Good grief, this is insane!

When I was a kid, I would go out on my bicycle and ride all over town as soon as I was old enough to ride a bike. I would never even tell my mother where I was going, much less have her watching me. There was never any expectation that I would do these things, only that I be home by a certain time.

So glad I'm not a kid now. Evidently, they're supposed to be indoors all day and playing computer games so their mommies know where they are at all times.

"I'm wondering if the neighbor was bothered by noise from the scooters and made the complaint to get the noise down or get revenge."

Or schadenfreude. A lot of people really get a lot of pleasure out of causing misery for someone else.

What happened to the days when parents would look for houses on dead-end streets so that Johnny and Jane could ride their bikes all day long while Mom cooked and cleaned in her Pearls and A-line Shirt Dress?

When I was little, my friends and I prowled from sun up til the street lights came on. I was allowed as far as the Volunteer Firehouse, because they all knew us/ had kids in the pack/ knew our parents. I was 5'ish, when I was first allowed out with my friends.

I once got the VFF'rs to break into my house when my parents were out because my cat got stuck between the window and the screen and cut himself, and was bleeding. Our VFD also had a pop machine, cherry pop for a nickle, yum!

My kids got a summer bus pass when they were 12 or 13, we had museum family passes and zoo memberships and I would send them and their friends on picnics. I did ask for a phone call when they arrived at their destination, and set a time for them to be home by, but otherwise, I trusted them to be mature and follow the rules I set for them. No talking to strangers, unless they were asking an employee for directions, etc, common sense stuff. I sent my No 1 daughter to Aikido lessons, No 2 chose Tae kwon do. Both were into the goth scene and wore heavy Doc Martins, No 1 had a pager at first ( 80's child) then a cell phone, No 2 always had a cell.

The Gov did not make my children, I did. The Gov did not raise my children, I did. I take full credit/blame/whatever for how my kids turned out, and I am damned proud to say they turned out great. Intelligent, talented, beautiful young ladies with bright futures, as long as we can keep the barbarians away from our gates. I would kill for them, and I would die for them, they are my pride and joy in life.

I guess I'm not the only one here who didn't realize my parents were serial criminals.

They could have just given her a warning or made her take the kids inside, though said kids were obviously not unsupervised.

Damned if I'm going to watch my child every minute when she's 9.

My reading of this is that she was not cited for letting the kids
play outside. She was cited for allowing them to operate motorized
vehicles on a public street.

I suspect that the complaint call had more to do with the noise than anything else. I also suspect that a decent lawyer can file suit against both the police and the neighbor.

Damned if I'm going to watch my child every minute when she's 9.

Heh. I can hear your daughter now if you did watch her every minute.

Mom! You're watching me again. Stop it! Please?

I was listening to a talk radio show discuss this the other day during rush hour... My understanding it that the mom IS sueing the department AND her neighbor. So, yeah, it does sound like a neighbor/vendetta issue... something that cops shouldn't be involved in.

I had a neighbor like this back in PA, luckily she was more likely to screech at me than call the cops. Had the vocabulary of a drunken sailor, probably learned from her many "boyfriends".(even our regular pizza delivery boy knew she was a hooker)

Kat:

"Our VFD also had a pop machine, cherry pop for a nickle, yum!"

I miss those days :(

and, yup, the same rule - be home when the street lights come on - how simple is that rule (except we learned to look for the street light that came on later than the others, hehe)

I also suspect that a decent lawyer can file suit against both the police and the neighbor.

Even an indecent lawyer could file a suit.

Winning it, OTOH ...

Well, I guess this makes more sense if the neighbor did have ulterior motives. I was just thinking this morning, neighborhood kids are unsupervised...and you call the COPS??? Even if the neighbor was disabled or otherwise unable to walk down and actually complain to the parents, she (why do I assume it's a woman?) could have made a phone call. If it really was the children's safety that she was concerned about.

"be home when the street lights come on"

I used to ask my dad, "why?" He would reply, "because I need to know where you are."

So now we could quite literally track our children electronically and know exactly where they are rather than my father's temporally and spatially crude method, yet we give them less freedom. Sorry dad you should have stuck with, "because I said so."

Let's keep in mind that they were not only perceived to be unsupervised but also they were engaged in activity that is in fact rather dangerous.

Here's my proposed litmus test. If I would be arrested for doing this activity while drunk, then it is too dangerous for children. Apparently riding a motorized beer cooler meets that standard nowadays so that goes the way of riding in the back of the pickup truck.

We get a lot of these cases in the police blotter and there are usually some aggravating factors, alcohol, poverty, 2 year old in the snow in a diaper. I often hear free range parents raise the argument that they live in a safe neighborhood or the route to school is safe. But keep in mind that the police department policies are calibrated for the other side of the tracks and we live a zero tolerance world so you get the same treatment as the parents who actually deserve a visit from CPS.

Motorized scooter:

http://www.amazon.com/Razor-E100-Electric-Scooter-Pink/dp/B000P7BMR8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348096011&sr=8-2&keywords=motorized+scooter

It's more of a toy than a vehicle.

Order yours here:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/mall/

I often hear free range parents raise the argument that they live in a safe neighborhood or the route to school is safe. But keep in mind that the police department policies are calibrated for the other side of the tracks and we live a zero tolerance world so you get the same treatment as the parents who actually deserve a visit from CPS. -- smurfy at September 19, 2012 3:19 PM

The problem with your view is you ignore statistics. The neighborhood is safe is dependent on looking the number of muggings, child abductions, etc. There is no 100% safe neighborhood that stuff never happens. There are places in the country that the county prosecutor has been in office for fifteen years and has as yet prosecute true homicide. They may have done some DUI manslaughter cases, but not a deliberate murder case.

The other thing to look at is the number of stranger child abductions that actually occur. I've lived in my same chunk of the Midwest since 1993. In that time, I think, there have been about ten-fifteen stranger child abductions and two children not recovered alive. That is less than one per year spread over more than 2500 square miles.

People are smart enough to make an assessment of their neighborhoods and be real. Your automatic assessment that all parents don't have a clue is insulting.

Motorized scooters are dangerous? Boo hoo hoo. Riding in cars is dangerous. Playing on swingsets is dangerous. Taking a freaking shower is dangerous. My mother-in-law tripped while walking down the sidewalk (which you can also be arrested for doing drunk) and wound up with a concussion and three stitches over her eye.

When I was 6 I got my first 2 wheeler. I taught myself to ride by borrowing a friend's before asking for my bike. Once I had that thing, oh man, I would be gone ALL AFTERNOON. All over the place. I loved that freedom. Cannot imagine growing up now. Crazy. Out of control. We really need to stand up for our rights.

Oh and by the way,
My mom did mom stuff in the house and yard while my brothers and I ran around the neighborhood. It was great. She was always there, and I always had home base.