free childhood? That's not allowed, you know. Your parents must have been awful, just like mine. Leashes for everyone!

Seriously, though, I fully intend to do whatever it takes to work around the legal dangers of raising my kids that way so that they can have a childhood that varied and enjoyable.

[robc]

Now they have fun-free childhoods. My daughter is 3 months but I want here roaming on her own.

You know, when she is 7. Not now.

[Swiss Servator]

When I cut my chin open after falling whilst climbing on something that was probably not a good idea to climb on....I went to my Dad (a doc) he stitched my cut shut and just shook his head when I told him what happened. Said "won't do that again, will you?" A week later, he pulled the stitches out.

No DCFS, no cops, no wailing and weeping or forbidding of activities.

12 years later, I opened the same spot up taking a knee to the chin in a rugby match. I called my Dad later and told him about it. We both chuckled, remembering that day well back in the past.

[jarflax]

And nothing else happened.

Liar, I did much the same thing at about the same age, and I call BS. Great big fiery pain happened when you hit the hot bath!

[thrakkorzog]

It was probably later than the 90s.

I remember going full speed on my bike to visit a friend of mine back in the early 90s to go play some D&D. Anyways, his mom was pulling out of a blind alleyway, and I hit her car with my bike. I flipped over over the hood of her car, she came screaming out 'ohmygodohmygod', and my reaction was to dust myself off, make sure nothing was broken, then I apologized for hitting her car with my bike.

[Pope Jimbo]

In 1998 Minnesoda was promoting the idea of kids going outdoors and hunting right on the cover of the regs (or at least promoting something with young boys).

Now they can't walk down a street without being arrested.

[straffinrun]

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources publication has a 10 year old kid on the cover. The mask slips.

[Pope Jimbo]

I had that on my desk that year and a coworker came in, saw it and completely busted out in tears laughing.

I have to admit that until he pointed out how sexy that pic might be to NAMBLA types, I hadn't seen anything wrong with that pic. Once he showed it to me, I can't believe that my state actually printed that dirty thing.

[commodious spittoon]

Q: What's the number one cause of child molestation?

A: All those sexy, sexy children.

/Jim Jefferies or someone.

[Alcibiades]

Prescient: "With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands

[searchingmind]

Amen to that. I have long maintained that "With Folded Hands" was more prescient than "1984" (and a year earlier). It is the ultimate cautionary tale for libertarians, and should be required reading for every student from seventh grade through PhD, as well as all candidates for public office or employment.

[Chumby]

Was it due to the kids being without a responsible adult or was it because their destination was McDonalds?

[Fist of Etiquette]

When I was a lad, I used to fend off molesters (I was quite the looker) and drug pushers and the occasional murderer on my way to Burger King alone and no one ever made a fuss. I didn't even have to wear a bike helmet like the total dorks I see out there pedaling away these days.

[Dong of Justice]

When I was a boy, I had to fight ninja assassins, vampire zombies, and grizzly bears on my way to the Shaolin temple every day.

[SFC B]

We joke, but I have to be honest, I had a pretty bad crash riding a bicycle several years back. Had I not been wearing a helmet it would have been a lot worse than the road rash and bruises I received. My head hit the pavement hard and that helmet took all the impact. Baby SFC B is going to be given very wide, age appropriate, latitude, but a helmet is going to be an expectation when riding a bicycle.

Not going to tell anyone else how to raise their kid, and certainly will never demand that there should be a law.

[tarran]

Yep. I don't ride without a helmet.

I've had two really bad crashes. One, the curb hit me in the cheekbone, shattered bones (and damaged a maxillofacial nerve) and gave me a case of amnesia. The other the helmet kept me from having the pavement sandpaper my face off.

[B.P.]

"The other the helmet kept me from having the pavement sandpaper my face off."

Maybe if you didn't wear the helmet over your face you wouldn't crash into stuff.

[thrakkorzog]

I feel for you, and I appreciate the reasonable concern about wearing helmets. But I also used to ride around on my brother's handlebars, and my sisters used to ride around on my handlebars. That was normal when I was growing up, and nobody got hurt worse than a few scrapes and bruises.

There's being sensible about safety, and then there's being ridiculously overprotective like in this case.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

When we were kids four of us including my little brother (who was riding my bike which was too big) were racing our bikes. He lost control and had a pretty horrific crash (the finish line was our drive way) that could have probably killed him. The brake lever on the handle bar sliced his upper lip pretty bad. He still has the scar.

Another incident involved a friend of ours in the sixth grade who crossed the street without looking to get to McDonald's and was killed by a truck. Poor Danny. We all still think of him.

