9 ms·

I've written about this here before, but the social forces that incentivize parents to restrict autonomy is intense. I live in a massive California suburb, medi

I've written about this here before, but the social forces that incentivize parents to restrict autonomy is intense. I live in a massive California suburb, median in almost every way. It's my perception that letting kiddo play outside, climbing trees, biking on the sidewalk in front of the house should be a low risk activity for a 2nd and 4th grader if done together. Not in the perception of neighbors. Every time I say yes to them asking to play in public, I'm taking a risk that someone will call the cops for the simple act of a child playing outside without a parent. How do I know? It's happened three times already. There's a group of folks who see that as inherently dangerous and have no problem invoking the police to shut it down. They've also been approached by strangers asking where their parents are. They're obeying the laws, not being reckless or getting into trouble. They're minding their own business and because of that they are confronted for it. It's these encounters that weigh on my mind when I'm deciding how to respond when they ask if they can play outside each day. Sometimes I say no, because I'm not prepared to deal with the possibility of that scenario occurring again.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
forgotmypw17 4y ago
Have you talked about how they should respond to someone engaging them that way? Is don't talk to strangers a workable strategy?
- IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago
  Nosy nancy doesn't care. She will still call the cops. I've seen this myself. The looks i get for letting my kids scoot ahead of me on a sidewalk of a large city (while I walk behind them) are beyond belief.
davnicwil 4y ago
I don't known if more laws and regulations are the answer here, or if it'd have undesirable secondary effects in certain situations where it really matters, but I feel like this behaviour as you describe it should itself be unlawful. You should not be permitted to deliberately harass people you don't know doing nothing wrong in this way, it's that simple. It's a question of individual liberty in the end. I'd hope the police would actually have a private word with them to this effect to be honest, when they do 'report' it. I assume not, but do you know if any ever have?
- trogdor 4y ago
  >You should not be permitted to deliberately harass people you don't know doing nothing wrong in this way I doubt that most people who call the police about kids playing outside are trying to harass anyone. I think they are just misguided.
  - qball 4y ago
    Sufficiently advanced misguidance is indistinguishable from harassment.
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  The process as I understand is that the police are compelled to follow up on the report whether or not it initially appears to have merit or not. The incentive understandably is that false positives are perceived to have less negative impact than false negatives[1]. The police serve as a firewall against all inquiries about reporters including asking if reporters could (for lack of better term) be "asked to behave like mature adults." The opacity of communication structure serves to fragment social cohesiveness rather than cultivate it. In a time where people yearn for community, having police block all communication between parties atomizes and alienates community members from each other even more. If I were to turn this into an opportunity to imagine a better future, it would be twofold. One, a non-emergency service should be capable of handling events of this sort[2]. I don't need the same people arresting gang members and murderers doing house calls re: your kid was climbing a tree in your front yard. Second, the persons reporting should be told something of the sort, "Thank you for your concern, your intentions were neighborly, but reporting kids for existing is not a valuable use of our time." Instead I'm stuck with weighing letting my kids be kids and the possibility of guys with guns showing up at my quiet suburban home, and having the talk that starts with, "We know everything's probably fine, but someone called us..." again. 1. I suppose the socially de-incentivizing parents letting kiddos play outside is hard to quantify and "not really much of a concern to police", probably for a different set of biases from their perspective. 2. It's easy to imagine something like CPS getting involved. Maybe I'm naive for asking folks to imagine that a service "not as bad as CPS" could possibly exist. Idk, I'm a parent, not a social services engineer.
_siis 4y ago
The sad fact is, there is a truly real evil going on when it comes to many rights. Parental rights are just the most recent battleground, and no one does a thing to curb it. Also, I don't mean a cultural evil, as most people dismiss this as just being your cultural opinion. I mean the type of multi-cultural evil that strips people of their ability to respond (agency), tells them misleading lies, promotes flawed and self-defeating beliefs, causes loss in one form or another, and worse most of the time the people doing this are mentally ill but you still have to deal with the outcomes. This is a real problem because if you conform, you are tacitly approving of those beliefs and your children will learn socially from your response to it. Unfortunately, in a world where you get CPS or the police called to charge you with child endangerment its a pretty mad world, and its happening more and more. An interesting parallel are these philosophies that you can somehow make things safe, all ultimately fall into some form of socialist or fascist narrative where someone at the top decides what is or isn't safe because you as an individual are unimportant comapared to the group which is paramount. These narratives are very common in totalitarian and fascist societies that use propaganda and political warfare to kill potentially disruptive thinking.
