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Look - I'm sure you can find some outlier news article about this happening, but as someone who actually has professional contact with CPS once in a while, this

Look - I'm sure you can find some outlier news article about this happening, but as someone who actually has professional contact with CPS once in a while, this is - in my opinion - wildly hyperbolic. The social workers I know who work for CPS have excessive work loads of really intense circumstances (like, children being preyed upon, beaten, chained to radiators...). They're not doing parent interviews because someone let their 10-year-old walk to the park.

rayiner 7y ago
It’s not hyperbole. It’s happened twice recently in Montgomery County, a DC suburb near me: https://patch.com/maryland/silverspring/mother-free-range-kids-run-montgomery-county-council https://patch.com/maryland/silverspring/mother-free-range-ki.... (It’s one reason we moves two counties over.)
- sgustard 7y ago
  You moved because something happened twice in a county with a population over 1 million? I'm just trying to process the irony of this entire discussion. American kids are over-protected because the media has created a culture of fear that terrible things are constantly happening to kids. Now you're going to flip that hysteria around and apply it to the parents.
  - rayiner 7y ago
    While there are a million people in the county, there is just one CPS who brought those charges, run by one set of leadership. And the fact they felt that was an appropriate thing to do is emblematic of how skewed perceptions are in the county about what is normal and abnormal. CPS doesn’t bring charges for conduct that’s completely normal in a community. They did it because it was so unusual it seemed quite reasonable to decision makers that it should be illegal. It wasn’t the risk of being prosecuted by CPS that made us move away, it was the prospect of being surrounded by parents like that.
tomohawk 7y ago
We have friends who get calls from "concerned neighbors" because their child is a block away playing at a park with no adult supervision. Any wanker can call cps and make your life miserable, and the wealthier the area, the more cps tends to meddle. Montgomery county mentioned in the sibling comment is one of the most well-to-do counties in the country and also a place I would not ever consider raising a child in due to cps actions there.

rayiner 7y ago

It’s not hyperbole. It’s happened twice recently in Montgomery County, a DC suburb near me: https://patch.com/maryland/silverspring/mother-free-range-kids-run-montgomery-county-council https://patch.com/maryland/silverspring/mother-free-range-ki.... (It’s one reason we moves two counties over.)

sgustard 7y ago
You moved because something happened twice in a county with a population over 1 million? I'm just trying to process the irony of this entire discussion. American kids are over-protected because the media has created a culture of fear that terrible things are constantly happening to kids. Now you're going to flip that hysteria around and apply it to the parents.
- rayiner 7y ago
  While there are a million people in the county, there is just one CPS who brought those charges, run by one set of leadership. And the fact they felt that was an appropriate thing to do is emblematic of how skewed perceptions are in the county about what is normal and abnormal. CPS doesn’t bring charges for conduct that’s completely normal in a community. They did it because it was so unusual it seemed quite reasonable to decision makers that it should be illegal. It wasn’t the risk of being prosecuted by CPS that made us move away, it was the prospect of being surrounded by parents like that.

tomohawk 7y ago

We have friends who get calls from "concerned neighbors" because their child is a block away playing at a park with no adult supervision. Any wanker can call cps and make your life miserable, and the wealthier the area, the more cps tends to meddle. Montgomery county mentioned in the sibling comment is one of the most well-to-do counties in the country and also a place I would not ever consider raising a child in due to cps actions there.