Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

[joecct]

I'm 59. If my parents raised me today the way they raised me back in the 50's and 60's they'd be arrested.
Case in point

[Bob Gray]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

Can't blame the police for initially checking on things, as if they didn't, they'd get what-fer if something bad happened. CPS sounds like they were a bit heavy handed. It's true that a lot of stuff we did as kids wouldn't be allowed today. I saw an article recently about how schools are getting rid of swing sets because insurance companies are worried about liability if a kids falls off and gets hurt. That's just the latest thing that we took for granted as kids that is disappearing.

[JF_Gophers]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

CPS is allowed to take children without a court document of some kind? There's a law that needs to be fixed.

[Kepler]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

CPS is allowed to take children without a court document of some kind? There's a law that needs to be fixed.

IIRC, CPS can remove children from a home temporarily, on their own judgment, if it's a situation with immediate and dire threat. While I'm not wild about CPS overreach in general, that seems like a reasonable position.

I'm sure there is a time limit after which there has to be a court order or the children have to go back.

[Bob Gray]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

IIRC, CPS can remove children from a home temporarily, on their own judgment, if it's a situation with immediate and dire threat. While I'm not wild about CPS overreach in general, that seems like a reasonable position.

I'm sure there is a time limit after which there has to be a court order or the children have to go back.

From the info in the article, I don't think this would constitute an immediate or dire threat. I'm not saying you're saying it is, just that I don't think CPS would reasonably reach that level here based on available info.

[Kepler]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

From the info in the article, I don't think this would constitute an immediate or dire threat. I'm not saying you're saying it is, just that I don't think CPS would reasonably reach that level here based on available info.

I understand. I was responding to the quote about CPS being enabled to act without a court document, not about the case at hand.

When I lived in MA (late 80s) there was at least one (and I think more than one) high profile case where CPS made repeated visits to a home and, despite evaluating the situation as dangerous, either did not try or were not able to secure a judge's order, and in the interim the child died from abuse. Everybody then proceeded to go bonkers and a review found there actually were a lot of restrictions on CPS' ability to act. I am therefore always a little suspicious when people trot out the idea that the Orwellian CPS is going to steal your children in the dead of night because you didn't make them salute your wall-height framed photo of Fuhrer Obama or somesuch.

I also had a lot of contact with CPS during my time as a foster parent because of some rather unsavory aspects of the child's former home. The people who actually did the CPS grunt work always struck me as extremely aware of the destabilization of families caused by any intervention they did, or even their very presence, and bent over backwards to follow the rules and not overreact. Anecdotal and inadmissible as evidence of larger social forces, of course, but that predisposes me to view them favorably.

[ericredaxe]

a review found there actually were a lot of checks on CPS' ability act.

As there should be, and in this case it seems as if there should have been more.

I have a 9 and 6 year old, and I have to say I would feel very very confident about their ability to safely walk or ride their bikes home from one of the parks in our town.

[Bob Gray]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

I understand. I was responding to the quote about CPS being enabled to act without a court document, not about the case at hand.

When I lived in MA (late 80s) there was at least one (and I think more than one) high profile case where CPS made repeated visits to a home and, despite evaluating the situation as dangerous, either did not try or were not able to secure a judge's order, and in the interim the child died from abuse. Everybody then proceeded to go bonkers and a review found there actually were a lot of restrictions on CPS' ability to act. I am therefore always a little suspicious when people trot out the idea that the Orwellian CPS is going to steal your children in the dead of night because you didn't make them salute your wall-height framed photo of Fuhrer Obama or somesuch.

I also had a lot of contact with CPS during my time as a foster parent because of some rather unsavory aspects of the child's former home. The people who actually did the CPS grunt work always struck me as extremely aware of the destabilization of families caused by any intervention they did, or even their very presence, and bent over backwards to follow the rules and not overreact. Anecdotal and inadmissible as evidence of larger social forces, of course, but that predisposes me to view them favorably.

As a current foster parent, I won't comment on my experiences. But there certainly are a lot of challenging situations these folks deal with and they tend to have very heavy case loads and can't give as much attention to cases as you'd like to see. There are cases here in AZ and other places I've read about, both where lots of visits were made, or the case didn't get the attention it should have and visits weren't made, or somehow a situation didn't come to the attention of CPS when it should have. Tough stuff and tragic what happens to some of these kids.

[Kepler]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

As a current foster parent, I won't comment on my experiences.

Good luck to you fostering. As the old Peace Corps motto said, it was the toughest job I ever loved.

[jmh]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

I'm 59. If my parents raised me today the way they raised me back in the 50's and 60's they'd be arrested.
Case in point

I think this passage is key:

She [the mother who practices "free range parenting"] added: “Abductions are extremely rare. Car accidents are not. The number one cause of death for children of their age is a car accident.”

So much of our built environment in the US, especially in areas that experienced their greatest growth after WWII and particularly areas that were built up since the 1980s, is designed with the idea in mind that people use cars to get everywhere: sprawling neighborhoods with lots of cul-de-sacs and few through streets make it inconvenient or impossible for people to get around on foot or by bicycle. So I think the mother's point cuts both ways. On the one hand, through sheer force of math, an environment where everybody drivers everywhere is going to lead to more traffic crashes and more traffic fatalities, and keeping yourself and your children out of this environment mitigates this problem, even if just infinitesimally. On the other hand, in an environment where everybody drives everywhere, drivers aren't accustomed to seeing pedestrians or cyclists and don't know the appropriate way to drive in order to protect street users without the benefit of a metal cage around them (giving enough room when passing cyclists, yielding to crossing pedestrians when turning, etc). This is a problem even here in NYC where pedestrians are everywhere, so I can only imagine how bad it is in, say, the suburbs of Atlanta or Houston. So by letting your kids walk home from the playground, you're exposing them to that risk instead.

Incidentally, a couple of friends from college live in that neighborhood and bring their kids to the same playground, and one called it "a ridiculous overreach by CPS".

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

The whole idea is that the concept of family is to be destroyed and children are to become property of government. Courtesy of the NWO.

[bueller]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

I wonder what I would be charged with after the CPS worker removed the paperwork from her *** and spent a few days with a funny walk.

[jmh]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

The whole idea is that the concept of family is to be destroyed and children are to become property of government. Courtesy of the NWO.

How much tin foil does it take to make one of those hats, anyway?

[MissThundercat]

Re: Parenting 101 - Helicopters, Drones, & the 6 o'clock whistle

How much tin foil does it take to make one of those hats, anyway?

He bought out the whole store.

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

How much tin foil does it take to make one of those hats, anyway?

The hat doesn't take much...it's covering the whole house that uses the majority.