[nemoforone]

This type of wild behavior must stop,kids playing outside ,what next.

I Let My 4 Kids Play Outside, On a Sunny Saturday. The Cops Wrote Up a Report

Sunday, August 19th, 2012 Hi Folks! Lenore Skenazy from Free-Range Kids again. Tell me when you start getting sick of these stories: The ones where parents let their kids actually PLAY OUTSIDE and the cops come a-calling. I get these letters ALL THE TIME and am at my wit’s end, as I don’t know what to tell these traumatized parents. In fact, I just asked a cop on a post below this one (aptly titled, “Ask a Cop”). So here’s the latest letter. Since when does the government get to decide whether or not our kids are allowed to FROLIC?
Dear Free-Range Kids: I might be labelled as an overprotective parent. I don’t allow my children to spend the night at anyone’s house, and also don’t allow anyone to spend the night here unless I know the parents very well. This is due to my own childhood trauma.
That said: I have had social services called on me twice and the police interrogate me 4 times, because apparently I am one of only two families that allows my children to play outside at all in our neighborhood (which is very safe . Just today, I allowed all four of my children (they were all together) to go play in the field adjacent to my house. I could literally see them outside my kitchen window. My 10 year old ran home to tell my husband and I that a cop had stopped and was interrogating my oldest daughter.
No, this was not after dark, it was at 4pm on a Saturday. So my husband walked out to see what was going on, and the police officer even wrote up a report, stating that the children were left outside unsupervised.
So, since I am new to Virginia, I asked my neighbors if this was a “Virginia” thing. Their response was, “Well, you know it just isn’t safe anymore to allow your kids to play outside.” I thought I was overprotective making them carry cellphones to check in every 30 mins, and only allowing them wander off 1/2 of a block. Seriously? We asked the police if they were doing anything wrong, he said, “No they were very respectful kids, I just wanted to make sure they were okay because it was odd seeing them outside unsupervised.” We are not talking toddlers, we’re talking teens, pre-teens and one 5 year old all together. – A Mom of 4

http://www.theagitator.com/2012/08/1...e-up-a-report/

[eropiereetuekm]

This "civilization" is in DESPERATE need of collapse.

[Flerdourdyged]

Best advice a cop friend ever gave me:

"Avoid ALL contact with the police."

[eropiereetuekm]

Best advice a cop friend ever gave me:

"Avoid ALL contact with the police."

Did you "de-friend" him afterwards?

[mudozvonf]

I liked this response at the site, it sorts of give the bigger picture of what happened here:

#4 | Bob | August 20th, 2012 at 12:03 amYeah, this is god damned ridiculous. I realize I’ve been a critic in the past, but unless there is a KNOWN SERIOUS DANGER in that field… the police had no business intervening. Was the field full of Copperheads? No? Bulls and Cows in heat? No?
Dave, FOIA request? Really? In Virginia? Good luck with that.
Here’s the problem. And you’re going to have to step back and look at the really big picture to see this. Human Societies can’t exist in a steady state, they must evolve. Invariably, left to their own devices, they evolve to a more complex state. Look at the Death Penalty… in 1850, a guy was just escorted from the court room and hanged in the most convenient spot… Today, an entire litany (costing millions of dollars.) of required appeals must be preformed before the execution can take place.
Did either system prevent innocent people from being executed? Hell no!
Complexity of system doesn’t always equal better. Or fairer. There will always be abuse because as complexity increases, political manipulability increases as well.
You can’t unwind the inevitable increase of complexity of human civilizations once they take place.
At some point… you have to realize… “Holy crap! Utopia can’t exist. We’re doomed to repeat the same cycles.”

[Flerdourdyged]

Did you "de-friend" him afterwards?

