The double standard of parental negligence

On April 13th Child Protective Services “retrieved”two unsupervised children from a park in Silver Springs, MD. The Meitivs are being investigated for child neglect after neighbors complained to CPS that the parents repeatedly allow their children to walk to and from a local park unsupervised. The park is two blocks away, the kids ages 10 and 6 routinely make the trek back and forth from their home and they were not harmed in any way. 

Is this an example of people stepping up and protecting a child in need, or is it an example of buttinski do-gooders? 

Flash back to August of 2014, in the middle of a Utah summer, when April Suwyn left her 11-month old baby in the car so she could run in her house to take a shit. Didn't realize what she had done for two hours. Oops! Mother calls it an accident and one that could have been avoided if she “had just gone to the gym” like she usually does. Really? Oh, no charges filed. There are many more of these example of suffocating babies and toddlers with no charges filed because it was an accident.

December 13, 2014 a Texas father was released from prison for further investigation when his 4-year old son was killed in a washing machine- a front loading washing machine. Still not in jail.

February of this year, in Albuquerque, NM, a 3-year old found a hand gun in his 8-month pregnant mother's purse and shot his father and his mother. Parents are fine, no charges filed.

Free range parent April Lawson dropped her 5 and 8 year old kids off at a local park in Tennessee a block away from her house. CPS “retrieved” the two children but didn't tell the mother, who thought something terrible had happened to the children. She spent a night in jail and charged with a class D felony because one of the children was under 8 years of age. Children were fine, someone called CPS and mother was detained. 

And what's with mothers named April always getting into trouble with CPS?

There are plenty of cases (sadly) of deliberate child neglect, abandonment and death. Parents who kill their children, tie them up in basements or drop them off in the middle of nowhere for dead are not who I am talking about. Those people will have a special place in Hell. This is about parents who are teaching their children to be independent and giving them empowerment to make decisions. Ages are always going to be argued, but I’m not interested in that discussion, mainly because our society has spoken about the overarching issue concerning child safety:

Negligent parents who accidentally kill their children have suffered enough. (Negligent?) Parents whose kids weren't in any danger should be jailed.


Good job, people.

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