‘Free-range children’ taken into custody again in Maryland

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Previously at DU: 'Free-Range' Mom Being Investigated by Child Services For Letting Her Children Walk to School

‘Free-range children’ taken into custody again in Maryland

Public Safety
By Donna St. George and Martin Weil April 12 at 11:55 PM
@donnastgeorge

The two Montgomery County children who were picked up last year while walking home alone were taken into custody again Sunday, authorities said.

The children of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv were taken into custody by county police at a park about 5 p.m. and turned over to the Child Protective Services agency, said Capt. Paul Starks, the county police spokesman. The children’s mother said they were released to the couple at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

The parents said the children, who are 10 and 6 and have been described as “free-range children,” had been expected home at 6 p.m. Sunday. When that time passed, the parents said, they began looking for them.

{Two children end up in police car for playing alone}

“We have been searching for the kids for hours,’’ the mother said in a Facebook posting. They learned of the children’s whereabouts about 8 p.m. The mother said they later spent about a half-hour at the CPS offices in Rockville without being allowed to see them.[/div

[gollygee]

1. I remember my brother and I walking to the park together

when he was 4 and I was 5. There were always tons of unsupervised kids at the park, and we had a blast. We also played outside as much as we could and didn't watch much tv.

[justiceischeap]

2. Well, you see, when you and I were kids

there wasn't near as much danger then as now... or so I'm told on this issue when I bring up the exact same thing. One woman said a ten-yr-old shouldn't be crossing the street alone. I feel sorry for her hen-pecked children.

[texanwitch]

5. I feel sorry for her ten year old. He will never be a adult.

At ten years old I was riding the city bus by myself. I never got lost.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

8. There is less crime now; only more media fed hysteria.

[justiceischeap]

10. I doubt there are less sexual predators, and that's what I'd be most worried about

if I had kids. But this idea that some parents have that children must be protected from every little thing (like being on their own at the age of 10) is absurd. It doesn't help raise, healthy, confident adults.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

27. That usually done in the home by someone the child knows.

[pnwmom]

47. And the craziest thing is their school district requires a kindergartner to walk longer distances to get to

school. They're not eligible for bussing.

And this 6 year old is with her 10 year old brother.

[B2G]

3. This is out of hand insane.

They were picked up 2 blocks from their home. CPS didn't even bother to call the parents until 8PM? 3 fucking hours after the fact??

I'd be fucking killing someone if I were them.

[sinkingfeeling]

39. +1

[hughee99]

50. No shit! Whether the police were just trying to make sure the kids got home safe, or they wanted

to yell at the parents, what the fuck was the 3 hour delay before even NOTIFYING the parents? Hell, there's a decent chance they drove right past the kids house on the way to the station.

[Chemisse]

52. That just seems spiteful.

Somebody must really have a hangup about this family.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. Meanwhile, somewhere else in Montgomery County, a child was actually being abused and/or neglected

while CPS wasted time and resources in hounding this family.

[justiceischeap]

11. To be fair to CPS

they do have to get involved when someone reports. What they didn't have to do is charge this family with neglect or abandonment. However, I find myself wondering if more is going on behind the scenes than anyone is talking about. Otherwise, this is incredible overreach by CPS.

Also, I agree there are cases out there that are much worse and could probably use more help from CPS than this family does. Damn nosy neighbors.

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. I have people within my only family who have or still do work in social services.

It's a tough job, but I truly believe this is retaliatory against the family.

[B2G]

24. They didn't bother to call the parents for 3 HOURS

No excuses whatever.

[randome]

26. That's what the parents say. They come across to me as unnecessarily strident if you read the links.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[niyad]

76. "unnescessarily strident"???? really?

. . . .

Capt. Paul Starks, the county police spokesman, told The Washington Post that the children were taken into custody about 5?p.m. and turned over to Child Protective Services. They were released to their parents at 10:30 p.m. Starks said the matter remains under investigation.

Danielle Meitiv, a climate-science consultant, offered a scarier account of what happened to her children. “The cops said they would drive them home, then kept the kids in the patrol car for three hours,” she told me Monday. “Wouldn’t even let them out to use the bathroom.”

