"...we have forgotten that not every parenting decision needs to be investigated as if it’s a crime scene."

Mom Who Overslept While Son Walked to School Could Get 10 Years in Prison - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "The idea that a mother should go to prison for failing to incessantly shelter her child is based on the two corrosive beliefs of our time: 1). Children are in danger every second of every day from everything and everyone, which means the moment they are unsupervised it’s as if they’ve been left to die. 2 ). If only the authorities could micromanage our lives, they could do a much better job of saving our kids from this constant danger. Put those together and you get a society second-guessing every parenting decision that isn’t “Keep them inside with the A.C on.”

...Around the world, according to anthropologist David Lancey, between 40 and 60 percent of children are looked after by their older siblings. We have forgotten this. We have forgotten that 15 minutes is a blip in time. We have forgotten how safe we are in America. We have forgotten that 8-year-olds can take on some responsibility—especially a task as undemanding as playing with a brother at an indoor playground where there are plenty of adults around if he seriously needed any help. And we have forgotten that not every parenting decision needs to be investigated as if it’s a crime scene."