Pardon me, my teaparty is showing….

I like to think that I’m about as far from the tea-party side of the Republican party that I can be, those people are just extreme.

However, this article caught my eye today about a mom who was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of her 10-year-old child because she made him walk 4.5 miles to school after he had been suspended from the school bus for bad behaviour.

We’ve all heard some version of the story about our parents who had to walk miles to school and back,  in the snow, uphill both ways.

When I was in the 2nd and 3rd grade, I walked to the small church school I attended, about a mile and half each way. There was no bus service, we had only one car, and Dad left for work at the crack of sunup. I don’t think I was harmed, and I really don’t even remember feeling that I was all that put out. It was just something we had to do.

In this particular instance, a security guard at a bank saw the child crossing a parking lot, thought it was unusual, and called the police. This is in Jonesboro, Arkansas. a town of less than 70,000 in Northwestern Arkansas. Apparently the weather was good, and there should have been no reason at all for the government to smack out with its heavy hand and interfere in how someone chooses to run their family.

When I was a kid, we roamed all over the place, thinking nothing of being a mile or two from home, as long as we were back before dark and Mom knew the general area where we were, it was just fine.

But, in todays age of over-zealous and nosey neighbors butting in where they shouldn’t, we think that making a child walk to school is abuse. How about mowing the lawn? Shoveling the driveway? Taking out the garbage? Cleaning their own rooms? Using their allowance money to buy candy?

I’m even all for corporal punishment. I can remember being smacked by my Dad on more than one occasion, and each and every one of those times, I deserved it. I don’t think it did any permanent harm, I don’t think he loved me any less, and I sure did develop a healthy respect for consequences as a result.

Yet, in todays America, should you spank your child, or even speak harshly to them, you have to fear the local Department of Social Services showing up on your doorstep and having to defend yourself and your method of raising your own children.

OK, so a 10-year-old child had to walk to school because they didn’t heed several warnings about behaviour on the school bus and had the privilege revoked. Would it have been OK with the Jonesboro police if the distance from home to school was only 3 blocks? How about six? A mile? Two? How about if Mom was actually following along in the car at a discreet distance? Where is this invisible line drawn that makes how we discipline our children so bad that we get arrested and charged with a crime?

This is just insane, and we need to tell our nosey neighbors thanks for being concerned, but this is my child and my family and you should mind your own business. We need to tell our legislators, beginning at the local levels and working up that these laws are heavy-handed and probably have a lot to do with why our children drink themselves to death at parties when we send them off to college. They never truly learned to respect consequences.

There is a lot of difference between abusing a child and raising them to respect the values you believe in, in the manner you wish. We need to respect the differences, and those who raise their children in ways we may not agree with.