But it's life and the way cops and society in some places are handling childhood is foolish.

I would never trade the way we grew up for what I see now. Like most of you, it was nothing but tree houses, walks in the forests, riding bikes until dusk, fighting, playing, chasing girls you name it.

As long as we knew the curfew we were all good to go.

[Adans smith]

I used to ride my bike to baseball practice in the summer.Over a mile down the RR tracks.Our house was next to Wayne National Forest.Would hike and play back there for hours Learned how to not get lost in the woods.Out Door life and Field and Stream helped,a lot.Used a single shot .22 to hunt small game.

[Thymirus]

You'd better table that sort of insurrectionist, NRA-grade rhetoric, son, or DHS will be paying you a visit.

Woods + .22 = militia.

/Loretta Lynch.

[commodious spittoon]

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes to get to the eatery, putting their safety at risk.

Their safety refers to the police who had to apprehend these yutes. No telling what they might have been packing.

[some guy]

They have been known to flash bang babies...

[Jerryskids]

OT: Watching de Blasio doing a Cruz ad on CNN - goes from lambasting Cruz for his "New York values" comment to talking about what a great President Hillary is going to be. Yep, those good ol' "New York values".

[commodious spittoon]

That's some good fodder for Cruz. "You know who else likes Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's big government values? New York's socialist mayor, Bill de Blasio."

[Mindyourbusiness]

But, but...you don't understand! The kindly government bureaucrats who encourage this sort of behavior simply want to make sure that our children are protected from all possible harm! After all, these kids are the serfs citizens of the future, and must be made to realize that the People In Charge will look out for their best interests, always!

They mean to be good masters!

[Rod Flash]

If this kind of oversight and behavior by cops and neighbors continues, we'll end up with a generation of kids that by the time they get to college will be so afraid that they'll need safe spaces where no chalk or conflicting opinions are allowed. I sure hope it never gets that far.

[robc]

Winner.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

This shit is just depressing now.

[Chipwooder]

Remember latchkey kids? Do they even exist anymore? My best friend in 4th and 5th grade was one, and I went over to his house almost every single afternoon after school because we could do whatever we wanted - no parents around!

[toolkien]

I was a latch key kid by 3rd grade. Had to get myself out of bed in the morning, get dressed, walk a half mile to school, attend, walk home, and come home to empty house for the next hour and a half. I'd do my homework (somehow instilled at an early age to "eat your lima beans" first) and then the rest of the afternoon was mine. Have a snack, watch the end of the Cubs' game or watch Superfriends depending on the time of year. I also got to peruse my dad's stack of magazines, but that's probably not making the point I want (or maybe it does). I survived and I LIKED being on my own and, ultimately, became independent at a relatively younger age. I probably had more individual maturity at 13 than many 22 year old college graduates, who hunkered down in their safes spaces for four year, have today. But, as cliche as it might be, that's now a feature, not a bug. It's up to the Gen-X to shift this country back - we need to raise our kids into the same level or individualism and responsibility. We need to sandwich the dead head generation between us.

[Rhywun]

My mom let me take Greyhound from Rochester to Potsdam and back to visit my brother and his friends in college for Thanksgiving break - when I was 12.

And nothing else happened.

[robc]

The scar from my worst bike accident disappeared in the last few years. I had it for over 30 years. I miss it. It taught me an important lesson.

Sledding down a hill with creek at that bottom was a form of repeated russian roulette. You knew you were going home wet and frozen, but how many runs did you get in before you acrewed up?

[GroundTruth]

No surprise that people are so happy to stand in line to be abused by the TSA, it's all the same outlook.

[Mustang]

School's new policy bans parents from walking children to school

[wFt]

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction; there will be nothing imaginable left to chance, less "something happen" and this principal [absent principles naturally] be criticized for it. Safety and predictability at all costs, everyone be damned.

And piss on those spineless parents who comply.

[wFt]

And no doubt someone called the police and insisted that they "do something" about these free rangers. We have two sides to this: a government that is increasingly looking to fill its burgeoning presence with more STD [shit to do] and a parallel increase in citizenry who believes it is their job to be on the lookout for any perceived transgressors to report on.

They do not call it "progressive" for nothing. And if we cannot eliminate any and all imaginable risks, well you'd better damn well start cracking on it or there is a telephone directory full of lawyers to sue your ass.

[Brian]

God, I'm so sick of this crap.

We've gone from a place where you had to actively be threatening harm to a child, through intent or negligence, to go to jail, to a place where you can go to jail for simply allowing a circumstance in which something bad may possibly happen if someone else is reckless or crazy.