Imagine the message our society is sending the Meitiv kids by holding them in the back of a squad car and in a crisis center for nearly six hours because they were playing alone outside. And if what Danielle said is true — that police initially told the kids they were going to just drive them home — how is this not a kidnapping?

It’s outrageous, really.

If that adult who called police was worried about the kids, why not talk to them? Ask them where their parents were? Walk them home?

Or maybe it was someone who recognized the Meitiv kids, hated their parents’ very public “free-range” advocacy campaign — multiple television appearances included — and decided to get back at them.

. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our-parenting-police-state/2015/04/13/42c30336-e1df-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32_story.html

[justiceischeap]

28. I'm not going to automatically assume

that all the relevant facts are being told in this case. They may be but if they weren't called for three hours, how do we know it's because the cops told CPS they did make the call but in fact didn't? Or if the kid thought it was 3 hours but it wasn't? We don't know all the facts and I'm not going to condemn CPS for looking out for kids. However, as I stated in my previous comment, if all these facts are true, then I believe CPS overreached but I rather they overreach than let a kid slip through the cracks; cause as sure as I'm sitting here, if something happens to either one of those kids, CPS is going to get the blame.

[pnwmom]

48. They don't have to INTERVENE just because someone reports. Once they determined

these kids were only 2 blocks from home and had never been as far as a mile away, they should have been done.

[justiceischeap]

56. But we don't know what else they determined is my only point.

I agree, if it is how it's being portrayed, then they've overreached and would do better to help children that actually need the help.

[Chemisse]

53. All my kids were 'free range'.

It wasn't a thing back then. It was the way you raised children to be responsible.

I had plenty of rules: 'here's what you can do and here's what you can't do.' And off they went!

[justiceischeap]

55. I'm a "free-range" kid and my parents gave me rules too

It was in breaking and bending those rules that made me learn how to be the responsible adult I am today.

I'm appreciative of the fact that I got the freedom to make actual mistakes and learn the consequences from those mistakes. I feel sorry for children today that don't get that luxury because it makes learning those lessons as an adult very difficult to handle.

[Chemisse]

59. Exactly!

You don't just turn into an adult at age 18. Growing up is a long and gradual process.

[HassleCat]

6. Really? Really!

It was a long time ago, more than fifty years, but I was ten years old. My younger brother and I ranged for miles on our bicycles, visiting parks, baseball fields, rivers, lakes, farm fields, the woods, etc. We climbed over fences and got bit by dogs. We broke through the thin ice and fell in the freezing cold creek. We walked on the train trestle and had to jump in the river when the train came. We went to the railroad switching yard and talked to the hobos, sometimes bringing them sandwiches. I guess we didn't know there was a perv behind every tree, or our parents didn't know. Too bad I wasn't better protected by the watchful, helpful folks at the child welfare services. Maybe I'd be alive today.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

7. When most of us were that age, this is when it was time to come home...

Until then, we went wherever we wanted to go, absent any specific instructions or prohibitions from our parents.

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. Because I was the youngest, my brother always made me be the one to leave the game of

Red Rover, Red Rover to go out and check the street lights.

[Ron Obvious]

9. I feel sorry for kids growing up today...

... if this sort of thing is now considered outrageous behaviour. I'm glad I was free to explore my own world when I was a child, and I can only imagine how developmentally stunted kids today must be if this sort of thing is now considered outrageous enough to warrant police attention. We're living in a dystopian nightmare.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. I can't understand why the parents were not notified when the kids were picked up by the PD.

I'm sure this was a terrifying experience for the children as well as the parents. It had to be pretty apparent after talking to the kids that they hadn't been abandoned and weren't in any physical danger.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

15. We were not allowed to free-range without our parents knowing where we were

These kids just seem to wander around or maybe I just have the wrong impression.

We had a family in the neighborhood whose kids were like that when I was younger. "Mom" kept a super clean house, so her boys were shoved out the door in the morning, came back for lunch (which they usually ate on the picnic table outside), and then were gone again until dinnertime. The mom sure didn't seem to enjoy her kids.

Being boys, I assumed they urinated in the bushes, but I always wondered where they defecated.

[justiceischeap]

16. Nope, the kids just don't wander

They walk to the park, or the local 7-11 or to the library.

