Did anyone see this?

[Nikepallas]

Hubby was watching CNN and I notice the scroll on the bottom of the screen and caught something and I was wondering if anyone could explain this a little more to me.


A mother lost 6 of her 7 children in a fire was charged with involuntary manslaughter because the investigators found out she was visiting a neighbor. Now the scroll made me believe this happen in an apartment. That to me makes no sense. When I was younger my mother would sometimes send me to bed then would go to my aunts house to sit on the porch and talk for a while. The houses were unusual because the back of my aunt's house faced the back of my mother's house. NO one thought of anything wrong like that.

If a woman goes to her neighbors apartment to visit while her children are asleep is that reckless endangerment? It just seems lately some parents are being jailed for what I think Stupid ideas while OTHER parents who murder or harm a child are given a smack on the wrist and sent on their way.

Please can anyone explain this to me. Did I miss part of the story?
Or is this country going on the deep end?

[Beware the Beast Man]

1. Really, it's just common sense

to not leave your kids unattended for any reason, even if you're only going next door.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. It may be common sense,

but I knew plenty of mothers who did this back in the 70's (when I was a child). They would go next door to chit chat while the kids were sleeping. My mother did it. They wouldn't stay away long.

The only difference now is that parents get in trouble now if they do it.

[Dookus]

2. the rules have changed

since I was young, clearly. My parents were never in any way negligent, but there were certainly times we were left alone in the house while Mom ran next door for something.

We were also regularly left in the car - they'll arrest you for that now.

Of course, that could just be the lead paint talking....

[Midlodemocrat]

3. I think your husband caught

..the correct gist of the story. And I think it is endangering children, especially sleeping children, is wrong. A recent study indicated that children younger than 13-14 years don't hear smoke detectors going off, which would be a great danger.

[baba]

5. It could hardly have just been next door

If she was just "next door" she would know that there was a fire, right? So, she was probably at a considerable distance.

[4_Legs_Good]

7. That's a good point...

There are usually a lot more to these stories than the media shows. They're constantly portraying us as insanely litigious, which we're really not.

I would say that there's more to this story than meets the eye (when it's watching the scrolling deal on CNN).

david

[calico1]

6. I'm sorry but I think its a stupid idea

to leave small children alone in a house or apartment for any amount of time. It is manslaughter as far as I am concerned. She shouldn't have left them alone. That's how a lot of horrible tragedies like this happen. How are little kids supposed to know what to do in such a situation?

[pagerbear]

9. Whether or not it's manslaughter

...how is society served by sending this woman to jail?

[eternalburn]

8. There was a story out of Chicago.....

...a month or 2 ago where there was a housefire. Children (3 or 4, all fatalities) were home alone at night and the parents were being searched for.

The next morning the news tone was decidedly changed. The parents had been found at their church where the father was the pastor. No charges, no DCFS. The funerals in the days after got lots of news coverage though.