I happened across another story about a parent being shamed and judged for giving their kids just the slightest little bit of freedom. Bridget Kevane got a mighty smackdown from the law when she decided to allow her twelve year old child to supervise some other kids while at the law. I encourage you to go to the link and read the entire thing as told by Bridget. But long story short, it came to the attention of the mall cop that the children were not being properly supervised by a parental unit. He decided to make an issue out of it, and pressed charges against her for endangering the welfare of her children.
Just think! Twelve year olds babysitting younger kids! Would you like to know what I was doing when I was twelve years old, besides baby-sitting? On occasion my mother would leave in charge of a small town restaurant for a few hours. I had to serve customers food and run a till all by myself. Do I feel like I endured child abuse? Of course not. Being given responsibility as a child is a sure way to know that your parents trust you. After all, that is what self-esteem is based upon, being able to be trusted with responsibility.
What really kills me about this story is the response of the so-called progressive bloggers that wrote about this story. I saw it on Pandagon, a blog I am usually very fond of. Unfortunately, Jesse fell for the same kind of parental shaming that is so abundant in our STRANGE NEW WORLD! He calls her an asshole and proceeds to go on and on about how bad what she did was. But I am still wondering if he thinks that mall cop over-reacted or not. Is this mother really someone that needs to be charged and waste a lot of the courts’ time? I think not. The mall cop could have satisfied himself with a pompous lecture about what a bad parent she is (people love to disparage your parenting talents, especially if they are non-parents) and went on his merry way. That would have been the reasonable thing to do, rather than put this poor woman through the legal ringer.
I have always given my children plenty of leash and plenty of responsibility to go along with it. When my oldest child was about seven or eight years old, I allowed her to walk herself home from school and let herself into the house and wait for me to come home. She would be home alone for almost a whole hour sometimes! Amazing, I know. This took place after she begged me for months and her baby-sitter told me I should let her stay home alone. I finally relented and worried (for nothing). The child was fine and I would be greeted with a hearty “Why are you home so early?”. Apparently, being home without parental supervision is kind of exciting when you are eight years old. Who would have thunk it, eh?
At least Pandagon isn’t the only perspective on this mess. I just love what the Free Range Kid blog had to say about this outrageous story. Thank you so much for existing, Free Range Kid blog! Here is another take on our collective epidemic of over-parenting.
Of course, I come from rural Saskatchewan. I have family members that live an hour away from Saskatoon on the farm that would never dream of locking their doors. I remember when some cousins from the city would visit and the “Why are you locking the door?” debates would begin. We country kids would be annoyed by the city kids locking the doors because none of us have house keys. There is no need for them when you live out of town. People feel safe. But the city kids just could not comprehend leaving the house without locking it. That idea would blow their little minds. Unfortunately, I am a city kid now and I could never sleep without a locked door again, despite the fact that a locked door is a pretty false sense of security. I guess there are some advantages to rural Saskatchewan after all.
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