Friday, 21 September 2012
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Guess I Was Wrong
Last week, I said we need to "set them free," regarding our children. To get them outside and play. To allow them to experience the things we did as kids. To even play unsupervised.
I guess I was wrong.
A Texas woman was arrested for doing just that. According to police, well, to be honest, we have nothing according to police as the La Porte, TX police haven't released a statement regarding the arrest of Tammy Cooper for child endangerment.
According to Cooper, her children were outside playing on their scooters. She claims she was watching them from a lawnchair. But so what if she wasn't? The kids were 6 and 9, and from the photos and videos of the street online, it's not a busy street. These were not gas scooters, either. They were the "Razor" scooters you always see.
Apparently a neighbor called the police about it, but the police didn't show up for hours. When they did, they said "we are here for you" and proceded to arrest Cooper. If the children were in such danger, then shouldn't the police be arrested for endangering the children by waiting to respond to the call?
It sounds like it's just a nosy neighbor with an axe to grind. But even if it isn't, it's still absurd. So what if they weren't wearing helmets (none of the articles state if they were or not). So what if they were doing something the neighbor thought was dangerous. Are they your kids? No? Then butt the hell out! When growing up, we would build ramps out of scrap lumber. I'm not sure which was more fun, launching ourselves over those giant metal coolers we used to have or when we went tumbling because our shoddy ramp fell apart! It was fun!
I find it strange that no one on the police department, city, neighbor etc has bothered to come out to say what this mother did that was so wrong. Especially with all the coverage it has been getting. But we hear it all the time. When a parent does have the guts to let their kids be kids, or act like a parent, some busy-body has to stick their nose in it. "You kids get off the streets with your bikes!" Or the jerks who scowl at you when you discipline your child for acting out in public.
Kids are kids and they need to be allowed to play.
So folks, set your kids free... but watch your back!
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Comments (29)
Yeah, that makes me angry. 6 and 9? They're old enough to play outside like that. Geez louise. C'mon. it does sound like a neighbor with an abnormally large stick up their butt... Grrr. I hope we get more info on it, cause I'm curious now...
It's sad.
It's those same sort of people who then will turn around and say that, "kids are growing up too fast these days."
Just a mass of contradictions, and I think many parents and other adults are a big reason why the generations coming up are not as well prepared as they used to be. Hard to see anyone calling any of the generations closest to me (I'm 27 in December) the "Greatest Generation" like the generation of the 1940s and 50s are referred by.
Damn busy bodies. They take that whole "it takes a village to raise a child" crap way too seriously.
I am fully aware that we'll be getting a lot of flak for how we raise our kids, especially with what we eat... so I'm getting mad in advance at nosy people, lol.I am lucky I am still (or atleast have all my arms and legs) with the shit we use to do. I am 100% with ya on this attitude. My Mom is an interesting cat. She would let us do be kids and roam etc and let us be our own people (within reason of course) and wouldn't come to our rescue either Looking back, the kids with hovering parents were mostly little pussys probably because Mommy or Daddy was always there to protect them. When I was 6 I got my ass kicked by a 12 year old and I went to tell my Mom and she said "So"? Total hardass.
Grew up in the woods of GA and we would go "snake hunting" at the creek behind our house, with forked sticks to hold their heads. One of my buddies mom called my mom because she was concerned and my Mom laughed and said...haha...they will be so loud the snakes will be long gone. My little bro caught a baby copperhead once and brought it home to show me (I was somewhere else) and somehow it got out of his little box and was behind the couch for a while....LOL...that is living!
I remember laying in the street bedside another girl and letting these two guys (who were very good at riding and stunts) jump over us - our heads - on their bikes! Looking back now I think that was very stupid. But they never landed on us.
I think my mom was just too wrapped up in her own depression to notice what we did. She was a pack rat (hoarder, they call it now) and she was always terrified that someone would call somebody on the state of the house and they would come and take us away. Never happened though.
I don't like child protective services though, because they never help when they are needed and they too often remove the child from a GOOD home. Mike has called them on me four times. I was investigated so many times they put a note in my file that they would no longer accept "anonymous" reports about me.
@tendollar4ways - lol we caught a cottonmouth once. Thinking back, I really can't think of anyone I knew that had these helicopter parents. The ones that were kind of close though, yeah... they're a bit off now as adults.
@mtngirlsouth - eh, even if they landed on your heads, it would have only hurt for a little while. Think about how fast they were going, and unless they were fat kids, not enough weight to really do anything lol.
Child services... good enough folks, I think. I don't think a certain someone will call them on me anymore. CPS laughed when I told them "yes, I hit the kids. We were doing the Ric Flair chest slap thing, to see who could make the other one's chest more red. Arrest the kid, he actually made me bleed!"
Ridiculous!
It's these types of assholes that are ruining people's faith in each other. Would she be a better mother if she were letting them play video games all day and eat pizza?
When I was a kid that age I was at the fishing hole alone, rode my bike and walked in the woods. I'm lucky I grew up then rather than now.@BoulderChristina - It sounds like it was more of a vengence thing. One video, they confronted the neighbor who had no comment and seemed kind of like a bitch. Worst part is, the mother actually had to spend the night in jail!