- derivagral 4y ago
  > totalitarian and fascist societies A few books helped me frame this stuff far better than I was able to before. This was the one I started with[0]. Framing isn't a fix or a prevention, but it has helped me to adjust actions and expectations much more tailored for the situation. I am not looking forward to that crocodile remark: "I just want to be sure your child is safe." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom
  - StrangeATractor 4y ago
    Just came in here to say that Fromm is great. Highly recommended.
  - atoav 4y ago
    As an outside observer, the single most disturbing trend in the US is the fact that everybody seemingly feels totally entitled to police each other's lives. My personal religious believe frowns uppon $X? That means $X should now be illegal for everybody. I believe without evidence your kids are constantly unsafe: let me call the police on them. It is okay not to like what your neighbours are doing. It is okay (and maybe even necessary) to discuss this with them. But it is not okay to call the police on them or force them by law to your believes. And that in a nation where your cent piece had "Mind your business" written on it.
richwater 4y ago
Those forces only exist in certain areas. California is a great example of everyone being a nosy fuck.
- locustous 4y ago
  I've lived in various cities from wealthy to poor, more urban to rural. It's literally everywhere. Though rich places are worse.
im3w1l 4y ago
Are those strangers truly concerned about their safety or are they actually egoists that want to use the police to get the outdoors for themselves and other adults?
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  We may never know. It is frustrating as a parent to be held to the social expectations of those at the most extreme ends of normative conviction. It speaks volumes that we mediate these interactions through police rather than through mutual dialogue.
  - jrumbut 4y ago
    Yeah, that's the part of your story I find most disturbing. People will disagree on all kinds of issues, but would take a major crime for me to call the police on my neighbor. Imagine living next to someone after you did that?
  - jancsika 4y ago
    > It speaks volumes that we mediate these interactions through police rather than through mutual dialogue. I wouldn't call the police on kids climbing trees. But I'd attend a 3-hour timeshare pitch meeting at a Red Lobster before I'd have a 5 minute "mutual dialogue" with a parent about their kids' truly problematic behavior. (And I'm allergic to shellfish.) Parents who can have mutual dialogues typically don't have kids who require them. And for the kids who desperately need them, community members seem to play a game of hot potato until somebody is finally forced to step in and confront the parents (typically after property damage).
    - yencabulator 4y ago
      The examples in the article are > In the U.S. though, the police have been called, women arrested, and children taken into custody for finishing out a stroller nap in an enclosed backyard, using an iPad in a car for a few minutes, and playing in a park. So, which ones of those are property damage to neighbors?
- 4y ago
dgb23 4y ago
Why are people doing this? Why are the police even reacting to it?
- AustinDev 4y ago
  I know the cops in my town would never show up. They don't show up for grand larceny at least not usually the same day.
  - actionfromafar 4y ago
    He, in Sweden you only call the police for grand larceny, because the insurance company will ask for a police report number. (Edit: crime in action, they might come.)
- wickedsickeune 4y ago
  In my country, it's mandatory for the police to show up if you make a registered eponymous (not anonymous) complaint. People are doing this, because from their perspective children might be abandoned by their parents. The reason is that playing outside is not normalised enough at the moment.
  - oblio 4y ago
    > The reason is that playing outside is not normalised enough at the moment. If you read this comment without context is sounds completely insane. Kids playing outside has been the <<norm>> for hundreds of thousands of years.
    - mcv 4y ago
      > Kids playing outside has been the <<norm>> for hundreds of thousands of years. Yeah, well, stop it, and put them behind a screen all day like a normal person.
  - kevviiinn 4y ago
    Is there an epidemic of abandoned children? Why on earth would anyone even consider that a possibility
leemailll 4y ago
Remind me of the "free-range" kids (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our-parenting-police-state/2015/04/13/42c30336-e1df-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our...)
freedomben 4y ago
