Florida Mom arrested for letting 7 year old son walk to park alone.

[PimpedOutPete]

I don't think anyone is saying they should lock their children up, that's just being dramatic. If a parent wants to let their child go to the store then so be it.

 

Like most of you, I did a a lot stuff as a child that could have easily been considered dangerous or negligent for my parents but I survived.

 

This is simply a news story worth it's attention for it displays the over reach of a society hell bent on being politically correct. I don't know about you guys but where I live, you don't see things like this, the over reach or the sense of extreme safety measures for violent preditors.

[little_old_man]

Actually Ter, Joe said she should be locked up. Call it overly dramatic if you like, it's a pretty extreme attitude to have in order to prevent something that is very rare, in Canada and the US, regardless of what the media headlines may saying. A stranger abducting and killing your child has about the same odds as any of us winning the jackpot of a lottery. 

 

The world has become a pretty fucked up place when people are free to kill their unborn children through abortion, and those who decide to have kids are told how to raise them by government with threats of arrest, while the people who actually do rape and murder kids get out of prison to do it again.

[Joe Canadian]

Just a quick question, these cell phones that you give to your children are they smart phones or just simple call only phones? hopefully its the latter because It can be argued that giving a smart phone to a child can be even more dangerous and more neglectful then leaving them unsupervised. Child abusers don't roam the streets anymore looking for victims, instead they roam the internet looking at social media sites such as twitter and facebook looking for those children with smartphones that update what they are doing every 5 minutes.

 

I say as long as the child was taught to run from strangers such as he did in the story then I think hes pretty safe being on his own. I did it when I was in elementary school and Id much rather him roaming the streets then roaming the internet. Definitely not both at the same time though.

 

 

It is a matter of choice and affordability. My kids take a windows phone that does not have a data plan. They can make phone calls and send and receive text messages Nothing else. The phone has other features like GPS, maps, camera than can be pretty useful as well. Child abusers, rapists, murderers and such are a potential concern. But accidents, drownings, vicious dog attacks are also a concern. You can teach your kid to run from strangers and to be careful, but that's about it

[Oneill]

Id say theres no harm in texting(besides being oblivious to anything around them) and making calls. Its really the combination of free wifi and social media that would have me worried. Make sure that Wifi is locked imo.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Oneill

[Joe Canadian]

Actually Ter, Joe said she should be locked up. Call it overly dramatic if you like, it's a pretty extreme attitude to have in order to prevent something that is very rare, in Canada and the US, regardless of what the media headlines may saying. A stranger abducting and killing your child has about the same odds as any of us winning the jackpot of a lottery. 

 

The world has become a pretty fucked up place when people are free to kill their unborn children through abortion, and those who decide to have kids are told how to raise them by government with threats of arrest, while the people who actually do rape and murder kids get out of prison to do it again.

 

No LOM. I don't want anybody locking up parents for not supervising their kids while they play. I agree with you for the most part except for one thing: keeping an eye on them, seeing what they are doing or having some adult around them while they play. I don't want my children sitting in front of the computer or the TV the whole day either. I actually encourage and even force them to go outside, ride their bikes, take the dog for a walk. My wife and I are fortunate enough to be able to afford signing up our kids for all sorts of activities:  day camps, soccer, hockey, gymnastics etc.  But most parents aren't, and sending their kids to play unsupervised might be their way to keep them active. If that's their parenting style, so be it. It's not mine.

 

Joe

[PimpedOutPete]

If we are going to lock anyone up, let it be Hxtr... The guy is a menace lol...

[mouselad]

 

 

The weird thing is.. I still see children walking home from school all the time. and there parents don't get arrested. so what is the difference between walking home from school unsupervised and playing outdoors unsupervised?

[hxtr]

Soon the government will issue out XBox Nanny console with Handcuff Kinix added on that will keep an eye on your kids making sure they never leave the house.

[Joe Canadian]

I am not sure what the age is needed for direct supervision in Canada. I will have to direct that question to my wife for she now works for Child and Family Services for the Government of Alberta.

 

 

 

 

Would love to hear what you wife had to say about this. I am obviously taking about legal definitions by the Child and Family services of Alta. 

[Joe Canadian]

Fascinating post but prime example of logical fallacy. We are all vigorously defending our points of view, but have we taken the time to check the structure of the argument and validity of the premises? Probably not, because if the premises were true we should all be arriving to robust, overall conclusions. I am not taking about personal opinions that might, or might not be necessarily related to the premises presented to us, but rather factual findings.