Because it's called 'free-range' parenting, it gives the impression that the kids are shoved out the door without the parents knowing where they are and what they're up to. That's not the case and many people are upset with their 'type' of parenting.

[WinkyDink]

18. Well, WE WERE so allowed! I had to be home by 5:30 p.m., and sometimes my father had to call out for

me, but the neighborhoods otherwise were MINE!

Early 1950's-60's.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

20. Born in late fifties. Grew up in sixties.

At six years old, my parents would have certainly expected to know where I was at all times. All I had to do was tell her where I would be going, or call her from a friend's house if I ended up someplace else.

Different strokes.

[notadmblnd]

29. My mother actually encouraged us to go outside and kill each other

I remember her telling us girls more than once- "I'll be glad when you kids get old enough to get the hell out of my hair!"

I'm now pushing 60 and I recently had a conversation with her after listening to her lament that her kids don't want to come visit with her. I just gently reminded her that she got what she wished for.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

36. Sad. I want my kids around...

for the most part, anyway. LOL

[notadmblnd]

38. yeah, it is sad

[treestar]

61. Same here

We were lucky as the street had about 20 other kids. We could come in and go out at will with a limit on dinnertime and nighttime. I think we had to be in range of being called in to dinner, at least near that hour.

One day I stayed on the swings at school after school (trying to avoid CCD) and mother went hysterical. I did get to miss that class though.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

63. If my mom decided to go somewhere

and we were going to have to go with her, she'd better know where we were, 'cause she was going to be real mad if she had to spend 30 minutes tracking us down! We knew the rules.

And guess what? That's how I raised my kids, too. Even my teens know to stay in touch. They have their freedom, but they also have a phone so we can stay in touch if something comes up. It's just common courtesy in our family.

[treestar]

67. We didn't have phones so I forget how we did it

we had a swimming club we could go to and I think had to tell them if we went. There was a park out of yelling distance and the school was walking distance but out of yelling

Yeah and this generation to my experience is my sister's kids went wherever they wanted in the development, and there were lots of kids there. They were even outside after dark in that neighborhood, so none of the "these kids today" things seem to apply. Depends on age too of course.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

68. LOL Well, we just rode off on our bikes

"after" we told our mom where we were going. Then if I left my friend's house to go somewhere else, I would "politely" ask to use the phone to let her know. (Of course, that's assuming I was a bit farther afield than a few houses down the road. KWIM?)

[WinkyDink]

71. I always knew where my MOTHER was! LOL!

[bettyellen]

65. Wow- speculating about these kids pooping and peeing were you?

How... errr...comforting it must be to live near you, so interested and speculative on the neighbors' private business. Ugh.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

66. I was a kid! And, yeah, I used to wonder where

they went to the bathroom, since their mother literally locked them out of the house! These days, I'm sure she would have been reported to Social Services, but times were different back then.

[WinkyDink]

17. WTH?! I, and everyone else I went to elementary school with, walked home! Older 6th-graders

served as "crossing guards."

And we went to the park by ourselves, walked the streets, ran through yards, went swimming---by ourselves!

[randome]

19. It was 6pm on a Sunday. I don't think school had anything to do with it.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[WinkyDink]

69. We ran around on the week-ends, too.

[Vinca]

21. When I grew up in the 1950's it wasn't called "free-range children." It was called "childhood."

[randome]

23. Read the first link in the snippet.

It's possible this is a gross over-reaction by the authorities but the parents sound a bit...whack-a-doodle. At least to me they do. There may be more to the story.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Bettie]

22. At 10 and 6

kid should be able to go to the park without Mom and Dad.

People need to relax and let kids be kids. The world is generally SAFER than it was when I was a kid, oh, so many years ago.

[951-Riverside]

25. Gotta save these kids from some pervert on the streets, by handing them over to some pervert at CPS

[Jake Stern]

30. Explored Colorado Springs both alone and with friends at 8-9

back in the mid 80's.

[murielm99]

32. Yes. My kids

grew up in the eighties, too. They were allowed to run all over town. They checked in with me once in awhile, usually if they were hungry. Granted, we live in a small town. But I never worried about them. The other part of that was that everyone watched out for each other's children. If some neighbor child was hurt or had a problem, I could step in, and I would not hesitate to do so.