Moving is far from an easy solution, but there are some places that take the opposite approach. We lived in Utah for years and they actually have laws on the books to guarantee parental rights (I think they call them free range parenting or something like that?). In the more city dense areas you'll still have people who do that kind of stuff, but it's much, much less socially acceptable to interfere than in many coastal areas, and if somebody does call the police, there's a strong chance the police will tell them you're in the right and they are in the wrong. There are tons of tech opportunities for work there too so definitely worth a look if it's important to you. We live in Idaho now and it's similar up here though I don't know about the laws. In our neighborhood kids will run around playing outside together unsupervised all day and nobody bats an eye. It's expected!
- HNTW 4y ago
  Free range parenting laws are also being passed to codify the right to spank and physically disciplined children. That's why you find them being passed in conservative and ultra-religious states: Utah, Texas, Oklahoma
  - deanCommie 4y ago
    And to force schools to disclose information that their children don't feel safe revealing to them (like LGBTQ status), knowing that it could cause their religious parents to completely destroy their lives through things that are banned in most of the civilized world but not in the US (conversion therapy, etc) It's a tough balance.
    - thucydidesofusa 4y ago
      [flagged]
    - 64bittechie 4y ago
      [dead]
    - awesomeMilou 4y ago
brightball 4y ago
Yes! When I watch movies with my kids from the 80s and 90s, you see all the kids riding their bikes everywhere. You’d probably be arrested if you let your kids have that type of freedom today.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  Meanwhile, here in Japan, this is perfectly normal to see. Kids ride their bikes (even at night), take the subway to other parts of the city, etc., all by themselves. I can't imagine raising a kid in America these days.
- spacechild1 4y ago
  I am wondering what has changed? Hasn't the US actually become safer over the last decades? I am from Europe btw, so this whole issue seems completely crazy to me.
  - brightball 4y ago
    Yes, exactly. Doesn’t stop the calls.
  - mcv 4y ago
    The US has become safer, but also a lot more afraid.
  - kevingadd 4y ago
    The media and parts of the government sell a narrative that the us has become more dangerous, even though it's safer. This narrative has taken hold and allows the American public to be rallied against imaginary threats and keeps crooked people in power.
colordrops 4y ago
Just wait until this becomes politicized into a culture war issue where you are accused of supporting the "other side" if you let your kids play outside.
tayo42 4y ago
[flagged]
- atoav 4y ago
  > Adults can't confront others kids about their behavior directly without getting shit for it them selves. What else are you supposed to do? The US is truly and utterly deranged. Kids should make their own experiences throughout their neighbourhood. And neighbours should scold them if they behave like shit. This is literally how it has been for most of humanity.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- freddie_mercury 4y ago
  > If you're not there how do you you know? Because that's not what the police report was about? The police don't get summoned because kids are causing problems. They are getting summoned simply because there is no adult visible. The OP isn't making some outlandish claim that requires massive amounts of evidence for us to accept. There are thousands of stories attesting to this kind of thing.
  - tayo42 4y ago
    Where's the police report saying that lol. I see kids out side on their own all the time, even in suburban California like some other comment suggested is an issue
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  I'd expect the police would say, "Please have your kids not piss people off." Instead the police say, "We got a report of kids playing outside. We know this is fine, but we have to check up anyways." If my kiddos are pissing people off then the people reporting it are doing a very poor job explaining their perspective.
  - tayo42 4y ago
    Idk why you expect the police to do anything, let alone provide detail. They don't give a shit
matt-attack 4y ago
I just counter it by telling such parents that over managing a child is in itself child abuse and that I refuse to partake in it.
alkonaut 4y ago
Authorities are governed by laws and politicians. If police would even take a car to a call saying “a 9 year old is playing outside alone” then those norms and laws just need to be changed. It’s as simple as that. Never mind the craziness that a neighbor would call the police when seeing a child outside (and that’s quite crazy) - if police answer that call they are reinforcing the idea that the child playing alone outside was wrong or dangerous.
dTal 4y ago
>biking on the sidewalk in front of the house should be a low risk activity for a 2nd and 4th grader if done together This is still a conservative view compared to 30 years ago, when it was acceptable for a lone 5 year old to learn to ride a bike on a suburban sidewalk relatively unsupervised (yes, really!). You may be on the liberal end of the modern Overton window, but you've been dragged along just like the rest of us.
- dtalanimal 4y ago
  [dead]
musicale 4y ago
> someone will call the cops for the simple act of a child playing outside without a parent. How do I know? It's happened three times already "Dispatcher: Please state the nature of your emergency. Caller: A 4th and 2nd grader appear to be playing some sort of game across the street in their own front yard. Dispatcher: Are they armed? Caller: Yes, with a wiffle bat and ball/projectile. A water pistol and/or balloons may have been sighted earlier. Dispatcher: Thanks, we'll send in the SWAT team again."

