Society now criminalizing parents that allow children to play in the yard - What is the world coming to?

Saturday, September 15, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: children at play, parents, criminalization

(NaturalNews) A Virginia mother was recently interrogated four times by police, and visited twice by social services, after neighbors spotted the mother's children playing in their own yard unsupervised, and decided to report the non-incident to local authorities. According to Lenore Skenazy of Free-Range Kids, such hysteria and Stasi-style paranoia are becoming the norm in America, where children are being excessively coddled, overprotected, and treated as though they are always in grave danger of being kidnapped or harmed.

During a recent interview with Alex Jones on The Alex Jones Show, Skenazy reflects on how the days when society's youth could simply ride their bicycles to school or into the woods, climb their neighbors' trees, or play at the local park by themselves without adult supervision are essentially gone. Today, it is practically considered abnormal in many areas for young children to even be outside at all, let alone to be exploring on their own or with their friends.

"What's happening ... is parents who let their children play outside, walk to school, or go to the grocery (store) for them often have neighbors who turn them in, supposedly out of concern ... and what happens is Child Protective Services (CPS) is obligated to come and check out whether or not these parents are being negligent, or worse abusive," says Skenazy, who receives calls all the time from parents that are being persecuted by law enforcement for allowing their kids to play outside.

"What has happened is that the parents are found wrong by the police or CPS for leaving their children in what CPS calls 'a dangerous situation,' which I would call a 'normal, nice situation.' In fact, less dangerous than just letting your kids sit inside all day getting fat and diabetic, you let your kids run outside or have some independent adventures, that's considered bad parenting now."

Texas woman forced to spend night in jail for supervising kids' outdoor playtime

Just a few days ago, for instance, Tammy Cooper of La Porte, Texas, was actually handcuffed and arrested for allowing her children to play outside on their motorized scooters in the family's cul-de-sac. Cooper was forced to spend the night in jail for this non-crime, despite the fact that she had been outside with her two children watching them the entire time. (http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/143276/mom_arrested_sent_to_jail)

"It is so unusual for parents to let their children play outside, or climb a tree, that they are being turned in as negligent," adds Skenazy. "The immediate assumption is that something's wrong, they escaped, maybe they've been kidnapped by somebody, or could be kidnapped, that's the big fear."

On her blog, Skenazy documents all sorts of wild cases involving the disturbing societal trend of people calling the police and CPS on neighbors that allow their children to play outside, as if letting kids be kids was some sort of crime (http://www.freerangekids.com/).

Be sure to watch Skenazy's full interview with Alex Jones by visiting:
http://www.prisonplanet.com

Sources for this article include:

http://www.prisonplanet.com