Mom arrested for teaching her son independence and self-reliance
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Insanity: A mother has been arrested because she let her 7-year-old son walk alone about ten blocks to a neighborhood park.
The boy had a cell phone which he had just used to check in with his mother.
When I was seven I wandered all over my neighborhood in Brooklyn. In fact, when I was 4 to 6 my parents would rent a bungalow in a resort in the Catskills each summer. There, I would wander the countryside every day completely on my own. The resort, called a bungalow colony, was not fancy and did not really have any organized activities for the kids. We were free to explore, and would go miles in all directions into the nearby farm fields and woods. Interestingly, we knew our limits and always stayed within them.
But that was then, when this culture was free and believed in freedom and teaching independence and self-reliance to its young. Now, such ideas are considered evil and must be squelched.
For many reasons, mostly political but partly ethical, I do not use Google, Facebook, Twitter. They practice corrupt business policies, while targeting conservative websites for censoring, facts repeatedly confirmed by news stories and by my sense that Facebook has taken action to prevent my readers from recommending Behind the Black to their friends.
Thus, I must have your direct support to keep this webpage alive. Not only does the money pay the bills, it gives me the freedom to speak honestly about science and culture, instead of being forced to write it as others demand.
Please consider donating by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Insanity: A mother has been arrested because she let her 7-year-old son walk alone about ten blocks to a neighborhood park.
The boy had a cell phone which he had just used to check in with his mother.
When I was seven I wandered all over my neighborhood in Brooklyn. In fact, when I was 4 to 6 my parents would rent a bungalow in a resort in the Catskills each summer. There, I would wander the countryside every day completely on my own. The resort, called a bungalow colony, was not fancy and did not really have any organized activities for the kids. We were free to explore, and would go miles in all directions into the nearby farm fields and woods. Interestingly, we knew our limits and always stayed within them.
But that was then, when this culture was free and believed in freedom and teaching independence and self-reliance to its young. Now, such ideas are considered evil and must be squelched.
Like you Robert, When I was 7, my younger brothers and I were out terrorizing the neighborhood, When I was twelve, I was cooking dinner and babysitting my 4 brothers and 2 sisters, both parents worked, I never had a curfew, but I did know my boundaries as well, at least one of my parents would be jailed for sure in these times.
The country was different when we were little. No way we allowed our three to walk a mile alone at that age. With this said, I don’t agree with this arrest. She should have been let off with a warning.
When I was 7, with our parents approval, my brother and I would bike to Alley Pond Park in Queens, NYC, It was about two miles from our home where we played and explored. I didn’t realize my parents were committing felony child abuse by allowing us to play in a city park. What else were our bicycles for? Riding aroud the block gets really boring.
I understand another parent “turned in” the parent after questioning this boy. Welcome, comrade, to Amerika! I HOPE you like it now that it surely has CHANGED.
When I was 6, my mother thought it was OK for me to walk alone to school through the forest (which looks pretty creepy in wintertime, when there are no leaves on the trees).
Oh, wait. Hey, guys, do you suppose that our parents were secretly hoping to get rid of us and make it look like an accident? Think about it: how many times did you almost kill yourself by climbing tall trees, riding a bike next to traffic, playing with fireworks, etc.? Geez, how did we ever survive childhood and our parents’ neglect.
And are we really grown-up enough to take care of ourselves now? Maybe we really *do* need Big Brother to look after us, after all.
Nah. Big Brother would be just as negligent as our parents were. Maybe even hostile, if we become successful, rich, or famous.
I never took my dads suggestion that I go play in the freeway seriously!
“Oh, wait. Hey, guys, do you suppose that our parents were secretly hoping to get rid of us and make it look like an accident?”
Now that you bring it up…
Yes. Those were great days then. A talk show host said his mother when she was young used to walk home alone from work after midnight in New York City.
Too bad we don’t have those days anymore.
Bob Clark