I really have issues with the way this story was reported. It is some of the most intellectually dishonest reporting I've ever seen.Mom Arrested for Letting Her 9-Year-Old Play Alone at Park.
The article calls the arrest "disturbing" and attempts to make a case that riding in a car is statistically riskier than being alone at the park all day. It lauds the mother for choosing to drop her child alone at a park unsupervised and with no alternative place to go, rather than "let her sit at a McDonald's all day" where the mother worked. So let's see ... at McDonald's with mom close by or in a park all alone all day, and the latter is the superior choice? The Atlantic shared it on FB with a note bemoaning over-supervision of children, as if that is the real problem here.
You read that right. The Atlantic doesn't think dropping your 9-year-old at a park for 8 hours while you work all day is a problem at all. Hell, she had a cell phone ... isn't that good enough? The problem, as The Atlantic seems to see it, is the rest of us need to stop being such lily-livered helicopter parents so that parents like this who JDGAF don't look bad, feel bad or get arrested when they want to dump the kid off wherever, to do whatever, with whoever, all damned day.
Dropping your 9-year-old off at a park all day while you work is a darn site different than believing a child can never be out of your sight for "one second."
I think there is a fundamental difference between allowing your 9-year-old to play alone at a park when she also has available some place safe she can go to with adequate supervision. Whether that consists of a sitter, a neighbor, the parents of one of her friends or even older siblings at home, it is entirely different than dropping the kid at the park and going to work where she can't get to you, and without making any arrangements whatsoever for other people to look after her.
ETA:
The article calls the arrest "disturbing" and attempts to make a case that riding in a car is statistically riskier than being alone at the park all day. It lauds the mother for choosing to drop her child alone at a park unsupervised and with no alternative place to go, rather than "let her sit at a McDonald's all day" where the mother worked. So let's see ... at McDonald's with mom close by or in a park all alone all day, and the latter is the superior choice? The Atlantic shared it on FB with a note bemoaning over-supervision of children, as if that is the real problem here.
"We now live in a society where most people believe a child can not be out of your sight for one second, where people think children need constant, total adult supervision. This shift is not rooted in fact. It's not rooted in any true change. It's imaginary. It's rooted in irrational fear."
You read that right. The Atlantic doesn't think dropping your 9-year-old at a park for 8 hours while you work all day is a problem at all. Hell, she had a cell phone ... isn't that good enough? The problem, as The Atlantic seems to see it, is the rest of us need to stop being such lily-livered helicopter parents so that parents like this who JDGAF don't look bad, feel bad or get arrested when they want to dump the kid off wherever, to do whatever, with whoever, all damned day.
Dropping your 9-year-old off at a park all day while you work is a darn site different than believing a child can never be out of your sight for "one second."
I think there is a fundamental difference between allowing your 9-year-old to play alone at a park when she also has available some place safe she can go to with adequate supervision. Whether that consists of a sitter, a neighbor, the parents of one of her friends or even older siblings at home, it is entirely different than dropping the kid at the park and going to work where she can't get to you, and without making any arrangements whatsoever for other people to look after her.
ETA:
I'd have done exactly the same thing that shocked adult did.On her third day at the park, an adult asked the girl where her mother was. At work, the daughter replied. The shocked adult called the cops.
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