[Comrade Grumpy]

31. The wussification of America continues apace. n/t

[Paladin]

33. I think those parents are using their kids as political props.

If their book on "free-range parenting" isn't out yet, I'm sure it's just a matter of time, and I know they're making the talk show circuit.

[bravenak]

34. That i what I think too.

[Luminous Animal]

37. Yes. Somehow they convinced the cops to pick up their own kids.

[Comrade Grumpy]

41. Do you have any evidence to support your claim?

Otherwise, I'm going to have to assume you're just making shit up.

[randome]

43. Did you read all the links?

What are the odds that these parents just happen to be public advocates for something called 'free-range parenting' and then their kids are picked up in a park? What does it imply when the mother says her kids always have an ID on them printed with the words 'I am not lost. I am a free-range child' but then they don't have that ID on them when they were picked up?

The impression I have -and it's only that- is that the parents are a bit whack-a-doodle and they may have another motive. Paladin's guess is a good one, IMO.

The alternative theory is that law enforcement and child protective services all conspired to...do what? Go out looking for some kids to scare?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[MisterP]

35. human veal doesn't NEED to be outside!

now go back to your battery far--er, hutch--er, granite-paneled underwater Fauxtalian flipper


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-462091/How-children-lost-right-roam-generations.html

[Jesus Malverde]

77. DUZY

Human veal

[Politicalboi]

40. GPS for children

Put a small chip in one of their baby teeth and be able to track your child from your computer or phone. Maybe that will ease more parents. Then when the child is older, they lose that tooth.

I was lucky to have grown up in the 60's as a kid. We would walk miles through the washes, and slide down them and rip our pants. All the while the Manson family was out rummaging through local trash dumpsters. We didn't have too many parks, so we would mostly play in the street

[pnwmom]

49. The son was 10 -- well beyond that stage. n/t

[Codeine]

42. I grew up wandering to my heart's content.

I could ride bikes, hike, or go plinking cans with the .22 I got when I was 8. We used to head out to a nearby archeology site and watch college students from the University of Wyoming sift dirt. We wet home for lunch when we got hungry and headed in for the evening when dusk came or when it got too cold to stick it out.

My own kids don't have that freedom -- their mom truly believes that letting them out of her sight is bad parenting. It's sad, but she does it out of love, so. . .

[ProdigalJunkMail]

45. same here...

we wandered/explored far and wide. my only requirement was to make sure that when dinner time came around I was to be home. Mom was pretty consistent on the time... i had a watch and knew how to read it. the only time i spent inside during the summer was sleeping, eating, doing chores and the 'occasional' stint when i was in trouble for something or other...

sP

[bvar22]

44. My two brothers & I were "Free Range" kids too.

In fact, our parents didn't want to see us in the house while the sun was shining unless the weather was bitter cold.
Otherwise,
"Come Home for Dinner, or before the lights come on."

Other than that, we were free to roam at will.


(We were told not to talk to strangers .... meaning men we didn't know.)

[hunter]

46. In good humor I claim to have been a feral child...

... and in comparison to these kids I truly was.

By the third grade I was allowed to freely wander anywhere I could get to. Past fifteen I was wandering everywhere, not even confined to the U.S.A.. My younger sister was disappointed that she and her friends didn't quite have the same freedom. She and her friends once drove up to Canada but the Canadians wouldn't let a car full of fifteen and sixteen year old U.S.A. girls pass.

In fifth grade I remember staying with my grandma in Los Angeles and she bought me a three day bus pass, and the only rule was I had to be home for dinner.

When my dad was a kid in Los Angeles and San Diego he'd head out to the ocean alone before dawn to go fishing, sometimes on boats of fishermen his grandma only knew in the slightest most casual way. (She liked to fish too.)

My wife's Mexican-American dad was out hawking newspapers in Los Angeles at the same age. His parents were working in the canneries, and then when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they went to work in the shipyards. My mom's parents were shipyard workers too, both of them welders, and my mom's "daycare" providers were hookers by night.

I know a few people my age bad things happened to. One of my friends was gay and killed himself.

