Mom arrested for letting her kids walk unsupervised to get pizza

Lenore Skenazy the author of Free Range Kids: How to raise Safe, Self-reliant Kids Without Going Nuts with Worry, once let her 9 year old son ride a NYC subway home from school by himself and was promptly crucified in the media for being a shitty mom.

Nothing could be further from the truth of course. She educated him on the route he needed to take, the “do’s and dont’s” of being a young straphanger, dangers to watch out for, and then waited for him at his stop. She understands more than many parents today that one of the biggest responsibilities parents have is instilling a sense of self-reliance, resilience and confidence in their children.

Sadly, part of the nannification of society is convincing parents to convince their kids that the world is a threatening and dangerous place… That there’s a Jerry Sandusky lurking in every alleyway and bush. According to Skenazy, it’s creating a future generation that will be scared little rabbits — less self-reliant, resilient and confident and thus more likely to be dependent on others (like the state) to take care of them.

How bad is it getting according to Skenazy? Check out this outrage from her blog:

“Yes, readers, it’s another case of child protective craziness. According to the Manchester, Conn. Patch, a local mom was charged with “risk of injury to a minor and failure to appear after police say she allowed her seven-year and 11-year old children to walk down to Spruce Street to buy pizza unsupervised.”

When a mom can be arrested for letting her almost teenager and younger sibling walk a half-mile to a pizza parlor to pick up dinner, something’s wrong. Yes, there are creepies and crawlies in the world, and yes, there are really bad people, but has it gotten so dangerous that letting your kids out of the house unsupervised should be a crime? Let me know what YOU think.

Ed

Just checked the map and the birds-eye view. Residential neighborhood of single-family homes, with sidewalk (on at least one side of the street) almost all the way to the pizza parlor. Shouldn’t be a problem in the world with a walk like that…
- Rob
  
  Hadn’t even thought of Google mapping or Street viewing it. Good intel.
Latnem12072

Our forefathers faced greater threats without throwing away the constitution and freedoms. The countries fear was fed by media & government to terrorize Americans into shaming our heritage. The Patriot Act is Treasonous and the death of America. The people who touched that paper are traiters to the U.S.A. They are your “Terrorists” who actually stripped your rights from you WITHOUT A FIGHT!
The “terrorists” behind 9/11 were criminals at most. Stand up for your rights when they are threatened, waiting for someone to do it after the fact is too late and just not very inteligent.

Should have protected your children then, now it’s too late…
‘Tis Moi

I grew up in the 70′s. We used to go a lot further away from our home than that when we were playing. Actually, the minute you can no longer see your kids, they’re probably not where they told you they’d be- lol (well, we never were). There were dangerous lunatics then, as now, but we were told the basics of stranger-danger & that was it.

I agree that the gov’t seems to be trying to create a paranoid state. I also agree that you have to let kids have some autonomy & to learn to fend for themselves at some point. I will add, though, that it’s all dependent on the child. Some (like my daughter) are just “trouble magnets” & more of a worry than others. I think it’s a case-by-case thing when deciding how much lead you give them.