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

forgotmypw17 4y ago

Have you talked about how they should respond to someone engaging them that way? Is don't talk to strangers a workable strategy?

IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago
Nosy nancy doesn't care. She will still call the cops. I've seen this myself. The looks i get for letting my kids scoot ahead of me on a sidewalk of a large city (while I walk behind them) are beyond belief.

davnicwil 4y ago

I don't known if more laws and regulations are the answer here, or if it'd have undesirable secondary effects in certain situations where it really matters, but I feel like this behaviour as you describe it should itself be unlawful. You should not be permitted to deliberately harass people you don't know doing nothing wrong in this way, it's that simple. It's a question of individual liberty in the end. I'd hope the police would actually have a private word with them to this effect to be honest, when they do 'report' it. I assume not, but do you know if any ever have?

trogdor 4y ago
>You should not be permitted to deliberately harass people you don't know doing nothing wrong in this way I doubt that most people who call the police about kids playing outside are trying to harass anyone. I think they are just misguided.
- qball 4y ago
  Sufficiently advanced misguidance is indistinguishable from harassment.
kelseyfrog 4y ago
The process as I understand is that the police are compelled to follow up on the report whether or not it initially appears to have merit or not. The incentive understandably is that false positives are perceived to have less negative impact than false negatives[1]. The police serve as a firewall against all inquiries about reporters including asking if reporters could (for lack of better term) be "asked to behave like mature adults." The opacity of communication structure serves to fragment social cohesiveness rather than cultivate it. In a time where people yearn for community, having police block all communication between parties atomizes and alienates community members from each other even more. If I were to turn this into an opportunity to imagine a better future, it would be twofold. One, a non-emergency service should be capable of handling events of this sort[2]. I don't need the same people arresting gang members and murderers doing house calls re: your kid was climbing a tree in your front yard. Second, the persons reporting should be told something of the sort, "Thank you for your concern, your intentions were neighborly, but reporting kids for existing is not a valuable use of our time." Instead I'm stuck with weighing letting my kids be kids and the possibility of guys with guns showing up at my quiet suburban home, and having the talk that starts with, "We know everything's probably fine, but someone called us..." again. 1. I suppose the socially de-incentivizing parents letting kiddos play outside is hard to quantify and "not really much of a concern to police", probably for a different set of biases from their perspective. 2. It's easy to imagine something like CPS getting involved. Maybe I'm naive for asking folks to imagine that a service "not as bad as CPS" could possibly exist. Idk, I'm a parent, not a social services engineer.

_siis 4y ago

The sad fact is, there is a truly real evil going on when it comes to many rights. Parental rights are just the most recent battleground, and no one does a thing to curb it. Also, I don't mean a cultural evil, as most people dismiss this as just being your cultural opinion. I mean the type of multi-cultural evil that strips people of their ability to respond (agency), tells them misleading lies, promotes flawed and self-defeating beliefs, causes loss in one form or another, and worse most of the time the people doing this are mentally ill but you still have to deal with the outcomes. This is a real problem because if you conform, you are tacitly approving of those beliefs and your children will learn socially from your response to it. Unfortunately, in a world where you get CPS or the police called to charge you with child endangerment its a pretty mad world, and its happening more and more. An interesting parallel are these philosophies that you can somehow make things safe, all ultimately fall into some form of socialist or fascist narrative where someone at the top decides what is or isn't safe because you as an individual are unimportant comapared to the group which is paramount. These narratives are very common in totalitarian and fascist societies that use propaganda and political warfare to kill potentially disruptive thinking.