Hard to say sometimes when you should allow kids to be kids. If a restaurant is crowded and very fancy, then it might not be kid friendly or advisable to let your kid go too unrestrained there.
However at a kids pizza palor (Chuckie Cheese) yeah there is almost a total no leash on a kid rule there. I suppose a kid bullying or hitting might cross the line might be too extreme.....
Now that I think about it life seems so sterile and there is less roving gangs of skateboarders around. Nor do you see much street break dancing anymore too. However we may start to see more Flash mob happenings just because we have no (or less) outlet to be physical.
We had bb gun wars, and dirt ball fights & it never hurt me, or that one eyed kid too much, cept for that vision thing, with that one eye...
My mom would tell my brother and me if we stayed indoors, she was putting us to work. Yeah, when I saw this, I was appalled. why? *head bang* We'd disappear for hours, but knew we'd better be home for dinner. We had chores, and freedom to roam, and we roamed everywhere. Damn that was fun!
@tendollar4ways - My mom was born in Wyoming and there were rattlesnakes, but we lived in Michigan. My mom killed every single snake she saw as a matter of practice anyway. Came home from school one day to a snake cut into 3 pieces in the backyard, and her telling me not to go near it, because the head can still bite until sundown... ah, memories of mom. lol
Read in the paper today that judge has been appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court, Loretta Rush.
I get wanting to keep kids safe. But this is way, way overboard.
Want to know why obesity is a problem in America? Parents are too afraid to let their kids go out and play thanks to stupid neighbors like the one Cooper has, so they keep them inside and give them video games
Wow in my neighborhood that neighbor would be arrested for a false report.
My grand kids live in the country and run the trails and have wonderful adventures, just like their Father my son did-just like all of my kids and their friends did.
This is confusing and I think would need to read the article to see why she was arrested. There has to be more than just letting her kids ride scooters.
This is just one more example of 'the man' usurping parental rights.
In our school district, a policy was created that stated kids could only bring healthy snacks to school. Friends of mine sent their child to school with a no bake peanut butter/oatmeal cookie. They were called out on their choice of a healthy snack. Now mind you - granola bars were on "the approved snack" list. So my rather direct friend created a spreadsheet with the ingredients of a homemade no bake cookie and contrasted that with the ingredients in a processed granola bar. Wanna guess which one was more "healthy"? In spite of the simple healthy ingredients in the home made snack - it was not considered healthy and thus disallowed.
If parents don't stand their ground - they will continue to have autonomy to raise their children. And that is a scary thought.
Off my soap box now.
I'd comment on how I was raised and the liberties I had growing up. Problem is, this isn't the world I grew up in. We didn't have to worry about some creep snatching us. We didn't have drive by shootings. Life was a great deal simpler and safer.
On the other hand, we also didn't have the government sticking it's nose into our business at the drop of a hat. We didn't wear helmets when we rode our bikes, and surprise, we all reached adulthood with our brains intact (whether this is a good thing is probably a subjective thing). Not only did we live government free, we would have fought back against one that stuck it's nose in our business.
It's a different world, and at least in my opinion, not a good one.
More and more I think you just can't win with socialism. Last year one of my kids missed a lot of school due to asthma. This year she is doing better, but there is this pressure for us to make sure she doesn't miss school. Yesterday I had the day off, so I helped get our four kids off to school... well except the asthma kid didn't willingly go. She's big so my wife and I had problems pulling her to the car to usher her off. That's when nosy passers-by called the cops on us -- you just can not win.
This may set off invisible alarms, so I cleaned the porch and the wife cleaned the kitchen... just in case we end up entertaining cps... again.
I must not be evolving, for I see my kids as mine, but with the new social model, kids exist in a super-position between us and the State -- but I still can't come to terms with this fact.
@monobeam - amazing how they'll call the cops on you for doing something they'd call the cops on you for NOT doing...
@grim_truth - " amazing how they'll call the cops on you for doing something they'd call the cops on you for NOT doing..."
Yes. It's almost like you just can't wwwwwwwwwww---.
@SimianMusings - "It's a different world, and at least in my opinion, not a good one."
I agree. My town was safe when I grew up, and people didn't nark on each other.
I live in a college town on the Mississippi, and for some ten years students have mysteriously ended up drowning in the river, two people were shot dead downtown during the day a few weeks ago... So, naturally the most important thing for our city to have on the social agenda is new rules for how we put out our garbage cans, new fees for rainwater runoff, and similar stupid things that help no one. And today, narking on neighbors is very common in my town.
Abstractly: socialism makes everything peachy keen. In practice: socialism leads to narking and river drownings.
What really pisses me off about this is that because the cops were called on a false "potential child abuse" situation and responded they were kept from helping someone who was really in danger.
It's really hard for parents to do anything where their kids are concerned nowadays because there's always somebody there ready to butt in and tell you "well, if they were my kids..." Who cares? They're not. People are nosy and need to mind their own business.