My almost 6 year old RELISHES the opportunity to be in charge of her siblings. Most of the time I have to remind her that she is not because I am there.

“You can’t win for frakking losing” - this rings so true for me. I’m a student and I’m really lucky I’m Scottish (state funded tertiary education ftw) otherwise there would be little chance of me being a doctor.

Serious question: do you have kids?

I’m also a single mom. This is one of the reasons I never moved once I became a single mom. I can’t imagine living in a city with no family to help with child care. I mean I am lucky to have family (that I only used when I was desperate even though they wanted to watch the kids more). I also was able to make a career…

It depends on the kids. I am the oldest of 4. At 6, I could watch my 3 year old sister and 6 month old brother. I could even give a bottle at the drop of the hat to keep the baby quiet. I think children with younger siblings are often quite handy at watching them for spans of time.

Children are so different. There is no quintessential “6 year old” or standard of behavior upon which to determine whether or not a 6 year old is mature enough to sit at a table with a 2 year old.

I don’t think people realize how regimented 6 year olds can be. They are in their second or third years of formal education and they are hell-bent on following rules. My 6 year old will not sit on a priority seat on public transportation even if no one needs the seat. You can tell a 6 year old to sit and not move and…

I'm also a single mother and I say fuck this noise. She is doing her damn best with the precious little help she gets, so just let her get on with it.

(Edited slightly because I misread something) OK so we have wildly different views of child rearing. Why in the world would it be safe for your children to be in “hearing” distance but not “viewing” distance? I don’t see the difference. I think you might have an exaggerated sense of what 30 yards looks like. Visualize…

Do you really think parents keep their eyes on their kids 100% of the time?

They are two kids sitting at a table. They aren’t staying home alone overnight. The six year old doesn’t have to “take care” of the two year old. He just has to sit there while the two year old sits there.

This is absolutely ridiculous. I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old and would trust both of them to sit sensibly at a table and wait for me for 10 minutes, so long as they knew where I was and ESPECIALLY if I could see them. Throw an iPad into the mix and I know 100% they are not moving off their seats. 6 year olds…

I was allowed to walk to the grocery store (malls were rare in the 70s) by myself to buy candy. It was a 3 mile round trip. I guess I should be glad to be alive.

So if we’re arresting parents for this, when can we start arresting parents for not vaccinating their kids?

Wow. Yes, a six year old can stop a two year old from putting stuff in its mouth. Six year olds can read and do math and play sports and navigate school campuses and figure out how to get/apply Minecraft mods- even extremely sheltered ones who are not allowed to ride bikes alone can do these things. Unless the child…

Dear “family vakues” assholes,

“If the kids were in her line of sight the whole time, why didn’t she do something when the police officer was interacting with them?” Well, the timeline isn’t exactly clear in this article. It *could* be that when a cop arrived, she went over to explain things, and was arrested anyway.

And the two year old could…

I like how we’re now punishing single mothers for trying to work. It’s like we prefer them to remain on state benefits just so we can judge them. They’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

She couldn’t reschedule the interview and couldn’t find adequate child care. The job was for her to take of her kids. So perhaps instead of intervention/parenting classes access to free child care for parents who need it would be better.

What a crock of shit. She could likely see them at the table, had given them something to do, and probably pointed them out while interviewing.