Overprotection Syndrone

The other day I read of parents of a 6 year old and a 10 year old in the state of Maryland who are under investigation because they let their kids walk together around the neighborhood together, unaccompanied by an adult. What? Is that child neglect? I thought it was normal to allow kids to enter the world. But then this is an age of political correctness and near insanity, I fear an age of the loss of some very normal freedoms long never questioned.

This irrational fear syndrome and overprotection of our kids hit the Meitivs family when two separate callers alerted Maryland  police and Child Protective Services that the two kids were walking together in a neighborhood near the Meitiv home. The Meltivs said police and social service workers questioned their children at their elementary school without their permission or knowledge. "And when they were talking to them, they were painting a picture of a world that is very scary," said Sasha Meitiv. "They were asking my son Rafi what he would do if he was grabbed by a stranger. Telling them, you know there are creeps out there that are just waiting to grab children if they're walking by themselves," Sasha said.

As one who roamed neighborhoods far and wide when I was under the age of 10 that kind of fear seems a bit paranoid.  What next? Will Maryland require all parents to taste their kids food before allowing them to eat? Even though crime figures and crimes against children in the Silver Springs, Maryland area where the Meitiv family lives very low, Maryland law prohibits children under the age of 8 from being unattended in a home or car, but makes no reference to the outdoors. A person must be at least 13 years old to supervise a child under age 8. Maryland says that child neglect as a failure to provide proper care and supervision of a child. But is allowing your two kids to walk in a nearby neighborhood "neglect".

If so, I and many others in the U.S. or anywhere else, for that matter, are guilty of neglect.  Is not proper parenting encouraging children to be more independent, including walking in safe neighborhoods in pairs? I think so. But the state of Maryland is not giving up on enforcing it's safety rules. This week, a Maryland child protection agency worker came to the Meitiv's home with a "safety plan" for the Meitivs.  "When I said that I couldn't sign the illegal paperwork before our attorney looked at it, she said if you don't sign, we will take your kids right away and she called the police," Sasha said.

Has modern life really come to this, that kids can't walk in their own neighborhood even when the danger is remote? Maybe instead of wasting time on this, child protection agencies should focus on real dangers and real neglect that children suffer. Seems to me the lesson of this is that Maryland is teaching its kids to be afraid of way too much, even the normal, while emphasizing that kids should rely on their parents for everything. That's not a good recipe for a child maturing into a responsible and rational adult.