Ds was stopped by a police officer this morning

[A.Balaban]

I am very glad this was not a negative encounter. We have no experience with the local police, except one time an officer knocked on our door saying he got a report that someone was on our roof. :confused::confused: It's a four-story building and a slate roof, so no one goes up there unless they have to.

 

I really like the "Free Range" card! That is really neat idea to keep your contact information on a kid if they get stopped by an officer. :)

[mommaduck]

Our library has a written policy that children under age 12 must be supervised by a parent. I think it is a fair policy.

I'm glad libraries didn't have that rule when I was a kid. I was in our library several times a week checking out books, browsing, buying from their thrift shelf, etc. by 12yrs I was biking up to the college library on top of the regular trips to the town library.

[stripe]

Our library has a written policy that children under age 12 must be supervised by a parent. I think it is a fair policy.

 

I used to walk to school at age 10, and at 11, I rode the bus or subway across town to my school. I used to stop off at the library on my way home. Probably the best year of my life.

 

My library says age 6, and by an adult, does not have to be a parent. I've seen preschool/daycare groups of very young there with their teachers for storytime, and older kids in school groups with their teachers for activities.

[Hathersage]

Our library has a written policy that children under age 12 must be supervised by a parent. I think it is a fair policy.

 

 

No, these were high school aged students, all over the age of 12 that I am referring to. The teens that the police officer as talking to looked about 16 or so. You can't be in the library under the age of 18 during school hours without a parent from what I've seen.

[missmoe]

I'm glad libraries didn't have that rule when I was a kid. I was in our library several times a week checking out books, browsing, buying from their thrift shelf, etc. by 12yrs I was biking up to the college library on top of the regular trips to the town library.

 

I was a library kid as well. In fact, I often hung out at the library until closing. But we live in a very different world now, and I understand the rules libraries have to have in place now.

[Carrie12345]

We got a "No school today?" at the grocery store yesterday, and I said we homeschool. There was a lady with 3 kids behind us. No idea if she homeschools.. plenty of our area schools are on break this week!

[Rivka]

I was a library kid as well. In fact, I often hung out at the library until closing. But we live in a very different world now, and I understand the rules libraries have to have in place now.

 

In fact, we do: there is much less crime than there was when most of us were kids. We live in a safer country than we did in the 70s and 80s. It's just perceptions and expectations that have changed.

[meltf928]

We had our own encounter with the police today. DH and I took our 4 kids (ages 4-10) downtown to the aquarium. We arrived around 11am and as we were walking there, we were approached by mounted police officers. They saw my DD's obvious interest in their horses (shes a rider) and offered to let us pet them. They then told us about the facility where they are kept, offered a business card and a tour. I mentioned that we homeschool and would LOVE to bring the kids next week and the officer said "great, we LOVE homeschooler!"

 

When he handed me his card, I immediately recognized the name. My only previous encounter with the APD was with this guy 11 years ago! He came when I called in regards to a neighbor disputed that ended with the neighbor in jail. He totally remembered it too, he recalled enough details that made me realize that he truly remembered the encounter.

[stripe]

In fact, we do: there is much less crime than there was when most of us were kids. We live in a safer country than we did in the 70s and 80s. It's just perceptions and expectations that have changed.

 

Not to mention, everyone has cell phones! Everyone is so much easier to find these days, not like when I was a kid and calling my mother at work was impossible after the switchboard operator left!

[happypamama]

We live in the country, but the local police station (which has like 3 officers) is not too far away, and we see the police chief drive by on his patrols fairly regularly. We're a whole passel of kids, and he just stops and waves to them and drives on. I'm pretty sure he assumes they're homeschooled and doesn't even blink, as there are lots of homeschoolers around here.

 

I do let my kids go outside during school hours, without me, if they want. They're still young enough that they're not to be off of our property, though. If we lived closer, I'd let DD walk/bike to the library; the small local branch wouldn't mind her, and I send her in there all the time to pick up or drop off something so that I don't have to unload sleeping babes for a two-second stop. Other branches are bigger and have signs prohibiting children under 12 from being in there unsupervised, which I do generally understand.