As a parent myself, I find all of this paranoia completely insane. My daughter and a school friend (8 at the time) walked down a half a block to our neighborhoo

As a parent myself, I find all of this paranoia completely insane. My daughter and a school friend (8 at the time) walked down a half a block to our neighborhood park here (in the scary city!) to play, and her friends' mother found out and LOST it. It's crippling to children, and unbelievably annoying for adults (need to run into the store for a stick of gum? Gotta unpack the kids and bring them with for the 1 minute transaction, or someone will call CPS!). Here in Minnesota, my theory is that Jacob Wetterling's family and the "news"-mongers are largely to blame. That sad incident of course, was 25+ years ago now, and is still regularly dredged up to scare the pants off of parents. Feh! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wetterling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wetterling