Is this a case of child neglect?

[illram]

The professor's story is touching and I feel for her.

As to the others, my personal judgment:

--Leaving your 9 year old in a park all day alone, not OK. I think jail is way over the top, but still.
--using a different address to register your kid is super common and should at most result in just making your kid change schools. Felony charges are of course totally absurd.
--leaving your kids in the car is...leaving your kids in the car, and as this thread demonstrated there is a spectrum of "okayness" for that. Leaving your kids totally unattended while you go to a job interview is not OK, to me.

So I wouldn't say these kids were separated from their parents for the act of mothering. In none of these circumstances would I think jail is warranted, but I would not call the three things above mothering... I would call them leaving your kid unattended and trying to work the system.

 

[NovaKart]

I agree with all of what you posted really. I think a better option would be for mandated visits by a social worker although I realize the child protective services system is really overworked.

 

[illram]

Yes, we definitely need more social workers...and they need to be paid more.

Putting parents in jail only makes kids' lives much harder, which is the sad irony of these stories. The statistics for the children of incarcerated parents is not good.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

This is a long story so if you don't want to read it I'll summarize. The mom has a 4 year old and left him in the car for 5 minutes while she went in a store. Someone recorded it and she was charged with a crime, although a minor one.

LOL. This is totalitarian.

 

[Yeekim]

Not totalitarian, merely very stupid.

 

[Bamspeedy]

9 year old in a park all day, ridiculous. A few hours once in a while, maybe (even if I wouldn't do it if she wasn't with somebody she knew) but 8 hours every day?

A baby and a 4 year old alone in the car? I have a baby and a three year old so I know it's tempting because of the hassle of carrying the baby in the car seat with one hand and holding the older kid (or in worst case scenario carrying) with the other arm, but I still take them with and not leave them for a second. If the third kid, the 10 year old is with, I will let her stay in the car to watch the other two while I run into the gas station, but going into the grocery store or anywhere else they all come with me and isn't bad because the 10 year old can help watch the three year old.

How about making the kid walk a mile?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/robert-demond-probation_n_5415095.html

From other sources it seems the kid was 8. Most articles didn't say or know the age and that makes a big difference if it is abuse or not. A 5 year old? Abuse. A teenager? Are we not allowed to give the kids any kind of punishment nowadays? 8 is kind of in the middle for me, but perhaps a mile was a little too far for that age?

 

[Farm Boy]

What. the. hell. Abuse to make a 3rd grader walk a mile to or from school? Good freaking God.

 

[cybrxkhan]

What. the. hell. Abuse to make a 3rd grader walk a mile to or from school? Good freaking God.

Cue obligatory "when I was your age I walked X miles over X terrain" statements.

Reading the story though I suppose it wold be a bit strange for the parent to make their kid walk as a form of discipline, but unless the kid lived in a dangerous neighborhood I wouldn't think much of it. The judge's argument that there are more pedophiles and cars around these days makes no sense. I'm pretty sure there's still kids in many parts of the US who walk a gazillion miles to school and only a small amount, statistically speaking, who get into trouble with pedophiles and cars.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

9 year old in a park all day, ridiculous. A few hours once in a while, maybe (even if I wouldn't do it if she wasn't with somebody she knew) but 8 hours every day?

A baby and a 4 year old alone in the car? I have a baby and a three year old so I know it's tempting because of the hassle of carrying the baby in the car seat with one hand and holding the older kid (or in worst case scenario carrying) with the other arm, but I still take them with and not leave them for a second. If the third kid, the 10 year old is with, I will let her stay in the car to watch the other two while I run into the gas station, but going into the grocery store or anywhere else they all come with me and isn't bad because the 10 year old can help watch the three year old.

How about making the kid walk a mile?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/robert-demond-probation_n_5415095.html

From other sources it seems the kid was 8. Most articles didn't say or know the age and that makes a big difference if it is abuse or not. A 5 year old? Abuse. A teenager? Are we not allowed to give the kids any kind of punishment nowadays? 8 is kind of in the middle for me, but perhaps a mile was a little too far for that age?

How long does it take a kid to walk a mile?

When I lived in the city with my dad and his girlfriend's family, we three younger kids were expected to either walk to school or ride our bikes. I never timed how long the bike ride took, but it was a 15-minute walk, and we did that 4 times every day (we went home at lunchtime and back again). I remember getting a ride exactly twice, when it was ungodly cold, and my dad was willing to stuff himself and 15 neighbor kids in his small car (no seat belt laws back then).

But that was back in the '70s, before kids were driven everywhere that wasn't just next door...

 

[Farm Boy]

How long does it take a kid to walk a mile?

A kid is going to walk ~3 mph if not hurrying/slow. So about 20 minutes?

