5 ms·

My wife has been yelled at by strangers for filling up the car with gas, then walking 25 feet from the gas pump to the payment window and paying for the gas...

My wife has been yelled at by strangers for filling up the car with gas, then walking 25 feet from the gas pump to the payment window and paying for the gas... because our kids were in the car 25 feet away. She's had the police and the neighborhood watch called repeatedly because our children were playing in our own yard. It's not a world I recognize and I'm increasingly disturbed by people's strange ideas about children.

x1798DE 10y ago
Did the police actually do anything? Part of the responsibility here falls on the police to say, "It is not a crime to let children play unsupervised, mind your own business." I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually illegal to make frivolous complaints of this nature.
- paulrpotts 10y ago
  No, they've never actually come to talk to us. For a year or so I had a habit of taking a long daily walk in my neighborhood -- sometimes I would take my baby boy out and wear him in on my back in a baby carrier. That gave my wife a break and after a hundred yards or so he would inevitably fall asleep. Someone apparently called the police saying I was carrying a dead baby around the neighborhood in a backpack, and I had an officer stop and ask if he could talk to me and verify that the backpack was actually a child carrier. He was apologetic and friendly about the whole thing but it really makes me wonder WTF my neighbors think about us...
arprocter 10y ago
When I was a kid my parents would let me pump their gas. I also ran errands in town by myself, and was left to look after younger siblings before my teens. IMO the sooner you're given responsibilities the sooner you learn to be responsible. As when there was talk of raising the driving age because 'all these teens are dying' - it's inexperience, not so much the age which matters.
- pyre 10y ago
  Well, there's also culture too. If all of your friends are acting irresponsibly, you are more likely to do so. (with respect to children)
- paulrpotts 10y ago
  Yeah, I myself was a latch-key kid, biked everywhere, had a landscaping job at 14 and worked in grocery stores throughout high school. Although I'm not super-excited about putting teenagers behind the wheels of cars until their brains have caught up with their bodies and they don't think they are immortal any more...
  - arprocter 10y ago
    Anecdotal; but my first accident was in my 20s, several years into my driving career. I think the fact a lot of people's first car is normally old, cheap and crappy has a lot to do with it. It's commonly believed it's an inevitability young drivers will wreck and then we put them in the most unsafe vehicles available...
danellis 10y ago
Where on Earth do you live? That just sounds preposterous.
- paulrpotts 10y ago
  Downtown Saginaw, Michigan... a lot of our neighbors are retirees. On the one hand, you'd think they would know better, having grown up (largely) before "helicopter parenting," but I think it may be more likely because my children are bi-racial...

x1798DE 10y ago

Did the police actually do anything? Part of the responsibility here falls on the police to say, "It is not a crime to let children play unsupervised, mind your own business." I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually illegal to make frivolous complaints of this nature.

paulrpotts 10y ago
No, they've never actually come to talk to us. For a year or so I had a habit of taking a long daily walk in my neighborhood -- sometimes I would take my baby boy out and wear him in on my back in a baby carrier. That gave my wife a break and after a hundred yards or so he would inevitably fall asleep. Someone apparently called the police saying I was carrying a dead baby around the neighborhood in a backpack, and I had an officer stop and ask if he could talk to me and verify that the backpack was actually a child carrier. He was apologetic and friendly about the whole thing but it really makes me wonder WTF my neighbors think about us...

arprocter 10y ago

When I was a kid my parents would let me pump their gas. I also ran errands in town by myself, and was left to look after younger siblings before my teens. IMO the sooner you're given responsibilities the sooner you learn to be responsible. As when there was talk of raising the driving age because 'all these teens are dying' - it's inexperience, not so much the age which matters.

pyre 10y ago
Well, there's also culture too. If all of your friends are acting irresponsibly, you are more likely to do so. (with respect to children)
paulrpotts 10y ago
Yeah, I myself was a latch-key kid, biked everywhere, had a landscaping job at 14 and worked in grocery stores throughout high school. Although I'm not super-excited about putting teenagers behind the wheels of cars until their brains have caught up with their bodies and they don't think they are immortal any more...
- arprocter 10y ago
  Anecdotal; but my first accident was in my 20s, several years into my driving career. I think the fact a lot of people's first car is normally old, cheap and crappy has a lot to do with it. It's commonly believed it's an inevitability young drivers will wreck and then we put them in the most unsafe vehicles available...

danellis 10y ago

Where on Earth do you live? That just sounds preposterous.

paulrpotts 10y ago
Downtown Saginaw, Michigan... a lot of our neighbors are retirees. On the one hand, you'd think they would know better, having grown up (largely) before "helicopter parenting," but I think it may be more likely because my children are bi-racial...