Another childhood friend of mine was raped at thirteen by an upstanding and untouchable "leader" of our community. For a long time she thought it was her fault for drinking the booze he offered her and then "coming on" to him.



He later got removed from free society, but not for getting underage girls drunk and raping them. Embezzlement was a greater crime. The message was damned clear to all his victims. Money is important, girls are not.

My wife and I were much more sophisticated parents, wary, and more experienced raising our kids, holding them a little closer, but we did our very best not to interfere with their personal autonomy, which included a lot of grimacing and biting our tongues when they were teenagers.

[pansypoo53219]

51. jeez, we grew up in the outer core & regularly walked FOUR BLOCKS to catch the bus EVERYDAY!

jeez, i have to tell mom how she abused us.

[Rex]

54. LOL! I thought it said, 'free range chicken" and thought those must be tough ass birds!

[BlueJazz]

60. !!!!

[Rex]

62. Need to stop scanning the titles and slow down a bit!

This dirty bird ran a-fowl with the law!

[BainsBane]

57. Insane. Just nuts. nt

[valerief]

58. I was TOTALLY free range as a kid. We all were back then.

That was back when kids didn't have schedules.

[Avalux]

64. I was a free range kid. Roamed a mountain by myself when I was 10.

No one thought anything of it back then; but I could have been eaten by a bear.

[CK_John]

70. In 1950 when I was 10 and my brother was 6 we went all over NYC by subway.

We went to the Yankee Stadium, Polo Grounds, Rockaway beach and on rainy days we went to the Museum or a movie. Even took the ferry a couple times to Staten Island and the 125ST ferry to Palisades Park in NJ.

The subway was a nickel and the NJ ferry was IIR a quarter.

[WinkyDink]

73. To say I envy you would be a gross understatement! Now, I grew up in a fab town for kids, but my

relatives lived in Bayonne, and it was always a great treat when we'd go "into the city," Chinatown, Little Italy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, annually for the Rockettes and the Poseidon Greek Bakery** on 9th Ave! And the pizza!

Even now, at 65, one of my Top 5 favorite movies is "The World of Henry Orient"!

**Poseidon:
http://midtownlunch.com/2009/04/30/uncle-nicks-and-poseidon-bakery-make-9th-ave-the-ultimate-greek-lunch-spot/

WoHO:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058756/

[WinkyDink]

72. I just got sad the other day passing my childhood park. There was an iron fence around each baseball

field, of which there are at least four. Signs posting all the stuff that isn't allowed.

Hills we used to sled down? Fenced off. Walking randomly? No can do; fences. Backyards we cut through to get to the park? You guessed it.

[lostnfound]

74. Teaching kids to be afraid, and AVOID autonomy, self-confidence, or marching to their own drummer

How absurd. The obsession with constant supervision has handicapped an entire generation into not recognizing their own self-determination. In the 60s and 70s, I biked all over town - a few miles, at least - and walked home from school. Parents wanted me home by dark or by dinner, depending on the night. Biking freedom started at age 7.

Parents weren't burdened with constant supervision and driving duties either. I enjoyed my freedom and my own thoughts out on my bike.

It says in the article that a "readiness for FIRST grade" checklist in 1979 included:
●Can your child tell, in such a way that his speech is understood by a school crossing guard or police, where he lives?

●Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend’s home?

[niyad]

75. the meitiv family

[muntrv]

78. When I was 6 years old, I walked to school every day, as did other kids my age. When I was 10, I

took the bus to downtown Ann Arbor, MI from the Plymouth road mall.

[Kablooie]

79. The government forcing parents into being overly protective is not a good trend.

It's the witch hunt syndrome that hits over and over again.
Someone becomes excessively paranoid about an issue and the government punishes people who don't pick up the paranoia.
It's crazy.

If parents are paranoid they can hover over their kids constantly.
If they aren't they should be allowed to judge the level of protection kids need themselves.

Some neighborhoods are more dangerous than others but people who live in them certainly know more about the level of danger than a government agency.
People have to be allowed to make their own choices and decisions for their children.

Geez, I sound like a Republican, talking about government overreach here, but I do think that personal choices people make for themselves and their families should remain personal and not be decided by government policy.