 

[warpus]

When I was 9 years old I was playing by myself outside after school and dinner were done until it got dark. Every single day. My parents had no idea where I was, for the most part.

Was that child abuse? No way man.. Every kid was like in my neighbourhood. Our parents loved us and cared about our safety, but they were no hover parents.. copter parents? Whatever they're called. They let us do our thing and make our own mistakes.

Having said that leaving a 9 year old in a park by him/herself *can* be child abuse.. just not in every single instance. There are plenty of examples I can think of where it wouldn't be child abuse..

but having said THAT people these days are really anal about wrapping kids up in bubblewrap and keeping them locked up so that they can't hurt themselves.. so my position might not be very popular.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

A kid is going to walk ~3 mph if not hurrying/slow. So about 20 minutes?

In that case, there were lots of kids in my neighborhood who were abused 4 times a day, every school day.

 

[NovaKart]

I think America is too extreme with protection of children and Kurdistan is the opposite extreme. It's not unusual for me to see children who look to be 5 or under playing outside totally unsupervised.

 

[bhsup]

I wonder how much trouble my parents should have gotten in when they would let us walk to the swimming pool. It was about 3 miles away. Course, this was back in the 70s when judges knew their place (for the most part.)

 

[Farm Boy]

Judges were more untouchable in the 70s, the increased popularity of recall elections for judges who rule against the wishes of the superloud activists has driven them towards idiocy on hot button issues, like kids. And that's when the legislatures haven't preemptively removed their discretion. The problem is what you've identified, but the cause is I think the opposite.

 

[Akka]

How about making the kid walk a mile?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/robert-demond-probation_n_5415095.html

From other sources it seems the kid was 8. Most articles didn't say or know the age and that makes a big difference if it is abuse or not. A 5 year old? Abuse. A teenager? Are we not allowed to give the kids any kind of punishment nowadays? 8 is kind of in the middle for me, but perhaps a mile was a little too far for that age?

What ? Is this insanity spreading ?
I was walking to and from school (about a mile, precisely) starting from being a 6 years old, and the only crime here is being stupid enough to consider it is abuse.
Thoug doing it as a form of "discipline" is perhaps just as frightening. It's a "punishment" to walk a mile ? Wut ?

 

[cybrxkhan]

Hmm. You know, I just remembered, my grandfather walked to school a few miles, and every time he passed by corpses of people who died from starvation or were killed. The kid who walked a mile got of easy.

What ? Is this insanity spreading ?
I was walking to and from school (about a mile, precisely) starting from being a 6 years old, and the only crime here is being stupid enough to consider it is abuse.
Thoug doing it as a form of "discipline" is perhaps just as frightening. It's a "punishment" to walk a mile ? Wut ?

My father wouldn't have called it punishment, he would've called it "character building."

 

[Farm Boy]

My father wouldn't have called it punishment, he would've called it "character building."

I would call it going to school "green." Also you might actually say "hi" to people in your community to help stave off some of what the woman in the article with the autistic child goes through.

 

[Akka]

Hmm. You know, I just remembered, my grandfather walked to school a few miles, and every time he passed by corpses of people who died from starvation or were killed. The kid who walked a mile got of easy.

My father wouldn't have called it punishment, he would've called it "character building."

You seem to have misunderstood the nuance of my point.
It's not intended to mean "I had it worse, these pussified generations today have it easy !". It's intended to mean "walking a mile is friggin' NORMAL, there is nothing even exceptional about it, calling it discipline or punishment is ********".

My parents wouldn't have called it either. They (and I) did simply call it "going to school". It's on-par with saying that giving a child a fork is irresponsible 'cause he could accidentalyl stab himself with it and die. It's nothing about being "tough", it's about being "insane".

 

[cybrxkhan]

I would call it going to school "green." Also you might actually say "hi" to people in your community to help stave off some of what the woman in the article with the autistic child goes through.

That's a good point. I didn't walk a large distance between school and home, but I did interact with the world around despite the small distance: I observed the nature around me like caterpillars and stuff, I made small talk with the girl next door I probably should've asked out to prom but didn't notice her, I had epic stick fights with my friends, I escorted my brother back and froth trying to be a role model, I got exercise.... Hmm.

I just realized I got a lot more out of walking to school than I thought.

You seem to have misunderstood the nuance of my point.
It's not intended to mean "I had it worse, these pussified generations today have it easy !". It's intended to mean "walking a mile is friggin' NORMAL, there is nothing even exceptional about it, calling it discipline or punishment is ********".

My parents wouldn't have called it either. They (and I) did simply call it "going to school". It's on-par with saying that giving a child a fork is irresponsible 'cause he could accidentalyl stab himself with it and die. It's nothing about being "tough", it's about being "insane".

I was being sarcastic. My father liked to imply a lot of things were character building stuff.