No, he actually said, "In the future, avoid all contact with the police" as we were cruising along in his patrol car. I continued to do ride-alongs with him, however he saw what was coming (in the early '90s) and quit the force well before his retirement (not long after he told me that). He (John B.) and his wife are salt of the earth folks who happen to be LDS. (which btw one night when they had me over for dinner they also had over a couple of LDS missionaries who I amused myself by stumping them over the Word lol)

[SoorgoBardy]

Wow! I am not sure if I've ever heard a story like the OP (don't get mad at me if I missed or forgot about them on here). I really can't believe that teens and pre-teens would be stopped like that. I suppose I could see that if a bunch of 3 year old kids were out playing in field, unsupervised, there might be cause of concern. Tweens and teens? That just sounds crazy to me. This really happens? This really happens often?

That's all we did when I was growing up - play outside. We rode our bikes, unsupervised, to the park, which was not within view of our house (don't know how far though). The oldest among us was probably 8 years old when we started riding to the park.

So what's this about? Just cops harassing people because they have nothing better to do? Or do you think they really care? (I am pretty sure y'all will say no to that one, but . . . it's possible, right?) Or, is it more sinister than that - to create/further a culture of fear - to make sure that the children are afraid, the parents are afraid, so that everyone just goes home to watch TV.

[mudozvonf]

This "civilization" is in DESPERATE need of collapse.

Yes, very few things nowadays appear rational, in this case kids should only be allowed to kill themselves slowly in the safe environment at home in front of the computer, eating "safe" pasteurized food, lazed with chemical flavours enhancers, drinking fluoridated fluids, injected with symptom suppressing chemicals whenever they show a perfectly normal symptom of the environment they are living in, where they are injected with neurotoxins from the time they are born, and subjected to a sterilized environment.

[eropiereetuekm]

That's all we did when I was growing up - play outside. We rode our bikes, unsupervised, to the park, which was not within view of our house (don't know how far though). The oldest among us was probably 8 years old when we started riding to the park...

Same here... my parents kicked us out of the house after school, and didn't want to see us until dinnertime!

[SoorgoBardy]

Yes, very few things nowadays appear rational, in this case kids should only be allowed to kill themselves slowly in the safe environment at home in front of the computer, eating "safe" pasteurized food, lazed with chemical flavours enhancers, drinking fluoridated fluids, injected with symptom suppressing chemicals whenever they show a perfectly normal symptom of the environment they are living in, where they are injected with neurotoxins from the time they are born, and subjected to a sterilized environment.

That sounds like torture, but it's exactly what is happening. Yikes.

[vaalmerruutel]

I liked this response at the site, it sorts of give the bigger picture of what happened here:

#4 | Bob | August 20th, 2012 at 12:03 amYeah, this is god damned ridiculous. I realize I’ve been a critic in the past, but unless there is a KNOWN SERIOUS DANGER in that field… the police had no business intervening. Was the field full of Copperheads? No? Bulls and Cows in heat? No?
Dave, FOIA request? Really? In Virginia? Good luck with that.
Here’s the problem. And you’re going to have to step back and look at the really big picture to see this. Human Societies can’t exist in a steady state, they must evolve. Invariably, left to their own devices, they evolve to a more complex state. Look at the Death Penalty… in 1850, a guy was just escorted from the court room and hanged in the most convenient spot… Today, an entire litany (costing millions of dollars.) of required appeals must be preformed before the execution can take place.
Did either system prevent innocent people from being executed? Hell no!
Complexity of system doesn’t always equal better. Or fairer. There will always be abuse because as complexity increases, political manipulability increases as well.
You can’t unwind the inevitable increase of complexity of human civilizations once they take place.
At some point… you have to realize… “Holy crap! Utopia can’t exist. We’re doomed to repeat the same cycles.”

This is very accurate

I have seen this recently and most here has as well.

Do you remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day when any type of construction was being done the most you ever saw was "The Flag Man"waving traffic along?

Have you seen them nowadays? There is a cop (sometimes two) siting on either side of the work catching a paycheck doing absolutely nothing except sitting on his phone yammering away.