It's like fucking Shark Week.

If you grow up by the ocean, playing in the ocean, you're whole life, you don't fear the ocean. You respect it, but you don't fear it, because the positive experiences greatly outweigh the bad. I know of no one personally who has ever been attacked by a shark, even those that have seen them.

However, a land-lover, who's primary experience of the ocean is watching Shark Week every year, sticks a toe in the water at the beach, and starts babbling on about sharks. Can't even fucking enjoy himself. Hell, on that trip, I actually saw what looked like a 3 foot lemon shark cruising down the beach through the waves. Didn't tell him, lest he panic and ruin the while trip.

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes to get to the eatery, putting their safety at risk.

Because everyone is a fucking potential predator. What's the point in having civilization, if we have to go on pretending that we're only a few circumstances away from being raped and chopped up? Really, this whole civil society thing is a charade, apparently, and everyone's out to get you. Enjoy the world, children!

[thrakkorzog]

I forget the name of the comedian, but I remember a bit where his kids where playing street hockey and some lady started chewing him out about how dangerous it was for the kids to play in the middle of the street. He pointed that if the kids are smart enough to figure out what "Car!" means, then they're in no real danger.

[Ask Me Abt Waste Fraud & Abuse]

KIDS ARE TOO FAT! THEY NEED TO GET OUT MORE!

KIDS ARE IN DANGER! KEEP THEM LOCKED UP!

[Chip Woodier]

It's kind of her own fault for not teaching her children to say anything except "Ask my lawyer" to all cop questions. By now, everyone should realize that their kids need to know this by age 9.

[Cloudbuster]

I've been letting my 9-year-old walk the 4 miles (round trip) on rural highways to a little mini-mart, and I've been very, very worried. Not about her getting hurt or molested, etc., but about some g*dd*mn busybody calling the sheriff or county children's services on her. It's a big adventure to her, and she enjoys it. All my kids have started making that walk at sometime around that age. Rite of passage.

[Mainer2]

My brother has a friend (he's in his 50's) who is still proud of a scar on his facefrom an injury when he fell on some rocks in the creek behind our house. My mom looked at it and said he didn't need stitches, she just taped it nice and tight.

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

Wow, man, if every single home or business could conceal murderers, rapists, and/or kidnappers, if it's too dangerous to allow two minors to walk to a fast food restaurant within sight range of their home, then I guess we'd better hurry up and pass a federal open carry law. I mean, it sounds like at least half of the people in this country are planning on killing the other half, which means there's no way you'll be able to get enough police in the street to prevent it. Only realistic option is to let people arm themselves, right? I'm sure that's right around the corner, since these folks are so concerned about the safety of children.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Hear hear. I can only imagine the logical back flips to counter that.

[R C Dean]

I keep waiting for somebody to ask these cops: "If this town is too dangerous for kids to walk a block or two to McDonald's, then what the hell are we paying you for?"

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Exactly. Why didn't they just keep an eye on them? A little Officer Friendly would have gone a long way here.

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[Lloyd Clucas]

And nothing will. Well, Lenore, yes something will happen. The little dears will become Young Pioneers.

[velleity]

Of course, none of them damn their St Albans or Manhattan private school kids being brutally subjected to IQ and psychological testing at age 2. Not so they can get in, but they can be placed in somewhere in a subjective application line.

[Stephdumas]

I guess this article from Zerohedge might be right on target.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/.....cline-ever
I quoted an exterpt:
"In 1956, if a kid skinned his knee he was patched up and sent back outside to play.
In 2016, if a kid skins his knee he is likely to be shipped off to the emergency room."

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[Johnimo]

The solution to problems like this is a simple one: fewer policemen. I suggest we cut the police forces by 50% and that should take care of most of this nonsense.

[Taylor IP]

I can never shake the feeling that if something were to go awry, both kids be taken away or we end up in the pokey.

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Mom Arrested for Letting Kids Walk to McDonald's Around the Corner

The mom should've been arrested.
Allowing her children to walk to McDonald's that's just around the corner sets dangerous precedents.
It might show her kids the meaning of independence, inhaling fresh air and getting some exercise.
What next?
Let her kids to grow up thinking for themselves when they become adults?
They very idea!

[Capt Stormfield]

"Seems like America would like nothing better than to raise children who are completely inert unless an adult is on-hand to make sure nothing happens."

Witness the resultant Special Snowflakes in their safe spaces at your local university or SJW insecurityfest. It seems they never learned to see themselves as independent, responsible agents.

[Bureaucratic_Sex_Creep]

When I was in Kindergarten, I would walk home to my house, which was behind the school, and call my mother on the phone, she would come get me from work. I was 5...I've never thought much of it.

