I think there is a huge difference between what I have recently come to know as free range, and living in shit and mud like this. I think of the recent news reports of the parents who got in trouble for letting their two kids walk home from the park, a couple blocks from their suburban home,ALONE. For gods sake...I walked 8 blocks to school when I was in elementary school almost every day. Plus was out hiking, and riding bikes with friends..and going to the park alone all the time.
I think this is just squalor...and parents who do not give a shit.

(05-10-2015, 06:59 PM)QueenBee Wrote: the recent news reports of the parents who got in trouble for letting their two kids walk home from the park, a couple blocks from their suburban home,ALONE.

CPS took their kids. One kid is 6 and the other is 10. A cop picked them up as they were walking home, he told them he was taking them home but that's not what he did. They sat in the cop car for over two hours and then the cop took them to CPS. I think that's overstepping, big time!

Times are different...kids did walk home from school safely in the past, but if you look up the number of registered sex offenders in your community, it is scary. Doesn't matter if it is small, large, or medium sized town...there are tons of pedophiles out there. I wouldn't let my kid/grandkids walk anywhere by themselves in today's world.

Well at what age is it appropriate for them to walk by themselves? How old do they have to be in order to go to the park without a parent? I'm genuinely interested in knowing.

I think it's more based on their maturity level than age. But I'm a worry wart and I drove my kids to school until they were old enough to drive themselves. They never seemed to care much and it was an ease on my mind knowing my kids got to school safely. I plan on doing it with this kid too.

You have to give them freedom and let them go out with their friends , but it drove me nuts doing it. Just when I thought I was through with that I have to live it all over again.

When my son was in middle school he asked to ride his skateboard there with his friend and I felt like I should let him do it, all the kids do it. Luckily for my sanity he realized getting up at 6:30 am and riding your skateboard to school down a busy highway for 10 miles isn't all it's cracked up to be and he never asked to do it again.

I don't think that family represents the "free range parenting" movement. It's not, as I understand it, raising your kids in a pig pen. It's about giving them age appropriate freedom/responsibility. I let my kids walk home from school some times when they were in 5^th grade but they were also well versed in stranger danger and adults that might approach them about helping to find their "lost puppy" or what to do if a stranger offered them candy and such.

(05-10-2015, 06:03 PM)Duchess Wrote:

(05-10-2015, 03:13 PM)sally Wrote: They're on FB asking for donations.

Jesus. That's messed up. I thought they were all about being self sufficient.

Sal, Duch, I have changed my mind about them. I wonder what values their children are being taught.

(05-10-2015, 11:10 PM)ZEROSPHERES Wrote: Sal, Duch, I have changed my mind about them. I wonder what values their children are being taught.

What exactly did you read that changed your opinion, I'd like to read it too.

I don't trust anybody that has 10 kids.

They have another one on the way.

I'm not prepared to write these people off without some proof that they suck in raising their kids.

how about they don't wait till one is finished before moving on to the next?

When you're making dinner... do you make 11 dinners at a time? Maybe you make 2 dinners at a time... upwards of 4 dinners concurrently. Beyond that is asinine.

Well, I now know that kids are way more trouble than they are worth, so that's not my scene at all. I like having a life, I like coming & going as I please and having to cook for 12-13 people would make me want to blow my head off. What these people and others like them are doing is not something I would do but just because I don't want that hassle doesn't mean they are wrong for embracing all that pain in the ass stuff.

As Ron Swanson always said...
"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard."

(05-11-2015, 05:42 AM)Duchess Wrote:

(05-10-2015, 11:10 PM)ZEROSPHERES Wrote: Sal, Duch, I have changed my mind about them. I wonder what values their children are being taught.

What exactly did you read that changed your opinion, I'd like to read it too.

Its their begging on Facebook. If you choose a way of life, don't expect others to pay your way.

(05-11-2015, 09:14 AM)ZEROSPHERES Wrote: Its their begging on Facebook.

I didn't see any begging on the page I was reading so if you have a link I'd really like to read it too.

(05-11-2015, 09:23 AM)Duchess Wrote:

(05-11-2015, 09:14 AM)ZEROSPHERES Wrote: Its their begging on Facebook.

I didn't see any begging on the page I was reading so if you have a link I'd really like to read it too.

I trusted Sal when she said in Post #17...." Post: #17 "They're on FB asking for donations. That's not exactly what I'd call living off the grid. I think they're just lazy slobs.

If that's not the case I am going to have to change the chop I made of all the kids with their hands out.

http://www.saveourfamily.info/ Here is a link to their page. Toward the bottom, there is a button that says $Help Out that takes you to a gofundme type page. They have raised almost 40K. WTF

(05-11-2015, 12:34 PM)QueenBee Wrote: http://www.saveourfamily.info/ Here is a link to their page. Toward the bottom, there is a button that says $Help Out that takes you to a gofundme type page. They have raised almost 40K. WTF

It appears to me that it was set up by friends of the family to help with legal fees. Am I wrong?

That man needs to learn to keep his mouse in the house. That baby so does not want to be in that picture. That picture is going to come back and embarrass those kids when they are older.

How is it they live 'back to basics' and have a fucking FB page and a fucking blog? CPS should have stepped in after one kid.