MUST WATCH: John Stossel’s Forbidden Parenting
The government sometimes arrests parents for giving kids responsibility. In South Carolina, mom Deborah Harrell was jailed for letting her 9-year-old daughter play in a park for the day.
Local media outlets breathlessly reported that Harrell left her daughter at the park “for hours at a time,” and that she “confessed” to that. A police interrogator lectured Harrell: “You can’t leave a child who is nine years old in the park by herself. What would you do if some sex offender came by?” Yet despite media scare stories, kidnappings are extremely rare and are way down.
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“In South Carolina, mom Deborah Harrell was jailed for letting her 9-year-old daughter play in a park for the day.” What was she jailed for…willful abandonment of a child???? The charges were dropped.
I too, as many have similarly said, grew up free to roam the streets. My mom worked (step-dads were here and there), I and my siblings went to school, and afterwards did whatever I wanted as long as I did my chores. We played wiffle ball in the street, built forts, put together model cars, played with our army men, etc. If I didn’t, I got the belt on my bare butt (yes, it hurt but soon didn’t care); if I did my chores, I got a few dollars allowance to use; I usually used it to go skating on Fri or Sat night to maybe meet or dance with a cute girl or buy candy. That also involved me walking through woods about 1/2 mile in the dark by myself. Nobody attacked me, nobody abducted me, and I never saw a white van or was approached by someone I did not know or fear Halloween.
The only fear I got was from the present step dad beating us and my older brother experimenting about sexual desires with me.
Being said, I do 100% believe parents are responsible and accountable for their children. This woman did not abandon her child. She let her live. Whether it’s 1970 or 2020, fear in society (42 abductions in daycare vs 0 in a park) is just that, fear (albeit unfounded).
Due largely to the efforts of Lenore Skenazy author of “Free-Range Children,” Utah passed a law specifically allowing just what the South Carolina law prohibits. Kudos to her and John Stossel for addressing the irrational fears that are rampant today.
Opportunistic politicians and shock journalists are the primary culprits. The media mantra once was “if it bleeds, it leads.” Now it is “if it sizzles, it sells.”
So now she will be in jail and maybe the child will go to child protective services where the child has a greater chance of being abused either by violence, sex abuse or neglect.
I base this on the news reports I see here in Florida of the over worked and understaffed child services department where kids are sent off to families with numerous complaints against them for some sort of violation of the rules like starving the child etc
I grew up in the 1970’s at a time when moms stayed home, dads went to work, and children were expected to play outside….until the dinner bell rang. We built forts, played cops and robbers or Army men, we fought commies in the woods and parks all day during summer time. Nothing, and I mean nothing, bad happened to me or my friends in thos Orlandoean days! This may seem old fashioned to some, or worse as child neglect, but I sure wish I could raise my family like that now. Instead, we are all faced with the kind of busy bodies seen in this news article.
We’d be far better off with a yellow journalist like John Stossel being forbidden to parent!
why does someones always have to bring politics into this, BOTH SIDES ARE CONTINUALLY SCREWING US