# Arrested for leaving 9 year old at park **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739 "2014-07-22T14:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/41 "2014-07-24T18:25:07Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > What was mom’s plan if it rained? Was the kid expected to walk home from the park? Why not? > [@Spud](#): > > A single working mom making minimum wage at McDonald’s was arrested for leaving her apparently responsible nine year old alone at a park that was 7 minutes away, and **a 6 minute walk from her home for which she had a key**. Oh yeah, she also had a working cell phone. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/42 "2014-07-24T22:31:26Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Further – statistically, an unuspervised child in a park is less likely to be sexually assaulted than a child at home, in school, or in church. You’re going to need to produce a cite for that if you want us to believe it. I could buy that if you look at where sexual assaults occur, more will occur at home, in school, or in church, than in parks. But that is not at all what you claim. You will have to produce statistics for how many hours all children spend in parks, home, school, and church and then determine the number of assaults per child-hour in each of those locations. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/43 "2014-08-01T14:43:10Z")
[Florida mom arrested after letting 7-year-old walk to the park alone](http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrested-son-park/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) Kid’s familiar with the (half-mile) route, he rides his bike that way to school, he wears a mobile phone around his neck, he checks in with mom… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Sterling\_Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Sterling\_Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterling_Archer)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/44 "2014-08-01T15:12:24Z")
This is crazy. I have an 8 and a 10-year old and I give them fairly free reign to go to school on their own, go to friends’ houses on their own – anything within a mile is not a concern to me. I could be arrested and jailed for 10 years for this??? Like others have said, when I was 8, I would go out and bike around a 5-mile radius from my house for HOURS on end. “Be home by dinner” was the rule. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/45 "2014-08-01T15:47:49Z")
I guess this is out of the question: > **[Louis Abernathy and Temple Abernathy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Abernathy_and_Temple_Abernathy)** > > Louis Van "Bud" Abernathy (December 17, 1899 – March 6, 1979) and Temple Reeves "Temp" Abernathy (March 25, 1904 – December 10, 1986) were children from Oklahoma who, without adult supervision, took several cross-country trips. On one trip they rode on horseback from Oklahoma to Manhattan in 1910 when they were 10 and 6 years old. > Louis (sometimes styled Louie) Abernathy was born in Texas in 1899 and Temple Abernathy was born in 1904 in Tipton, Oklahoma. Their father was cowboy and U.S. Marshal ... Sometimes I wonder. I mean sending a twelve year old to war to be a drummer boy is probably too far - but have we swung too far the other direction and raising kids who by nine and ten can’t be trusted to not hurt themselves over the course of an afternoon alone. What are these kids going to do when they head off to college at seventeen and eighteen? There ARE kids who do need supervision as tweens or teens - there are adults who need daycare too. But the majority of our kids should be able to be home alone for several hours by themselves at nine - if we couldn’t we wouldn’t have survived as long as we have as a species. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/46 "2014-08-01T16:20:24Z")
My parents used to leave my twin and I alone all day long during the summer when we weren’t scheduled for day camp or grandmother visits. We didn’t die. However, we weren’t left at a park all day along. For the most part, we stayed in the house behind a locked door. If we got bored, we’d get on our bikes and ride down to the candy store or to the library or to the park, but there would usually be neighborhood kids with us. A bored kid all by herself is a kid at risk. Being stuck in a park all day sounds like a recipe for tragedy, so I don’t blame people for being concerned about this. Arresting the mother isn’t the solution, though. How about giving her a warning in exchange for enrolling her daughter in a subsidized summer camp? Our judicial system doesn’t have a mind or a heart, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/47 "2014-08-04T15:19:07Z")
Up front: I was born in 1961, and grew up in New York City. When I was 9, there were COUNTLESS days when my Mom would tell me and my brothers “Go play in the park, and come home at dinner time.” Or “Go ride your bikes, and come home when it gets dark.” Nobody thought my Mom was negligent. ALL the Moms in the neighborhood told their kids the same thing. NOBODY thought twice about it! I start to wonder now if my Mom would get arrested if she were raising us today, or if Social Services would take us away from our unfit mother. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/48 "2014-08-04T18:05:46Z")
When I was 9, my school was 2 miles away. I sometimes walked rather than take the bus. I also spent many hours playing in the woods. Or on equipment and partially-constructed houses at building lots. Or reading a book somewhere outside. It’s sad to think that these activities might be considered neglectful today. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/49 "2014-08-04T18:42:39Z")
Well at least she wasn’t arrested for living where the legislators and enforcement officers are so incredibly stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/50 "2014-08-04T18:44:38Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Up front: I was born in 1961, and grew up in New York City. > > When I was 9, there were COUNTLESS days when my Mom would tell me and my brothers “Go play in the park, and come home at dinner time.” Or “Go ride your bikes, and come home when it gets dark.” > > Nobody thought my Mom was negligent. ALL the Moms in the neighborhood told their kids the same thing. NOBODY thought twice about it! Change the location, and that matches my life. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/51 "2014-08-04T21:09:09Z")
Yep. I walked to my elementary school, 1.2 miles away, starting in 1st grade when I was six. It’s what you did. As for playing… ‘Come home when the street lights come on.’ ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/52 "2014-08-05T07:53:42Z")
Good god, my mother would have been shot for what she allowed us to do when we were growing up, without cell phones! This is crazy. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/53 "2014-08-05T12:24:33Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Good god, my mother would have been shot for what she allowed us to do when we were growing up, without cell phones! > > This is crazy. We didn;t even have a land line at our house until I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/54 "2014-08-05T16:02:24Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Nobody thought my Mom was negligent. ALL the Moms in the neighborhood told their kids the same thing. NOBODY thought twice about it! I think this is the issue. If no other moms are telling their kids to go to the park all day long and she is the lone kid there it is going to stick out as weird and potentially unsafe. If all or even half of the moms in the neighborhood were sending their kids out like this no one would bat an eye. > [@susan](#): > > When I was 9, my school was 2 miles away. I sometimes walked rather than take the bus. I also spent many hours playing in the woods. **Or on equipment and partially-constructed houses at building lots**. Or reading a book somewhere outside. It’s sad to think that these activities might be considered neglectful today. :eek: My mother would have beat my ass if I played at construction lots or on equipment being used to build houses. If your mom really did allow you to go play at empty construction sites I would call that at least a little negligent. Not badly so and certainly not an arrestable offense, but still very unsafe. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739/55 "2014-08-06T14:09:20Z")
All the kids in my neighborhood growing up played where they were building the new houses. Starting with dirt clod fights when they dug the basement and continued playing there until they added the doors and windows so we couldn’t get in any longer. We also sat on the back hoes and pretended to drive. Nobody ever got hurt more than a minor scrape, bruise, or splinter. Climbing a tree was unsafe, swinging on the rope swing over the creek was unsafe, riding your bike down a steep hill and over the home made ramp at the bottom was unsafe… it wouldn’t have been much of a childhood without all of these. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-for-leaving-9-year-old-at-park/693739.md?page=2)