Heaven forbid a neighbor go and speak to their own neighbor. Just call the cops on them!
Yahoo Parenting reports that a Sacramento woman (Sonya Hendren) faces up to six months of jail time for letting her 4-year-old son play alone in the complex playground 120 feet from her front door.
The mom is a self-described “free-range” mom who lives in a gated apartment complex. Her son was playing by himself at the playground as two neighbors watched him. The neighbors went outside to ask him to go home.
When he said he wasn’t done playing they called the cops, and Child Protective Services took over, reports Fox 40. Sonya Hendren’s attorney says it’s now up to the prosecution to prove that Hendren willfully put her son in danger to proceed with the child endangerment and neglect charges.
While she was initially arrested for felony child endangerment and neglect, Hendren’s charges have been reduced to misdemeanors and she has been offered a reduced sentence of 30 days in jail and one year probation. Sonya rejected the offer and now faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and three years probation, reports People.
“I just thought she would get a warning,” says one of the neighbors who called CPS, adding, “I’m not mad she has to do things now to teach her, because what if someone did take him?”
The mom said, “of course I love him, I do everything for him. I breastfed for 28 months. I cloth-diapered, you know, obviously I’m avoiding helicopter parenting.” Meanwhile her son, an “outdoors” boy, says, “I love her like 20 times—maybe a thousand.”
DCG
