Parents Under Fire From Authorities After Letting Kids Walk to Park Alone: ‘We’re Being Bullied’

Two parents in Silver Spring, Md. are under investigation after authorities picked up their 6-year-old daughter and 10-year old son walking by themselves back from Woodside Park, which is a located a mile from their house.

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say after after the Dec. 20 apprehension of their kids, they have been unfairly targeted by authorities as neglectful parents, according to The Washington Post. The Meitvs are advocates of “free-range” parenting, generally requiring their children to carry cards stating, “I am not lost. I am a free-range kid.”

“The world is actually even safer than when I was a child, and I just want to give them the same freedom and independence that I had — basically an old-fashioned childhood,” Danielle Meitv told the Post.

Child Protective Services has a different view. CPS spokeswoman Mary Anderson told the Post Maryland law requires children 7 and under to be with a person 13 or older.

Since the incident on Dec. 20, the Meitivs have had several more talks with authorities, including signing an agreement to not leave the kids unattended and a home-visit from CPS. At first the Meitivs resisted to signing the agreement, but relented when they were informed their children might be taken. The kids were also interviewed at while they were at school.

The Meitvs say they feel “bullied.”

“I think what CPS considered neglect, we felt was an essential part of growing up and maturing,” Alexander Meitv told the Post. “We feel we’re being bullied into a point of view about child-rearing that we strongly disagree with.”