derivagral 4y ago
> totalitarian and fascist societies A few books helped me frame this stuff far better than I was able to before. This was the one I started with[0]. Framing isn't a fix or a prevention, but it has helped me to adjust actions and expectations much more tailored for the situation. I am not looking forward to that crocodile remark: "I just want to be sure your child is safe." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom
- StrangeATractor 4y ago
  Just came in here to say that Fromm is great. Highly recommended.
- atoav 4y ago
  As an outside observer, the single most disturbing trend in the US is the fact that everybody seemingly feels totally entitled to police each other's lives. My personal religious believe frowns uppon $X? That means $X should now be illegal for everybody. I believe without evidence your kids are constantly unsafe: let me call the police on them. It is okay not to like what your neighbours are doing. It is okay (and maybe even necessary) to discuss this with them. But it is not okay to call the police on them or force them by law to your believes. And that in a nation where your cent piece had "Mind your business" written on it.

richwater 4y ago

Those forces only exist in certain areas. California is a great example of everyone being a nosy fuck.

locustous 4y ago
I've lived in various cities from wealthy to poor, more urban to rural. It's literally everywhere. Though rich places are worse.

im3w1l 4y ago

Are those strangers truly concerned about their safety or are they actually egoists that want to use the police to get the outdoors for themselves and other adults?

kelseyfrog 4y ago
We may never know. It is frustrating as a parent to be held to the social expectations of those at the most extreme ends of normative conviction. It speaks volumes that we mediate these interactions through police rather than through mutual dialogue.
- jrumbut 4y ago
  Yeah, that's the part of your story I find most disturbing. People will disagree on all kinds of issues, but would take a major crime for me to call the police on my neighbor. Imagine living next to someone after you did that?
- jancsika 4y ago
  > It speaks volumes that we mediate these interactions through police rather than through mutual dialogue. I wouldn't call the police on kids climbing trees. But I'd attend a 3-hour timeshare pitch meeting at a Red Lobster before I'd have a 5 minute "mutual dialogue" with a parent about their kids' truly problematic behavior. (And I'm allergic to shellfish.) Parents who can have mutual dialogues typically don't have kids who require them. And for the kids who desperately need them, community members seem to play a game of hot potato until somebody is finally forced to step in and confront the parents (typically after property damage).
  - yencabulator 4y ago
    The examples in the article are > In the U.S. though, the police have been called, women arrested, and children taken into custody for finishing out a stroller nap in an enclosed backyard, using an iPad in a car for a few minutes, and playing in a park. So, which ones of those are property damage to neighbors?
4y ago

dgb23 4y ago

Why are people doing this? Why are the police even reacting to it?

AustinDev 4y ago
I know the cops in my town would never show up. They don't show up for grand larceny at least not usually the same day.
- actionfromafar 4y ago
  He, in Sweden you only call the police for grand larceny, because the insurance company will ask for a police report number. (Edit: crime in action, they might come.)
wickedsickeune 4y ago
In my country, it's mandatory for the police to show up if you make a registered eponymous (not anonymous) complaint. People are doing this, because from their perspective children might be abandoned by their parents. The reason is that playing outside is not normalised enough at the moment.
- oblio 4y ago
  > The reason is that playing outside is not normalised enough at the moment. If you read this comment without context is sounds completely insane. Kids playing outside has been the <<norm>> for hundreds of thousands of years.
  - mcv 4y ago
    > Kids playing outside has been the <<norm>> for hundreds of thousands of years. Yeah, well, stop it, and put them behind a screen all day like a normal person.
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  Is there an epidemic of abandoned children? Why on earth would anyone even consider that a possibility

leemailll 4y ago

Remind me of the "free-range" kids (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our-parenting-police-state/2015/04/13/42c30336-e1df-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our...)

freedomben 4y ago

Moving is far from an easy solution, but there are some places that take the opposite approach. We lived in Utah for years and they actually have laws on the books to guarantee parental rights (I think they call them free range parenting or something like that?). In the more city dense areas you'll still have people who do that kind of stuff, but it's much, much less socially acceptable to interfere than in many coastal areas, and if somebody does call the police, there's a strong chance the police will tell them you're in the right and they are in the wrong. There are tons of tech opportunities for work there too so definitely worth a look if it's important to you. We live in Idaho now and it's similar up here though I don't know about the laws. In our neighborhood kids will run around playing outside together unsupervised all day and nobody bats an eye. It's expected!

