'Endangering Children' Concept Is Abused

Posted: Friday, April 24th, 2015

          No pun is intended in the leading title for this opinion column. Many of us are aware of the present day cultural shift that has left parents nervous about letting their child walk to the store. They are nervous (at times) due to the concern that they might be charged with child neglect or something akin to that. They are not nervous about the child being safe necessarily. At least, not in the same way. The following quote will show you where it has come to in our day and age. These are the words of a mother who was in danger of losing her four year old son because she left him in a car for five minutes. He was not attended to during that time. Here is what she said after a horrendous set of events she went through to make sure she did not lose her son (in the courts): 

   "That evening I sat him down and tried to explain it. I told him that he was right, that mommy had left him in the car for a few minutes one time and that was a mistake. I wasn't supposed to do that, but it was all going to be fine now. Mommy wasn't going to jail. And no one was going to kidnap him!"
   I felt sorry for this good mother. If you read the accounts, she did what many people do in a sensible way. The end result was her telling her son after the fact that she made a mistake. She did not make a mistake as far as I am concerned, nor anyone who has what we might call common sense. If leaving your child in a car for five minutes in good conditions, in a safe place, and for good reasons is a mistake, then all parents are in trouble. Why? For larger reasons than leaving your child in the car while you go in a store. The very act of putting your child in a car and driving somewhere with that child is much more dangerous than leaving him unattended for a few minutes. The act of allowing your child to walk to school alone is much more dangerous regarding getting hit by a car or someone stealing your child. What about allowing the child to play!? Which is more dangerous, allowing your child to play in the woods and on the rocks, or leaving them in a car for five minutes under good conditions?
   For some perverse reason, we are now putting parents under the duress of protecting their children in a way that is adverse to good training. No one grows up correctly in this fallen world who is not subjected over time to being allowed (or put) in conditions that have risks.  This is life.  The abusing of safety concerns by those in leadership in our city and every city in America is just that - abuse - child abuse I might emphatically add. The idea of taking away a child from a conscientious parent (unless they agree it was neglect) is an evil in all regards.  Who could do this with a clear conscience?  Who could look a parent in the face, take their child over similar conditions, and keep it straight?  Only someone, whether judge, sheriff, or prosecutor, who has no conscience or one that has been defiled by bad thinking or illicit desires for power. "The judge of the whole world shall do right."

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