I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s. By the time I was 8-years-old I was running around with the neighborhood kids, buying 25¢ Lucky Elephant Pink Popcorn and Popeye Candy Cigarettes at the corner store, and exploring my little piece of the world on my purple banana seat bike. It was an age before cell phones and organized play dates. Our parents had no idea where we were half the time but trusted that when the street lights came on, we would come home. And we did.
What was just considered to be a normal childhood “back in the day” is now mired in controversy and shackled with the label “free-range” parenting, and not everyone is a fan. Just ask Corey Widen, a Wilmette, Illinois mother of two, who was investigated by both the police and the Department of Children and Family Services, for allowing her 8-year-old daughter to take the family dog for a walk around the block alone.
Widen shared her story in a Facebook post earlier this month:
She writes:
PLEASE SHARE: Today, on a beautiful summer day, rather than being in the house watching tv or playing video games, my 8.5 year old daughter took her 6 lb. Maltese for a walk a five minute walk … and someone called the police. THIS IS HOW INSANE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN HAS BECOME.
When I wasn’t taken away in handcuffs in front of my children because I had done nothing wrong this person filed a complaint with DCFS. I am now being investigated.
Once a day (if I’m lucky), she walks her dog around the block (if I can’t go with her). It takes approximately 5-10 min., she takes my phone (she does not have her own), and she crosses no streets and I can SEE her almost the entire time.
According to Widen, the police were called when her 8-year-old daughter, Dorothy, was seen walking her Maltese dog, Marshmallow, alone in their North Shore Chicago suburb neighborhood. The concerned neighbor erroneously reported that a 5-year-old was out by herself. Shortly after Dorothy returned home, an officer appeared at the door.
My daughter was completely traumatized to open the door expecting her play date to find a squad car in front of our house and an armed, uniformed police officer standing outside. She cried for an hour and now refuses to go outside with her dog. I told her she did nothing wrong – but she said she must have or someone would not have called the police on her.
The police officer quickly realized that the accusation of neglect was unfounded and no violation had occurred. She left and no charges were laid. While I wish I could tell you the story ends there, it does not.
Because clearly, *heavily dripping with sarcasm*, the PD know nothing, the concerned neighbor then contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. This is why we can’t have nice things.
According to CBS Chicago, an investigation with DCFS was launched as per protocol when a call is made to their hotline, and Widen hired an attorney. Again, no charges were brought and the case was resolved within two weeks. Now Widen is slapping back. In a whirlwind tour of news interviews, the single home-schooling mom and self-professed attachment parent is making it clear just how she feels about being “mom-shamed.” She is defending her position in allowing her 8-year-old to walk the dog alone and is hoping that by sharing her story, the DCFS will “evaluate how and why investigations are launched.” She tells the Chicago Tribune:
Everyone needs to allow the parent to do what is best for their family. No one will dictate my parenting choices.
As for Dorothy and Marshmallow? They will continue enjoying their daily walks, together, just the two of them.
Our role as parents is to love, nurture and teach our children how to be decent human beings. It’s also to raise them to be independent so that they don’t end up living in our basement, eating all of our Häagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate ice cream, for the rest of our lives. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult in a world that accuses us of raising a generation of snowflakes, but in the same breath investigates an 8-year-old walking her dog. In her own suburban neighborhood.
We want to protect our children from danger, but is that danger now taking on the form of “good Samaritans” who feel the need to contact authorities anytime our children are given the opportunity to practice their independence in our own backyards? I’m not saying that we should let our children run wild, wreaking havoc on the world with no boundaries or supervision.
But I do feel that allowing our children age-appropriate freedoms, based on our own discretion as parents, should not be met with threat of prosecution. Just sayin’.