A Maryland couple who advocate "free range'' parenting say they've been cleared in the second of two neglect cases that began when their children were spotted walking alone. Danielle Meitiv told The Washington Post on Sunday that she and her husband learned of the decision in a Child Protective Services letter June 13. Officials haven't commented but recently clarified their policy, noting that the state shouldn't investigate unless kids are harmed or face substantial risk of harm. The parents first came under scrutiny for allowing their 10- and 6-year-old children to walk home in a Washington suburb in December. In April, the children were held for hours after they were spotted walking from a park. Meitiv says it's a relief that the couple has been cleared in both cases. The suburban Washington, D.C., parents have been investigated three times since October. The parents were not charged in the earliest such incident.
I understand that the post-Etan Patz world of child-rearing is a scary place. But if letting your kids walk home from a park is "neglect" (so-called "free-range parenting"), then my parents were guilty of child abandonment. We used to disappear for hours on end -- to their delight! -- riding our bikes around the neighborhood, miles and miles away from home, and go to friends' and friends of friends' houses without asking, and they never knew where we were. (And we had a serial killer of children on the loose!) But we were just fine. For all the talk of kids being so much more "mature" these days and being exposed to so many more things sooner, I do find that my niece and nephew -- who are as tech savvy as Apple Genius Bar employees -- lack a sophistication that my friends and I had from being out in the real world on our own. I'm certainly not faulting my sister -- or any parents today -- for picking them up and dropping them off everywhere they go. (She's protective, that's great.) But I don't think parents who do not live in a constant state of fear -- as my parents and my friends' parents didn't -- should be arrested for raising their kids that way.
2 comments:
Danielle and I were high school classmates, so I've been watching this story with sorrow and worry. I'm a liberal; I believe in the power of government to make people's lives better, but it's astonishing how that can be perverted into taking control of people's lives.
Child kidnapping / murder cases rates have steadily declined over the years:
http://tinyurl.com/afzt6uj
As for your link to the story about the Oakland County Child Killer, you were, um, a rather odd child, weren't you? :-)
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