Father arrested for leaving son at restaurant
Categories: Kids 8-11, Health & safety, Development, In the news
Imagine you're at your local McDonald's, a few blocks from home, in a decent neighborhood. You and your eleven-year-old son get into an argument that gets worse every minute. So you tell him to walk home, jump in your car, and take off. You cool down and, a few minutes later, return to collect him. Sound reasonable? Perhaps. It really depends on just how far the restaurant was from home, what sort of neighborhood it was, and how mature the boy is.Well, those are some of the questions being asked now after a Texas newspaper columnist did just that. Dave Lieber returned to collect his son from the local McDonald's only to find him being questioned by police officers. The police gave Lieber a talking-to and let him take his son home. Lieber wrote about the incident in his column, but that wasn't the end of it. Almost two weeks later, Lieber was arrested on charges of child abandonment and endangerment.
Now it's up to the district attorney to decide whether or not to press charges. According to Eric Franklin, an investigations supervisor for Child Protective Services, the questions that need to be answered center around the child's maturity and ability to reason, the dangerousness of the situation, and the father's intentions.
I'm not sure this is something I would ever do, although I've certainly offered to let my kids walk home if they couldn't behave themselves in the car. Still, at eleven years old, I was wandering about some of San Francisco's worst neighborhoods on my own and at night and no one thought twice about it. I'm not sure this father deserves jail time and a record over this -- what do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sara 9-02-2008 @ 2:12PM
No, he does NOT! and good for him for not caving to an agrumentative child I say.
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Paul Cyopick 9-02-2008 @ 3:32PM
Gee, just imagine what would happen if someone let their 9 year old take the New York subway home alone. Oh wait, he got home okay, and his Mom got a lot of press coverage, not a police record.
Go catch criminals, leave parenting to the kid's parents. I bet he won't be asking dad to super-size his fries next time.
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DPearson 9-02-2008 @ 3:35PM
You must be kidding. They arrested him for this? 11 years old is certainly old enough to either wait and cool off or walk home in most environments. I was riding my bicycle 5+ miles a day for school and working a part time job at 11 years old. If this was only a few blocks from home, how was he endangering his child?
Not only are we as a society becoming far too reactionary, but we are far too intrusive as well. No one outside of the family should have had anything to do with this.
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Joy 9-02-2008 @ 5:28PM
I really don’t know what this world is coming to anymore. Parent’s lose more and more rights as time goes on. I also lived about that far from a McDonalds when my boys were growing up and I know my oldest son made me plenty mad (on purpose) on many occasions and I would have done that same exact thing. Sometimes change isn’t good. Kids aren’t expected to grow up until they are ready to flee the nest and then people wonder what’s wrong with the world! We need to let our kids grow up and 11 is plenty old enough to find his way home from 2 blocks away in really any neighborhood unless this boy had other problems that weren’t stated. When I was 11 I had to walk 1 1/2 miles to school and I never once got lost (uphill both ways!).
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Raised In the 70's 9-03-2008 @ 10:04AM
The fact that the kid was even ARGUING with his father is ridiculous. Didn't happen back in the 70's because we knew our father's would put a shoe across our backside whether we were in McDonald's or not. Parent's rights HAVE been taken away. A select group of people who have abused their kids have made it the law of the land that you can't even give an unruly hateful child a good smack across the rear end anymore. Then when the child hits puberty & starts getting into trouble with the law, the law wants to hold the same parents responsible who aren't ALLOWED to discipline their children. I'm all for multiple forms of discipline including taking away privileges, giving extra chores, etc., but when the child refuses to do those things, then what? Kids have no respect & no fear of any consequences these days. I bet that little brat was shocked when Dad left him standing there alone. Was it wise? Probably not, but I can certainly understand what could bring a parent to that point. I sure don't judge the guy. Had he grabbed the kid by the arm & dragged him to his car, the kid probably would've pitched a huge crying fit & someone would've called the cops & accused the dad of abuse. He wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon if he were my kid.
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sheepeople 9-03-2008 @ 1:14PM
To hit a child to submit to you..is ABUSE. No and if or buts..now this is also stupid, but the powers that be, are not going to get any nicer, no, its going to get alot worse, but who cares, no one really, as long as we have our toys and comforts, who cares. Well one day we all will, and it will be too late, already is.
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Rick 9-03-2008 @ 2:35PM
Really, what is happening to the world. Our kids are becoming 'softer' by the minute.....can't discipline them, take things away from them.....we're bringing up disrepctful sooks!
Good on the Dad for leaving the son to ponder over his actions. My Dad would have told me to find my own way home too. For the legal system to book him....don't coppers have a BRAIN...obviously they would have talked to the other customers....
Yeah .... feels great to be alive these days!!
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