The best one I saw they actually had a several cops and EMS on site because the nature of the work being done it was "mandated" that these overtime hounds must be present to watch paint peel.

unfrickenbeliveable.

[DianaDrk]

First, if you see kids outdoors, make sure a neighbor didn't see you looking at them. That would be bad. Next, just in case they did see you looking, call the cops on the kids (for their own safety, of course) before the neighbor calls the cops on you for looking at them.

[dXI9XFOA]

"police officer even wrote up a report, stating that the children were left outside unsupervised."

feel safer now ?

[ppaelkos]

True story: when my older brother and I were in high school, he and a group of friends were outside rehearsing a scene for a school play they were in. After they acted out a scene where someone died, the police were called and arrived on the scene to investigate a "human sacrifice".

[Uojeyak]

True story: when my older brother and I were in high school, he and a group of friends were outside rehearsing a scene for a school play they were in. After they acted out a scene where someone died, the police were called and arrived on the scene to investigate a "human sacrifice".

lol poor dumbass cops...


Meanwhile, in torchlit grottoes and ancient redwood forests (not to mention the battlefields...), actual human sacrifices continue unabated....

[Belindanan]

Kids can't play in peace anymore ! What a sad world we live in today !







Do you remember when we were kids?
When getting high was on a swing in the park.
When getting stoned meant having little rocks thrown at you.
When the only drug you knew of was cough medicine.
When the only things boys could give you were cooties and the only thing they played was football.
When you would go to school not caring what you looked like.

When the most painfull thing in life was scraping your knee.
And the only things that got broken were toys.
When the only race issue was who could run the fastest.
When war was a chess game.
When a bitch was a female dog, and your worst enemies were your brothers and sisters.
When mom and dad were always right and mistakes could be rubbed out.
When sex was just a rude word and your future began with 'when i grow up im going to be..'
When you only cried when you fell over and falling out with friends ment not talking for a whole 5 mins.
When saying goodbye ment only until tomorrow.
And kissing boys was icky


Life was simple and carefree, but all we wanted to do was grow up. Memories are the one thing that will always stay the same and NEVER change. life is short, so, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile because every 60 seconds you spend upset is a minute of your life you can never get back. you dont know whats around the corner. Be who you want and when you want. listen to who you want and when you want. The best things in life are unseen, thats why we close our eyes when we kiss, cry and dream.

[SaamanthaSterlyng]

It seems that so many adults (including myself) look back fondly at our "free range" childhood, so recently some friends of mine (mostly younger than me) and I were trying to pinpoint when it ended. We figured probably some time around 1990, give or take a couple of years. Is there anybody here would feels they didn't grow up with a lot of freedom to roam as a kid? When would that have been?

[BruceCroucshs]

Hell back in the day, if you were not doing chores we were banned from the house except mealtimes. Nobody watched or really cared where we went or what we were doing. The only exception was when we were sick, that staying in the house was ok.

That is the sad thing about t.vs, computers and video games, is now the opposite is the norm. Part of being a kid is being outside and exploring and doing goofy stuff, for the good and the bad. That was one way we learned all kinds of stuff. This society has gone overboard on the fear thing. There is a thing to be said about growing up 'overprotected'! Imho.

[nemoforone]

Same here... my parents kicked us out of the house after school, and didn't want to see us untilsummertime!

fixed it

[Uojeyak]

It seems that so many adults (including myself) look back fondly at our "free range" childhood, so recently some friends of mine (mostly younger than me) and I were trying to pinpoint when it ended. We figured probably some time around 1990, give or take a couple of years. Is there anybody here would feels they didn't grow up with a lot of freedom to roam as a kid? When would that have been?

Free-range child here.

Granted, I was not born in the 1990s... but if I had to draw a symbolic line of that sort, I would have to set it at 9/11/2001. As in, children who were born after that date were born into a different world than those born before it.
Those children who were already alive on 9/11 began living in a different world from that day on. Adults, of course, also live in this so-called "post-9/11 world", but childhood and the loss of it is the topic at hand.