No, that’s one of the issues. The other issue is the perception conservatives have that only liberals will call the cops on free range kids, as described by the OP. I think we can all agree that the people who actually dial 911 on a kid playing nicely in a park are a misguided minority without any consistent party affiliation, but I can certainly see how the typical conservative narrative (which you apparently don’t agree exists) might make them think this is a liberal problem.
I think you’re on the right lines. I suspect that if anything differentiates these people, it’s age; they grew up in the preciousest snowflakiest era of all: they’re Baby Boomers. So they are most likely to identify as conservative, but I suspect they are mostly in the middle of the spectrum.
Ugh. I really don’t want to get into a debate about what the OP is asking, but if you insist… you are confusing some background info (the first sentence or two) with what the OP is actually asking, as summarized nicely at the bottom:
"So, are people at one end or the other of the political spectrum more likely to call the police when they see children playing alone at a playground? Or is it just a matter of certain people being nosy busybodies, without any correlation with political affiliation? "
Yes, and I’ve given my opinion on that question in every single one of my posts – 3 times now. Sorry for straying from the topic though, I’ll see myself out.
I appreciate that. I’m 66 years old, been conservative all my life, and I have never heard anyone say that conservatism operates from fear. That’s a new one for me. And I think it’s bullshit. My $0.02 worth.
It’s a new one for many people who aren’t liberals. It seems that liberals have a need to create conservative strawmen positions so they have something to whine about. Their problem is that conservatives don’t really care what stories they invent. Conservatives just keep getting legislators, and governors, elected while liberals keep wondering why that happens.
I don’t think traditional notions of “liberal” or “conservative” are the main determining factors. I think that, for better AND for worse, attitudes and lifestyles have changed since I was a kid. Parenting practices that were standard when I was a kid are sometimes seen as horrifying by younger parents today, and normal modern parenting practices often seem ridiculous to older folks.
I’m 54, and grew up in a blue collar section of New York City. When I was 7, right after I got home from school, I’d often grab my bike and ride it around the neighborhood for 3 hours, then come home for dinner. My Mom had no idea where I was all that time, and didn’t much care, as long as I was home by dark. Most kids who grew up in my neighborhood would tell you they grew up the same way.
Today? Many young mothers would freak out if their 7 year olds had been gone for 2 hours. That’s true of BOTH secular, liberal Moms AND Christian, Republican Moms. Helicopter parenting is very real, and it knows no political boundaries.
I think older conservatives AND older liberals are inclined to scoff at helicopter parents and ask, “What, is your kid such a fragile little snowflake that he/she needs you around constantly? Let the kids play They’ll be fine!” But young conservative AND liberal parents would probably look at my old, NON baby-proofed house, at the belt my Dad used to whack me with, at my Mom’s nonchalant inattentiveness, and think, “That’s child abuse!”
I think that’s fine, but they should not be allowed to impose their parenting views on others, nor should law enforcement allow themselves to be used as a tool for such imposition. The debate over the proper way to raise kids should be considered a basic freedom and the authorities should stay out of it. Their job is to enforce the law, not social norms.
While there are people who call the cops on free range kids there are also people who call the cops because McDonalds didn’t get their order right. Assuming people who call the cops for kids playing outside are specifically liberal or conservative isn’t the question. The question is whether they’re insane or they have a legitimate reason to call the cops.
In almost every news story of the police being called on a child for an innocuous reason we hear only the parent’s side of the story because the state legally can’t comment on the situation. Often we find out later that the kid was taken from the parents for a legitimate reason but that doesn’t sell as many papers as “Cops Rip Apart Happy, Tax-Paying Family Because of Nosy Neighbor!” Just as a personal example, about ten years ago I was driving from my apartment to my parent’s house to visit them for an afternoon and on the way there passed by two little girls in their front yard exposing themselves to cars that drove by. About 30-45 minutes later I drove by again on my way home and they were still at it, so I pulled over, knocked on the door and told the adults in the house what the kids were doing. I had this option because they were in their front yard. Had they been in a park or otherwise somewhere I couldn’t have quickly identified their parents I probably would have called the cops because 6 year olds should not be left to flash vag at passersby for almost an hour with no intervention. But in that scenario when the cops showed up and CPS came (and potentially took the kids away, depending on what else they discovered going on) I guarantee you the parents would have gone to any media outlet that would have listened to them, screaming and wailing about how CPS took their kids away for playing in the park!
Complaining about OTHER parents and OTHER people’s kids is a universal thing that transcends politics, culture, time and space.
Well, yes. But I suspect the vast majority of nanny-state stories about not being allowed to parent one’s kids are overblown. We just had a thread about a woman who had her son wait for her or her husband in the back yard of her house, and was arrested when a neighbor called police. At first, it seemed like a awful story that confirmed all this stuff about helicopter neighbors. However, the problem wasn’t that the kid was home alone. The problem was that the kid was stuck in the back yard when she could have just given him a key to the house. She deliberately chose not to “in case a burglar broke in when he was home alone,” or something to that effect.
I would have called the cops too. I think being that stupid should be against the law.
Thanks to everyone in the thread.
As I said, I was moved to ask the question after my conservative friend implied that conservatives were less likely to engage in this behavior, which seemed to me an odd position to take. I agree with the majority here, that there’s not likely to be any serious correlation with party affiliation.
For what it’s worth, I’m a liberal-leaning person with (overwhelmingly) liberally-leaning friends, and if my Facebook feed is any indication, liberals are overwhelmingly of the “let kids roam the wilds” mindset. I know I am! But I also understand that I, along with everyone I know, don’t amount to anything more than an anecdote in terms of larger behavioral trends.
Yes you would have, and for the same reason most people call the police in these situations. Not to protect the children, but to punish what they consider bad parents. These are people who would walk over a child lying injured in the street to berate mom for letting her play unattended. The desire to punish those we believe transgress society’s rules doesn’t play out along political lines, but it’s stronger than the desire to protect, that’s for sure.
In this case, the desire to protect and the desire to punish both stem from concern about the kid. I don’t care if the neighborhood kids are playing outside. I would care very much if I knew they were playing outside because they were locked out of their own homes.
There’s definitely the subset of conservatives who belong to very conservative fundamentalist religious sects, which need not be Christian but probably are in the majority of such cases. It would seem that their kids can often be flooded with rules that dictate every minute of their lives. Not long ago I listened to an audiobook version of Deeper Water, a novel about a female law student who takes a third-year clerkship in another city for the summer. Her family is in one of those very conservative denominations, and she actually has to ask her parents for permission to accept the clerkship. Of course it’s a novel, but I don’t doubt such things really do happen.
And I agree there are likely just as many liberal/progressive parents who hover excessively over their kids too. Perhaps it’s more those toward the upper income brackets, who have more wherewithal to provide organized extracurricular activities.
Just today there was a story in our paper about Chelsea Clinton, who has an MPH degree, and herproject to combat childhood obesity–quoting her as follows:
(Emphasis mine.)
Where do kids ever walk today, except maybe those living in the densest and most transit-rich cities? And while many of them may still walk to neighborhood schools, there’s definitely a trend away from that, and towards the drop-off and pick-up queue in “carpool”. I used to live near a middle school, and the neighborhood was jammed with cars at the beginning and end of the school day. FTR, a lot of kids used the city buses instead. But there sure weren’t many walkers.