4 ms·

I let my three kids walk to school, the park, around the corner to friend’s houses. Neighbors complained to my face multiple times, and threatened to call CPS t

I let my three kids walk to school, the park, around the corner to friend’s houses. Neighbors complained to my face multiple times, and threatened to call CPS twice. My children all survived to adulthood. I was walking to school with other kids when I was four, no one had a problem with it then. Teaching kids to fear everyone and the world they live in doesn’t do them any good — it just causes anxiety.

gregjor 5y ago
One of our neighbors screamed at my wife and me because our six year old son wasn’t wearing a helmet on his Razer scooter to (slowly) go around the corner. That same neighbor let her dog run around off-leash at the park, assuring the parents there that the dog didn’t bite, though it did like to jump on the children. We raised our kids in Portland, where dogs have more rights and freedom than children.
- anm89 5y ago
  This risk doesn't seem worth it. You are playing CPS roulette. Even if 9/10 CPS agents are going to make the right decisions, that's a 10% chance of having some kind of issue with CPS. If I recall correctly, people have had their kids taken over stuff like this. I think if this is such a big deal ( I think it is too) you should move out of the city. That's just too big to gamble with.
  - gregjor 5y ago
    I understand the risk of busybody adults and CPS. We chose to let our kids have some freedom of movement. I have lawyers in my family so we were less worried than other parents we knew. In Portland specifically CPS overreach got a lot of negative press and pushback from parent’s groups — there’s strength in numbers. Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah have enacted so-called “free range” laws to allow kids to do unthinkable things like walk to the corner store or park without a security detail and body armor. Oregon will probably be among the last states to ease up — dogs will get the right to vegan CBD-infused meals there first. I no longer live there.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    > Even if 9/10 CPS agents are going to make the right decisions That is extremely optimistic.
    - monkeybutton 5y ago
      The thing that gets me is that people do this stuff all the time and it's not a problem until CPS gets dragged into it, while at the same time the system is massively overburdened. They should be punishing the people calling in mundane issues and wasting their time. But! That might dissuade someone from reporting something, and the first time a bad case is missed the outrage and subsequent overcorrection lands us back to where we are now.
      - jacquesm 5y ago
        That, and the fact that like any institution it exists in part to keep itself and its budget justified, if there aren't enough problems then you can always make some 'easy' cases (legally easy but morally more than a little bit ambiguous) so they can serve as a chunk of that justification.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
When I was in 5th grade, I had a friend with bent legs, who walked with supports attached to his arms. (Well, gripped in his hands, but with a partial ring that went around the arm; I assume to make them easier to hold on to.) The school considered us bad influences on each other - we got in trouble a lot, which hadn't been true before we knew each other. But his mother thought I was great, because one of the activities we did together was go for long walks around the neighborhood. She thought the exercise was beneficial, given his condition. I can only imagine how she would have responded if someone had complained to the police that she was letting her son walk around unsupervised.

gregjor 5y ago

One of our neighbors screamed at my wife and me because our six year old son wasn’t wearing a helmet on his Razer scooter to (slowly) go around the corner. That same neighbor let her dog run around off-leash at the park, assuring the parents there that the dog didn’t bite, though it did like to jump on the children. We raised our kids in Portland, where dogs have more rights and freedom than children.

anm89 5y ago
This risk doesn't seem worth it. You are playing CPS roulette. Even if 9/10 CPS agents are going to make the right decisions, that's a 10% chance of having some kind of issue with CPS. If I recall correctly, people have had their kids taken over stuff like this. I think if this is such a big deal ( I think it is too) you should move out of the city. That's just too big to gamble with.
- gregjor 5y ago
  I understand the risk of busybody adults and CPS. We chose to let our kids have some freedom of movement. I have lawyers in my family so we were less worried than other parents we knew. In Portland specifically CPS overreach got a lot of negative press and pushback from parent’s groups — there’s strength in numbers. Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah have enacted so-called “free range” laws to allow kids to do unthinkable things like walk to the corner store or park without a security detail and body armor. Oregon will probably be among the last states to ease up — dogs will get the right to vegan CBD-infused meals there first. I no longer live there.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  > Even if 9/10 CPS agents are going to make the right decisions That is extremely optimistic.
  - monkeybutton 5y ago
    The thing that gets me is that people do this stuff all the time and it's not a problem until CPS gets dragged into it, while at the same time the system is massively overburdened. They should be punishing the people calling in mundane issues and wasting their time. But! That might dissuade someone from reporting something, and the first time a bad case is missed the outrage and subsequent overcorrection lands us back to where we are now.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      That, and the fact that like any institution it exists in part to keep itself and its budget justified, if there aren't enough problems then you can always make some 'easy' cases (legally easy but morally more than a little bit ambiguous) so they can serve as a chunk of that justification.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

When I was in 5th grade, I had a friend with bent legs, who walked with supports attached to his arms. (Well, gripped in his hands, but with a partial ring that went around the arm; I assume to make them easier to hold on to.) The school considered us bad influences on each other - we got in trouble a lot, which hadn't been true before we knew each other. But his mother thought I was great, because one of the activities we did together was go for long walks around the neighborhood. She thought the exercise was beneficial, given his condition. I can only imagine how she would have responded if someone had complained to the police that she was letting her son walk around unsupervised.