 

The title of the post is "Florida Mom arrested for letting 7 year old son walk to  park alone", followed by an introductory comment that I will just quote in part:

"It looks like they're trying to outlaw outdoor activities by arresting parents of 7 year old kids playing alone outside. What the fuck is the world coming to? Is this change for the better?"

We happen to know the person who posted this. He has a solid reputation and we trust him .He is probably speaking from authority, we might think, so we instantly assume that both, the title and his comments are accurate. Some people start sensing that there is in fact a campaign to outlaw outdoor activities and to arrest not just one, but many many parents of 7 year old kids playing alone outside. We get all defensive and start talking about our constitutional rights and freedoms... We start comparing countries, making inaccurate or weak analogies, telling stories about our childhoods, making hasty generalizations, begging the question…  but are our premises correct, complete and unbiased?  

 

It turns out that the 7 year-old kid was in fact walking alone heading to the park. But he did not get to the park, he stopped and sat at a nearby pool. He was spotted by lifeguards who had seen him, the 7 year-old kid 5 previous times. And when they approach him, the kid fled running across a six-lane road toward the park.

 

And the cops got called in. They apparently weren't chasing other parents at this particular time, so they had a chance to talk to the kid. The 7 year-old boy has a learning disability and was sitting all by himself in a park half a mile away from home. The cops learned that this is a common occurrence, charged his mother with child negligence, arrested and released her hours later.

 

 

Starting a discussion with a desired set of conclusions and defending them ad hominen leads to confirmation and cognitive biases. Nothing else.

[hxtr]

I walked to school beginning in the first grade. It was about a mile and I always walked with friends. Walking to and from school was just another fun part of the day to hang out with friends. Yes we got into shit sometimes, but our parents didn't worry about our safety nearly as much as people do today. Do we have more kidnappers/pedophiles now than 40-50 years ago? Should we make our kids shut-ins because of what "could" happen? 

I lived on a Air Force bases up till 8th grade and would go all over it looking for fun/trouble and unless I got caught I never had a problem.

 

I lived in Germany and went all over the city alone or with friends at age 11-14 with not even one problem. The only problems we had were the American kids who loved to start trouble. Us Americans loved to start trouble.. I was no exception to that rule. But still both places were the safest I have ever lived. 

 

For myself even with consequences that I did and did not understand... I would still rather be the over protective parent like I was than a parent that had their child abducted, held for 10+ years like we have seen, sold off or killed.

 

Oh wait... their is a double standard. I allowed my son to go places alone and to take my daughter with him but she was not allowed to go alone. I trusted him and trusted her to listen to him. 

 

Only had one babysitter and the last. Found out she tried to commit suicide so we figured that it best she not sit our daughter anymore.  

 

I made up for it though by boring them with computers/technology/science, computer games, movies, music, going out to dinners on every special occasion/other. They were fun to be around and made up for it where my wife was boring. 

 

Every hear two kids jamming out jamming out singing to System of a Down / Jet Pilot.... they liked that song. lol 

 

[PimpedOutPete]

Fascinating post but prime example of logical fallacy. We are all vigorously defending our points of view, but have we taken the time to check the structure of the argument and validity of the premises? Probably not, because if the premises were true we should all be arriving to robust, overall conclusions. I am not taking about personal opinions that might, or might not be necessarily related to the premises presented to us, but rather factual findings.

 

The title of the post is "Florida Mom arrested for letting 7 year old son walk to  park alone", followed by an introductory comment that I will just quote in part:

"It looks like they're trying to outlaw outdoor activities by arresting parents of 7 year old kids playing alone outside. What the fuck is the world coming to? Is this change for the better?"

We happen to know the person who posted this. He has a solid reputation and we trust him .He is probably speaking from authority, we might think, so we instantly assume that both, the title and his comments are accurate. Some people start sensing that there is in fact a campaign to outlaw outdoor activities and to arrest not just one, but many many parents of 7 year old kids playing alone outside. We get all defensive and start talking about our constitutional rights and freedoms... We start comparing countries, making inaccurate or weak analogies, telling stories about our childhoods, making hasty generalizations, begging the question…  but are our premises correct, complete and unbiased?  

