trtlcrzy
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Post by trtlcrzy on Jun 30, 2017 8:02:02 GMT -6
I took the girls to one of the other parks in our neighborhood this evening. I went to get them to head home and realized a little boy who was no more than 2.5 was there by himself. Everyone else was gone. I thought I saw his mom with him earlier but that was probably 25+ minutes ago. I talked to him and he wasn't old enough to verbalize where his parents were or where he lived. Finally someone came (maybe 20 minutes later). It was his grandma and she explained that his parents let him come over on his own. You could tell she didn't necessarily approve. I'm so WTF about the whole thing. I'm fairly breezy and all for encouraging age appropriate independence, but not leaving a 2 yo alone in public for 45 minutes. I was about to call the police. Yeah, I probably would have been calling the police also. Was his house right across from the park?
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inthekitty
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Posts: 10,385 Likes: 68,812
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Post by inthekitty on Jun 30, 2017 9:59:06 GMT -6
trtlcrzy, we have 3 parks in our neighborhood and it was one a couple blocks away. I'm not as familiar with the kids there and had never seen this boy before. Initially I was trying to give the parents the benefit of the doubt (it was around 7:30 when we were first going to leave so I thought maybe they put him down for bed and didn't realize he snuck out or something), but then when I found out he does this all the time and the parents are totes cool with it I was so angry at them. He apparently lives next door to the park (but there is a fence and shrubs in between blocking the view and not once during that time did an adult pop out to check on him) and views it as "his second backyard" so they just let him come over whenever. A normal parent tries to prevent a 2 yo from getting out of the house on their own and taking off in the neighborhood. And I don't care if it was their own backyard, you don't leave a 2 yo completely unsupervised for that long. If I see it happen again I'm calling the police. These people need a wake-up call for their neglect.
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Post by peachsmama on Jun 30, 2017 10:08:39 GMT -6
trtlcrzy , we have 3 parks in our neighborhood and it was one a couple blocks away. I'm not as familiar with the kids there and had never seen this boy before. Initially I was trying to give the parents the benefit of the doubt (it was around 7:30 when we were first going to leave so I thought maybe they put him down for bed and didn't realize he snuck out or something), but then when I found out he does this all the time and the parents are totes cool with it I was so angry at them. He apparently lives next door to the park (but there is a fence and shrubs in between blocking the view and not once during that time did an adult pop out to check on him) and views it as "his second backyard" so they just let him come over whenever. A normal parent tries to prevent a 2 yo from getting out of the house on their own and taking off in the neighborhood. And I don't care if it was their own backyard, you don't leave a 2 yo completely unsupervised for that long. If I see it happen again I'm calling the police. These people need a wake-up call for their neglect. If their yard backs up to the park I can totally see this for an older child, maybe 6+. But 2 is just waaaaay to young for that kind of freedom. Better for a police officer to have a chat with them because someone is concerned rather than the alternative.
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inthekitty
Emerald
My eyes are up here.
Posts: 10,385 Likes: 68,812
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Post by inthekitty on Jun 30, 2017 11:14:43 GMT -6
peachsmama, at the park across the street from me there are kids over there by themselves all the time who are 5+ so I wouldn't even think twice. I'm okay with it as long as there is occasional supervision. I've let Maddie go there before for short periods of time like when I'm fixing dinner, but even then I keep the front door open and regularly step outside to get a visual of her. There are some kids whose parents leave their 5 yos over there for hours on their own without supervision. That I'm not okay with. They are always the most annoying kids also because when they do typical annoying crap that a kid might do there is not adult there to correct them and properly socialize them. But yeah, 2 just isn't even on the radar to be alone. If you can't say your name, where you live, and where your parents are you are too young to be on your own.
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Post by peachsmama on Jun 30, 2017 11:26:28 GMT -6
inthekitty I get the checking in. I do it even in our yard when I'm inside because I can't see the play set from all areas of the house. I yell out "you good?" and peach yells back "I good" Lol. When I was allowed to ride our 4 wheeler around by myself my mom had a rule that I had to circle the house every 30 minutes or so. So she knew I hadn't flipped it or something. I was 6 when I was allowed to do that. And a big HELL NO to my kids doing that lol. Remembering the jumps and hills and trees I hit at that age- no way in hell I'll let them do it.
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inthekitty
Emerald
My eyes are up here.
Posts: 10,385 Likes: 68,812
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Post by inthekitty on Jun 30, 2017 11:40:04 GMT -6
peachsmama, lol! The girls both got in the habit of randomly calling out "I'm okay!" when they're in the bathroom because they got so used to me calling for a verbal check-in.
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