At 9-years-old the only summertime I ever heard the phrase: “where are your parents”, was when we sat on the bar stool at the soda fountain and ordered 8 banana splits for both of us. Well, ok… then, and that one time I put a curveball through old man Brennan’s passing Buick window…. but that’s it, swear.
(Reason.com) Just in case you thought you could parent whatever way you see fit in 2014 America:
A North Augusta mother is in jail after witnesses say she left her nine-year-old daughter at a nearby park, for hours at a time.
Hours at a time? At a park? In the summer? Gosh! That certainly sounds normal and fun like a reason to throw a mom in jail—and place the child in state custody.
Here are the facts: Debra Harrell works at McDonald’s in North Augusta, South Carolina. For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald’s has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead. (more…)