 

It turns out that the 7 year-old kid was in fact walking alone heading to the park. But he did not get to the park, he stopped and sat at a nearby pool. He was spotted by lifeguards who had seen him, the 7 year-old kid 5 previous times. And when they approach him, the kid fled running across a six-lane road toward the park.

 

And the cops got called in. They apparently weren't chasing other parents at this particular time, so they had a chance to talk to the kid. The 7 year-old boy has a learning disability and was sitting all by himself in a park half a mile away from home. The cops learned that this is a common occurrence, charged his mother with child negligence, arrested and released her hours later.

 

 

Starting a discussion with a desired set of conclusions and defending them ad hominen leads to confirmation and cognitive biases. Nothing else.

 

 

Great job Joe....  Well done!

[little_old_man]

Fascinating post but prime example of logical fallacy. We are all vigorously defending our points of view, but have we taken the time to check the structure of the argument and validity of the premises? Probably not, because if the premises were true we should all be arriving to robust, overall conclusions. I am not taking about personal opinions that might, or might not be necessarily related to the premises presented to us, but rather factual findings.

 

The title of the post is "Florida Mom arrested for letting 7 year old son walk to  park alone", followed by an introductory comment that I will just quote in part:

"It looks like they're trying to outlaw outdoor activities by arresting parents of 7 year old kids playing alone outside. What the fuck is the world coming to? Is this change for the better?"

We happen to know the person who posted this. He has a solid reputation and we trust him .He is probably speaking from authority, we might think, so we instantly assume that both, the title and his comments are accurate. Some people start sensing that there is in fact a campaign to outlaw outdoor activities and to arrest not just one, but many many parents of 7 year old kids playing alone outside. We get all defensive and start talking about our constitutional rights and freedoms... We start comparing countries, making inaccurate or weak analogies, telling stories about our childhoods, making hasty generalizations, begging the question…  but are our premises correct, complete and unbiased?  

 

It turns out that the 7 year-old kid was in fact walking alone heading to the park. But he did not get to the park, he stopped and sat at a nearby pool. He was spotted by lifeguards who had seen him, the 7 year-old kid 5 previous times. And when they approach him, the kid fled running across a six-lane road toward the park.

 

And the cops got called in. They apparently weren't chasing other parents at this particular time, so they had a chance to talk to the kid. The 7 year-old boy has a learning disability and was sitting all by himself in a park half a mile away from home. The cops learned that this is a common occurrence, charged his mother with child negligence, arrested and released her hours later.

 

 

Starting a discussion with a desired set of conclusions and defending them ad hominen leads to confirmation and cognitive biases. Nothing else.

Joe,

 

While I appreciate your opinion on this matter, there was nothing in my original post that was inaccurate based on the information given in the link that I provided, which I might also mention was mere moments after the story broke. A mother allowed her 7 year old son to play unsupervised outside and was arrested and charged with "felony" child neglect. My comment pertaining to the outlawing of outdoor activities was obviously an exaggeration of the situation, but apparently you seem to be unable to differentiate what was intended as my opinion and what the facts of the story were at that time, that were as provided in the link. So please allow me to dumb it down for you just a bit so you can grasp what I'm saying.

 

First, I'm glad that you mentioned the term "logical fallacy". In your explanation of the "facts", you failed to mention that the mother of the 7 year old sent her son to the park with a cell phone tied on a string around his neck (as she always did when he was out playing), and that he had checked in with her before the lifeguards at the pool questioned him. Like any good kid who listens to his parents, the boy was spooked by the "strangers" and he took off. I'm not sure that by omitting that point you are attempting to bolster your argument, because in an earlier statement you said:

 

"My kids (10 and 13) walk to school all the time. They go bike riding with friends their age and do all sorts of outdoor activities but they always bring a cell phone along and tell us exactly where they will be. They are mature enough, in our opinion, to look out for each other, exercise relatively good judgement and use their common sense. "

 

Now I am no expert on Canadian law, but depending on how far your 10 and 13 year old live from school or how far they venture out with friends on their bikes, wouldn't this make you equally as negligent as this Florida mother by allowing your daughters to play unsupervised?

 

In case you missed that part of the story about the cell phone while doing your research, here is a link:

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/os-mom-arrested-son-walked-park-20140730,0,5477432.story

 

You also mentioned that the 7 year old boy never made it to the park. But in the actual police report cited in the following link, the boy was in the park. Again, a misstatement of fact to bolster your argument, or a simple oversight Joe?