HNTW 4y ago
Free range parenting laws are also being passed to codify the right to spank and physically disciplined children. That's why you find them being passed in conservative and ultra-religious states: Utah, Texas, Oklahoma
- deanCommie 4y ago
  And to force schools to disclose information that their children don't feel safe revealing to them (like LGBTQ status), knowing that it could cause their religious parents to completely destroy their lives through things that are banned in most of the civilized world but not in the US (conversion therapy, etc) It's a tough balance.
  - thucydidesofusa 4y ago
    [flagged]
  - 64bittechie 4y ago
    [dead]
  - awesomeMilou 4y ago

brightball 4y ago

Yes! When I watch movies with my kids from the 80s and 90s, you see all the kids riding their bikes everywhere. You’d probably be arrested if you let your kids have that type of freedom today.

midoridensha 4y ago
Meanwhile, here in Japan, this is perfectly normal to see. Kids ride their bikes (even at night), take the subway to other parts of the city, etc., all by themselves. I can't imagine raising a kid in America these days.
spacechild1 4y ago
I am wondering what has changed? Hasn't the US actually become safer over the last decades? I am from Europe btw, so this whole issue seems completely crazy to me.
- brightball 4y ago
  Yes, exactly. Doesn’t stop the calls.
- mcv 4y ago
  The US has become safer, but also a lot more afraid.
- kevingadd 4y ago
  The media and parts of the government sell a narrative that the us has become more dangerous, even though it's safer. This narrative has taken hold and allows the American public to be rallied against imaginary threats and keeps crooked people in power.

colordrops 4y ago

Just wait until this becomes politicized into a culture war issue where you are accused of supporting the "other side" if you let your kids play outside.

tayo42 4y ago

[flagged]

atoav 4y ago
> Adults can't confront others kids about their behavior directly without getting shit for it them selves. What else are you supposed to do? The US is truly and utterly deranged. Kids should make their own experiences throughout their neighbourhood. And neighbours should scold them if they behave like shit. This is literally how it has been for most of humanity.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
freddie_mercury 4y ago
> If you're not there how do you you know? Because that's not what the police report was about? The police don't get summoned because kids are causing problems. They are getting summoned simply because there is no adult visible. The OP isn't making some outlandish claim that requires massive amounts of evidence for us to accept. There are thousands of stories attesting to this kind of thing.
- tayo42 4y ago
  Where's the police report saying that lol. I see kids out side on their own all the time, even in suburban California like some other comment suggested is an issue
kelseyfrog 4y ago
I'd expect the police would say, "Please have your kids not piss people off." Instead the police say, "We got a report of kids playing outside. We know this is fine, but we have to check up anyways." If my kiddos are pissing people off then the people reporting it are doing a very poor job explaining their perspective.
- tayo42 4y ago
  Idk why you expect the police to do anything, let alone provide detail. They don't give a shit

matt-attack 4y ago

I just counter it by telling such parents that over managing a child is in itself child abuse and that I refuse to partake in it.

alkonaut 4y ago

Authorities are governed by laws and politicians. If police would even take a car to a call saying “a 9 year old is playing outside alone” then those norms and laws just need to be changed. It’s as simple as that. Never mind the craziness that a neighbor would call the police when seeing a child outside (and that’s quite crazy) - if police answer that call they are reinforcing the idea that the child playing alone outside was wrong or dangerous.

dTal 4y ago

>biking on the sidewalk in front of the house should be a low risk activity for a 2nd and 4th grader if done together This is still a conservative view compared to 30 years ago, when it was acceptable for a lone 5 year old to learn to ride a bike on a suburban sidewalk relatively unsupervised (yes, really!). You may be on the liberal end of the modern Overton window, but you've been dragged along just like the rest of us.

dtalanimal 4y ago
[dead]

musicale 4y ago

> someone will call the cops for the simple act of a child playing outside without a parent. How do I know? It's happened three times already "Dispatcher: Please state the nature of your emergency. Caller: A 4th and 2nd grader appear to be playing some sort of game across the street in their own front yard. Dispatcher: Are they armed? Caller: Yes, with a wiffle bat and ball/projectile. A water pistol and/or balloons may have been sighted earlier. Dispatcher: Thanks, we'll send in the SWAT team again."