Mom arrested after her 10yo went for walk alone

[RandMart]

@Zac

Like zero bikes in the rack at schools these days.

Don’t mention bike racks, please - I still get nightmares LOL

When D’Kid first learned to ride a bike, we would go on short family rides past her school, exactly one mile away (trust me, I measured it, as part of several routes I run through town, as either the first or last mile, depending which way I go)

She once said, in an off-hand kinda way “Would be nice if I could ride my bike to school, like you did when you were little”
“If you had bike racks, I bet you could”

Not long after, at the start of the next school year, I think, I was invited by some of the people I did Midnight Bingo with to join the PTA

I had a chance to get the bike racks!

However …

Her school was in a different township from ours, and was across a road busy enough that a crossing guard would be required; plus it was a Catholic school, and they weren’t gonna carry the cost and liability for the crossing guard themselves. On top of that, there probably would have needed to be bicycle safety training for children AND parents

Eventually, I had to meet with the two public school boards of the two affected townships, both police departments, a bus company, our principal and the Diocese to try to get the racks

After two years, I finally abandoned the project, when my PTA/HSA term was up

We moved her to public school and the school closed not long afterwards, anyway

[Zac]

Well Rand, at least you gave it a shot. Good on you.

[wimsey]

@slowguy

@sphere

Keep in mind it’s usually other parents dropping the dime on these families, my guess is mostly other moms. Police are required to enforce the law no matter how stupid it may be.

Police have quite a bit of discretion in how and when they enforce the law.

Right. It seems like there’s more missing from this story. Some prior history, or a pissed off neighbor, something like that.

This is one area where I perceive some urban/rural alignment on perspective.

When I lived in City of Boston proper, kids ran through streets and neighbors’ yards unsupervised, learned how to ride the T pretty early on (sometimes that was the City-approved route to school), knew how to confidently stride past a sketchy panhandler or just tell them to fuck off, etc.

And when I worked in small town Florida, parents were proud that their kids could walk the dog unsupervised through gator-infested, lonely county parks and not get lost, eaten by dinosaurs or abducted by pedophiles hiding in the bushes.

There was a certain resiliency and sense of ‘they have to learn how to swim sometime’ nature to both environments.

It’s suburban places that I feel like are driving the angst and institutional response on these kind of issues.

[Sulliesbrew]

No kids for us, but we see kids in our 'hood riding bikes to the elementary school about .4 miles from our house when the weather is nice. Not an option for the middle or high school based on no safe passage of a county road. There is room enough for a dedicated bike path, but I don’t see that ever happening.

[slowguy]

@ajthomas

@sphere

I suspect the motivating detail was that she didn’t know where he was, more so than that he was left alone.

perhaps the kid was acting in a way that prompted police intervention. Or perhaps the kid is 10 but looks 7.

I’m guessing “overreach” but there might be a reason this didn’t end with the kid simply being driven home.

Either way, the police returned the kid, and then left, and then came back “hours later” to arrest the mom. Initial impressions of the child wouldn’t seem to be the deciding factor, but who knows.

[RandMart]

@wimsey

When I lived in City of Boston proper, kids ran through streets and neighbors’ yards unsupervised, learned how to ride the T pretty early on (sometimes that was the City-approved route to school), knew how to confidently stride past a sketchy panhandler or just tell them to fuck off, etc.

It just occurred to me that I was more “at home” walking around Manhattan with my cousin when I’d visit him as a young teen, than I was in my hometown of Haddonfield, because of the bullying I experienced growing up there

---

I recently posted this brief essay by Henry Rollins on the Haddonfield FB Group page. Many of the members didn’t quite get it

[wimsey]

@RandMart

t just occurred to me that I was more “at home” walking around Manhattan with my cousin when I’d visit him as a young teen, than I was in my hometown of Haddonfield, because of the bullying I experienced growing up there

Well, the dirty Jers is different…

[RandMart]

It’s funny because this was the late '70s when NYC was at its most notorious

There were a couple of occasions when we literally said “nope, I got a bad feeling about this” just crossing through Times Square

But, his step-dad got us into CBGB and Max’s Kansas City though we were insanely underage

[Bike-3]

When my daughter was 7, I taught her to ride her bike to/from school solo.

I hope the Statute of Limitations has run out. I’m gonna need bail $.

[50plus]

@RandMart

It’s funny because this was the late '70s when NYC was at its most notorious

But, his step-dad got us into CBGB and Max’s Kansas City though we were insanely underage

Whoa, what a memory, so lucky.

[spockman]

They still are in Finland and Norway.

[s5100e]

I think mostly it is a case of too much media and fear… the older you are the more likely you were a free range child. Our kids grew up on our farm with 100’s of acres of open country and forest around them though our farm is only 26 acres. I recall once my wife’s horror when she had our infant son out playing in the snow and a bald eagle was circling… just a different level of fear I guess. I am not so sure the eagle would have won that battle I am sure it was rare my parents knew where I was on any given day unless it was the school outdoor hockey rink.

[SWEDE63]

It’s funny how this pops up now. Just last night I was telling my wife about the time when I was 14 or 15 how we rode out bikes 18 miles to another town. Left them unlocked at the door of the mall, went in and watched a movie. Came out rode home and thought nothing of it. I told her in fact, I probably asked my parents for permission but I’m not positive I did. Crazy what a different world we live in versus the 80’s.

[sphere]

Growing up in South Jersey, my two best friends lived several towns over. I rode to their house frequently in the summer beginning around age 10 (circa 1985)I just google mapped it: one was 7.5 miles, the other 10 miles. We’d spend the entire day on our bikes once I got there. I probably logged 30 miles per day on that Haro FST.

Of course the majority of the trip was along railroad tracks because that’s how 80s kids navigated their world back then.

[RandMart]

Let us not forget that day I was hanging out in the 7-Eleven parking lot

Keith Richards' Biography

I read it a few years ago. My issue was - How does someone who spent most of his adult life high on something, have such good recollection of all those events? It’s baked in? I’ve met Keith Richards twice The first time, I didn’t even realize it was him When we were kids on the Mean Streets of Haddonfield back in the 70s, while riding our bikes around, we would often stop at 7-Eleven. there was one right where Haddonfield and Cherry Hill met. One day, while sitting on the curb, sipping r…

[Bumble_Bee]

@sphere

I suspect the motivating detail was that she didn’t know where he was, more so than that he was left alone.

My mom seldom knew where I was during the summers. We’d be a lot further than a mile from the house

[RandMart]

I just remember that my mom - somehow - had a Police Scanner that she would keep on her nightstand if any of us was out later than expected and didn’t check in for the night = “I’m staying at … tonight”*

It had 4 (or 6?) channels, if I recall; one for our town and one for each of the surrounding

.* Actually, I was the most conscientious of us on that aspect