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/29/mom-arrested-allowing-7-year-old-son-walk-park-alo/

 

You also stated that the boy ran across 6 lanes of traffic running to the park and away from the lifeguards. You might have noticed in some of the links that the mother points out that her son is aware of the proper way to cross the street and uses the crosswalks.

As far as your comments about me personally are concerned:

 

"We happen to know the person who posted this. He has a solid reputation and we trust him .He is probably speaking from authority, we might think, so we instantly assume that both, the title and his comments are accurate. "

 

You simply assume too much Joe. I simply posted a link to a news story that I found disturbing and wrote how the made me feel. YOU immediately jumped in and agreed with the decision to arrest her and YOU began making comparisons to how things work in Canada compared to the US, all based on what I wrote and the link I provided. If you dislike the direction this conversation has taken particularly on those matters, you have nobody to blame but yourself.  

 

 

If my opinions trouble you so much Joe, just ignore them in the future.  If you're looking for someplace to voice your opinion where more people agree with your side of an argument, try the political forum. I hear it's a real hoot.

[loaderXI]

I gotta poop

[little_old_man]

PS Joe,

 

This isn't an isolated event. It's happened before, which is why I made the original comment about making it illegal to play outside.  When a parent is arrested for letting their child play unsupervised outside, exactly how is that NOT making it illegal to let your kids play outside.

 

Links to two other stories completely unrelated to the original story.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/tammy-cooper-texas-mom-arrested-kids-unsupervised-video_n_1900113.html

 

http://jezebel.com/mom-arrested-for-letting-her-9-year-old-kid-play-outsid-1605455611

 

I also meant to ask where you managed to find a link stating that the 7 year old had learning disabilities? Obviously you mentioned it because it must have a huge bearing on this situation and your opinion that the mother is unfit and should be in jail, but I can find no mention of it anywhere, and exactly what type of learning disability does he have and exactly how does it have anything to do with this or his mother's parenting abilities?

 

Attempting to end a discussion to silence your detractors with a desired set of conclusions and glaring factual omissions, then defending them ad hominen leads to confirmation and cognitive biases. Nothing else.

[Joe Canadian]

"My comment pertaining to the outlawing of outdoor activities was obviously an exaggeration of the situation, but apparently you seem to be unable to differentiate what was intended as my opinion and what the facts of the story were at that time, that were as provided in the link. So please allow me to dumb it down for you just a bit so you can grasp what I'm saying."

 

No need to dumb things down for me, thanks for the offer.  I gotta poop.  

Loader, ruuun I need to go!!!!!

[hxtr]

Does this mean recess is canceled? 

[PimpedOutPete]

Good discussion ladies, now we can all go back to getting our nails done.

[mouselad]

It may have been warranted in this particular case, but I do feel it is becoming somewhat of a problem. The police gave a friend of mine a warning, because her child was riding his bicycle in the driveway, in a sub division with no through traffic...

 

Or maybe we just hear about it more nowadays because social media, and the internet. and weird arrest stories from all over the country are much easier to come by now.

[hxtr]

It may have been warranted in this particular case, but I do feel it is becoming somewhat of a problem. The police gave a friend of mine a warning, because her child was riding his bicycle in the driveway, in a sub division with no through traffic...

 

Or maybe we just hear about it more nowadays because social media, and the internet. and weird arrest stories from all over the country are much easier to come by now.

We use to not have all this technology and that's when common sense was necessary for survival. 

 

Now we do things just because as we have way to much time on our hands and life is too fucking easy.

 

What the fuck is wrong with a kid ridding their bike in a neighborhood, with or without traffic on anyone driveway. 

 

Stupidity is the new norm and it's becoming common. 

[SupaDupa]

Ok well...How about this. Being sent to jail does worse damage on the kids childhood memories and lifestyle than anything. Before using your "better judgment," think of the repercussions of sending a loving parent to jail. Cruel and unfair punishment to teach a mother a lesson makes no logic of this circumstance. Reality is subjective. Either the law should tell her to never again let her child go that far from home so that she can at that point understand and respect the law even if its fucking stupid. Jail time is retarded. No loving mother deserves that. Plus now the child has no mother and society gets to tell the kid he has a bad mom. Mental abuse is what I call this. The kid gets to suffer now by poor judgment.     

Edited August 6, 2014 by SupaDupa

[LordOfChaos]

......

Exactly my thought Joe! lol.