Mom jailed for letting 9 year old play n park

[spartan max2]

Sidenote: the title word limit gets annoying sometimes

But anyways

Seems dumb to me. Thoughts people?

Mom Jailed Because She Let Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Play in the Park Unsupervised

"Here are the facts: Debra Harrell works at McDonald's in North Augusta, South Carolina. For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald's has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.

Harrell said yes. She gave her daughter a cell phone. The girl went to the park—a place so popular that at any given time there are about 40 kids frolicking—two days in a row. There were swings, a "splash pad," and shade. On her third day at the park, an adult asked the girl where her mother was. At work, the daughter replied.

The shocked adult called the cops. Authorities declared the girl "abandoned" and proceeded to arrest the mother."

Edited July 14, 2014 by spartan max2

[Wickian]

When I was 9 myself, some friends and my brother (the oldest being 11) would walk the 15-20 minutes to the park without our parents... Admittedly, we weren't alone, but 3 isn't that large of a group either.

[questionmark]

When I was 9 myself, some friends and my brother (the oldest being 11) would walk the 15-20 minutes to the park without our parents... Admittedly, we weren't alone, but 3 isn't that large of a group either.

My friends and me would walk 1 hour to the river to take a dip... sometimes you wonder whether Justicia, besides being blind, has lost her common sense.

[Odds]

I'd laugh, but this really destroyed a family. I'm only 28, but me and my sisters would go to the park without supervision any time we wanted. at that age.What a joke.

[Rafterman]

While it's a bit silly, there are enough free and low cost programs and day camps around in which the kid could have been enrolled.

[libstaK]

Yeah, I don't remember seeing much of my home or family before sunset any given weekend from the age of about 6 onwards, of course the whole neighbourhood knew each other's kids and we all hung out in "packs". I really don't envy today's kids or their parents.

[Keel M.]

While the beginning of the article was a bit over the top, I agree with the rest of the article and it was summed up nicely: 21st century parenting means slapping your kid in front of a computer (or television) and letting their bodies and brains rot.

[aztek]

my friend was jailed because he let his 8 years old son fill up the car. he was standing rigth next to the kid.

another friend of mine hit a child with a car, he came running from betwen parked cars, he was going slow and did not really hurt the kid. first thing cops did, when they came is put cuffs on him, in 2 minutes kids motehr ran out screaming, and when cops learned his mother was not watching him, they took cuffs of my friend and put them on the mother.

Edited July 14, 2014 by aztek

[Rafterman]

my friend was jailed because he let his 8 years old son fill up the car. he was standing rigth next to the kid.

another friend of mine hit a child with a car, he came running from betwen parked cars, he was going slow and did not really hurt the kid. first thing cops did, when they came is put cuffs on him, in 2 minutes kids motehr ran out screaming, and when cops learned his mother was not watching him, they took cuffs of my friend and put them on the mother.

At 8 years old I was filling up cars at my step dad's gas station.

[Michelle]

At nine years old I was babysitting a newborn. Now if a child that age is home alone it's child abuse.

[questionmark]

BTW, it does not seem to be the only case, here is a interesting piece in the Washington Post:

And now: The criminalization of parenthood

[aztek]

At 8 years old I was filling up cars at my step dad's gas station.

times change, and i can't say for the better

[Princess Serenity]

When I was a kid I used to take my bike and go for a ride. Of course I would tell my mom about it. I would usually go to the school and play on the equipment. Other times I would bike just around the neighborhood. Same at my stepmom's townhouse minus the school because there was none nearby.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Princess Serenity

[Rafterman]

times change, and i can't say for the better

Some of it seems to come from this notion that we are pushing what constitutes children, adolescence, and adulthood further and further out - moving the goalposts if you will. It wasn't too many years ago (in the overall scheme of things) that a nine-year-old was only a few years away from marriage and starting her own family. An eighteen-year-old was considered an adult and capable of making all of their own decisions. Now you can legally put your twenty six-year-old CHILD (?) on your health insurance. Heck, I know people in my father's generation that, at 26, they had kids in middle school.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite scenes with the Governor in The Walking Dead where he's questioned about forcing the "boys and girls" to take up arms to defend Woodbury and he stats that "adolescence is a 20th Century invention".

[MissMelsWell]

At age 5 I was playing in the park without a parent present all the time--my mom ran a daycare and couldn't exactly leave to watch us, and she sure as heck didn't want us around bugging her either! LOL. I also walked to school at the same age, which was nearly a mile. We even lived in a neighborhood that wasn't exactly awesome...

At age nine, I was riding my bicycle downtown, which was over 4 miles away!

Even when my daughter was around 7 years old I would leave her at home in the evenings on very rare occasions to meet friends, albeit we lived in a pretty rural area at the time, She knew my cell phone number, knew where I was and I'd let our nearest neighbor know I was going to be out for a few hours... no one thought twice about it. She knew the rules and didn't break them. Frankly, I'd be TERRIFIED to do that now because some jackwagon who didn't know me or my kid would have me arrested. I think that lesson in independence and self-reliance in part made her the self-reliant and independent woman she is today.

[Keel M.]

Well I found an update to this story and the mother - Debra Harrell - has been fired from her job at McDonald's.

Story

[No Censorship]

my friend was jailed because he let his 8 years old son fill up the car. he was standing rigth next to the kid.

another friend of mine hit a child with a car, he came running from betwen parked cars, he was going slow and did not really hurt the kid. first thing cops did, when they came is put cuffs on him, in 2 minutes kids motehr ran out screaming, and when cops learned his mother was not watching him, they took cuffs of my friend and put them on the mother.

I didn't thank you for a nice story. I thanked you for providing good examples of injustice and overreactions. Like others say, we have less common sense now. We also infantilize people. Look at bike helmets and car seats for older kids. Only challenged children were treated like that when I was a kid. I doubt that this poor woman would have been criminalized back then too. They might have found a place for her daughter to stay, or someone might have offered to watch the girl while her mom was at work. I doubt that she would have had a court record and a prison stay. The system sometimes makes it hard for the working class to get ahead. This woman needs help for her situation, not condemnation. Now, the state made it harder for all involved.

[jandersen233]

This is why children hate adults. Adults has so many fears and they over react most of the time. I'm an adult right now, and I admit I overreact sometimes but I would never call a cop just because of this foolish reason.

[FollowTheTrail]

What is the world coming to? Seriously...

[supervike]

This is why children hate adults.

Children hate adults?

Hmm..

[95-Nasty]

When i was 9 years old, me a some friends would meet at out local park, we went to the same school, but lived in different areas, so often we walked there alone and sometimes together, sometimes we played alone as it was one of those adventure playground in the woods! It was about 20 minuet walk! But thats the society we live in now!

[Perceptivum]

‘merica – the best worst place to live as freedom is only as deep as the government allows. Once there was a freedom of choice, now it’s all mandated. Think about it, although veiled by terms like “safety”, “protection”, “welfare” or “wellbeing”, the government has significantly limited our freedom. Seriously, if I am so stupid as to ride a motorcycle 135 mph down I-10 without a helmet, a box of fireworks in my lap, with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, WTF – if I die in a crash so be it.