Here’s another story very similar to Jaycee Dugard’s, but it happened in the 70’s. Those things did happen back then, we were still allowed out of our parents’ sight, and the overwhelming majority of us were not kidnapped.
Or **were **we?!
Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnnnn!
I’m in that article! The New York Times writer called me about something else and we ended up chatting and I told her an anecdote that she ended up using in this article.
Look at my user name and the people interviewed and see if you can figure out who I am!
Oh, gosh, you’re a genius! Oh, wait- we already require the losing party in a civil suit to pay the other party’s bills. It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.
The school district (or whoever) still has to pony up for legal bills and court costs before trial, and chances are the plaintiff doesn’t have any money anyway.
Anyway, you missed the point. In a civil jury trial anything can happen, and nobody is going to award the school $50 bazillion dollars, but the jury could very well award a griving parent some equally ridiculous figure. Settling the case works out more cheaply over time.
In the U.S. paying the other side’s legal bills is a possible penalty in the a civil suit, it is by no means a general requirement. Legal fees are often awarded in civil rights cases, but not that commonly in negligence cases. I’m sure it varies a lot state by state.
<personal information deleted>
Holy crap! She drove your daughter five houses? I mean, even if she preferred to see her home, what about just standing in the street and watching as she went back? Even with big suburban blocks that can’t be more than 100 metres or so.
:eek:
I realize she pretty well invited this, but I’d rather you didn’t post her personal info. No warning issued.
Gfactor
Pit Moderator
I did have second thoughts about it after I quit doing three things at once, but by then I was past the edit window. Wasn’t really smart, was it? 
Same when I was growing up in Wheeling, WV, but I think the 1st-3rd graders might have gotten a pass. I don’t remember as I lived 20 min. from school and had to be bussed.
Just curious; how does one get called by a New York Times writer? Was this “something else” some kind of thing you’re known for?
I saw something on the Free Range Kids website that said, “NY Times reporter looking to talk to parents who either allow their children to get to school on their own, or who don’t even though it’s close.”
I e-mailed her that my son rides his bike to school everyday, and she called me and we chatted for awhile. She ended up using a different anecdote that I mentioned in our conversation.
There were some ridiculously rich people at my sons grade school. When I saw the thread mentioning helicopter parents, I thought of them. When the grand daughter was getting her communion. they had her dropped off in a helicopter. Then someone spread rose petals in front of her as she walked in. She was a kid. The next weeks church bulletin came out saying that stuff was inappropriate. It was disgusting.
Sydney, Australia checking in. Primary school 1980-1986, high school until '92.
Bus passes would only be given out if you were 1.5 km (0.94 miles) from the school, so my mother would drop me at school in the morning (only because it was on her way to work) and I’d walk the 1.3 km (0.81 miles) back. I didn’t complain about this because the walk home was all downhill.
As soon as I hit year 7 the trip to school became a 40 minute (public, not school-specialist) bus trip followed by a change to a train and then a 750-metre walk to the gates.
Our school drew students from a pretty wide area, though - there were students who’d have a commute of over 90 km (56 miles) by train each way, every day. Typically they’d be dropped at the station and have to make their way from there.
That distance might be unusual, but no-one thought that a 12-year-old would need to be accompanied on a train or a bus. I don’t think that’s changed.
I walked 5 blocks and across a busy road and through a park to school from first grade. I have never thought about it until now. And when I do, I don’t see what the big deal is.
If the school doesn’t think your kid can handle it, and you do, then I guess it is up to THEM to get someone to walk him home. Or they can accept the form and STFU.
This new helicopter parenting phenomenon is truly bizarre.
I have a sister who lives in a very affluent suburban neighborhood and she absolutely refuses to allow her 11-year old son to ride the school bus (the stop is about five houses down the street). She sits in the damn car pool lane for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon every day so she can watch junior enter and come out of the school building.
She has no job as hubby works and pays the bills, so the majority of her days are spent “volunteering” at the school. She is always complaining to the teachers about other kids in the class, the teachers themselves, and even tried to get some rowdy little girl kicked out of her daughter’s class because she pushed her on the playground one day.
The 11 year old boy can’t bike up and down the street by himself, he must always have his mother join him. Mind you, this is a very nice neighborhood with hardly any traffic and it is a dead end street.
No movies over PG for the 11 year old or the 9 year old girl either. No exceptions. They are only allowed to watch old Leave It To Beaver and Gomer Pyle episodes on television. Only “educational” video games, no internet usage just for fun. The only other playtime they have is in the four or five organized sports their mother makes them participate in. She has the soccer ball decals on the back of her minivan and everything.
I just thank God our mother let us actually, you know, be kids when we were their age. Not everything was so sugar coated, controlled, and we didn’t live in a bubble like kids do now.
Know what’s worse than helicopter parents?
Zombie helicopter parents.
Snerk.
Also, I like how that handle is associated with all those anecdotes. 
Welcome to the Dope, statisticsnerd. In case you’re wondering, the zombie jokes are because this thread was started in 2009, and now has risen from the dead, zombie-style. 
nm, didn’t see zombies. Got brains eaten.