Kulturkampf

[DavidCroquet]

My mother would have been given life in prison by comparison. Just for the dirt clod fights alone. 

I'm always interested in this stuff. I think there is huge merit toward moving back to greater childhood independence, but these particular stories are always so slanted that it sabotages the point.

The last time I read a story like this, the headlines were like "Mom ARRESTED because child walked 1 mile alone to his own house!"...then I read the context, the reason the kid was walking in the first place was because the mom had kicked the him out of the family van on the way home for misbehaving and made him walk the rest of the way home as a punishment. Apparently he was crying as he walked. To me, that seems like a normal condition for an adult to intervene (not knowing any other context).

This incident seems way more benign, at least from the background reading I've done. If anything, it reinforces "don't talk to strangers"...not because you're gonna be kidnapped, but because some random Rosie the Nosy Neighbor is gonna call the cops on your mom.