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[rxc]

My grandfather walked me to kindergarden the first day, when I was five, because he was so proud of the fact that his grandchild was going to school (he could not read or write his own name). But after that, I walked, all by myself, about 1/4 mile each way, every day for the next two years, until they moved the school FUTHER AWAY (about 1/2 mile), when I started to walk 1/2 mile each way, every day even returning home for lunch each day. This was in Pittsburgh, which was filled with all sorts of "ethnic people" who didn't speak english very well. When I was 12, I was transitioned to a Jr/Sr high school about 1 mile away, which I walked to every day.

Now, these precious snowflakes have to be completely protected from the world until the day they turn 18, at which point they can join the military and shoot guns, fly helicopters, and maintain nuclear weapons. Amazing how quickly they transition from precious snowflakes to maintainers of weapons of mass destruction. But they still can't drink until they are 21, and if they are in university they maintain their snowflake characteristics as long as they are being "educated"

Maybe this is a problem of "education".

[Chipwooder]

This was the standard childhood of pretty much everyone born before 1980, at least. At what point did everything change, and kids were no longer allowed to do anything on their own? Mid '90s? Later than that?

[Thymirus]

I can't express adequately in words how grateful I am to my mother for letting me have my freedom as a kid. She trusted me. The way some kids are raised today, especially ones among people I know personally, makes me wonder when they'll all splash out big money on padded, CCTV-monitored cells for their kids.

I'm glad you had a similar upbringing. If you had as much fun as I did, it must have been a childhood worth remembering.

[Pope Jimbo]

I know. I keep sending my kids out and they keep coming back. What does a guy have to do to trigger a pedophile into committing an abduction?

[toolkien]

My wife and I have too, let our kids roam. We've left them 11 and 9 stay at home for 2-3 hours. We've left our daughter home alone at 11 for the day (sick from school). But I can never shake the feeling that if something were to go awry, both kids be taken away or we end up in the pokey.

[Thymirus]

For the record, I'm only 22. My childhood was thus because of where I grew up, and where my mom was from.

[KDN]

I was born in 1983 and grew up in a suburb of NYC. This was my childhood as well.

I'm blaming this on Gen-X. Apparently all that angst turned them (us? I'm on the border) into shitty, overprotective parents.

[Glide]

Probably a gradual run up to where we are now. I never encountered much of this stuff as a child of '89, the mandate was more or less "stay in the (several square mile) neighborhood and be careful in the street" for me and my friends.

[Thymirus]

Wait, hold the fuck up, pal -- you're telling me you don't even have electronic tags on your kids? And what about proximity sensors? Don't they have personal, 24-hour minders?

What is this, the 1930s? I'm calling CPS!11!!

[Swiss Servator]

Way to light the OMWC beacon, Mr. Pontiff.

[Chipwooder]

Then you're one of the lucky ones. That kind of childhood has been rare for a while. It's like with my own kids - I want to send my son out to play with the other kids in the neighborhood, but there's no one out there. You need a goddamned engraved invitation before you can get any of his friends together to play. When I was a kid, you'd see kids all over the place in the afternoons. We'd just go to the houses of friends, bang on the door, and ask if they could come out and play with us. No one does that anymore. I know my neighborhood is teeming with elementary school-aged kids because I see the crowds of them at the bus stops in the morning, but you hardly ever see a kid younger than teens out and about after school unless they're with a parent.

[Thymirus]

My mom was born and raised in the Soviet Union in the '60s and '70s. When I was a kid, she'd have me light cigarettes for her by actually puffing away at them for a few seconds before I handed them over whenever she was having a busy, hectic phone conversation and didn't want to be distracted from it. She'd get me to park her car when she was desperate for the bathroom and just ran out and home. Things like that.

Picture the aneurysms modern progressive parents would have hearing about that.

[Alcibiades]

It's not that bad round here, my kids go out and play with the neighbourhood kids and roam around, though they have set boundaries within which they can travel. They also visit each others' houses pretty spontaneoulsy, no invitations required.

[Jalestra]

I see the same kind of thing here. There are TONS of kids in this neighborhood but I only see mine, a friend's, and another woman's. That's it. These kids come see if my kids can go play and vice versa, no playdates necessary. They wander the neighborhood on their bikes until dinner or play at so and so's house.

Funny enough, I KNOW there are other kids wandering, but they don't do so in daylight. They come ring the doorbell and run after dark, but they aren't allowed out to play in the daytime. Makes you wander if the parents checked out with 6 tequilas around twilight and passed out as the sun went down.