What started out as a happy family vacation in Delaware takes an unexpected turn after a mother ended up in jail and charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of her children.
According to a USA Today report, 55-year-old mom Susan L. Terrillion from Maryland left her children at the vacation rental to quickly go to a restaurant and pick up food for the family.
“A witness told police that he made contact with the children when their dogs ran into Country Club Drive in front of his vehicle, the report said. “The witness stopped to help the children get control of the dogs and learned they were alone.”
Rehoboth Beach Police Lt. Jaime B. Riddle said that Susan had been gone a total of 45 minutes.
While neither the children nor the dog were injured, the police promptly arrested Susan when she got home, charged her and then eventually released her on $500 unsecured bail.
While there are laws in the United States prohibiting parents from leaving their children home alone, one mom thinks that the charge was a little bit too much.
“Unless there’s more to the story than has been reported, parents everywhere are probably shaking their heads because they too have left their kids home alone at about the same age,” says Christine Organ in her Scary Mommy report.
Of course children’s safety should be a priority, but such rules that caused Susan to be arrested “end up hurting families and handcuffing parents (literally and figuratively) to arbitrary guidelines.”
“I know plenty of good and responsible parents who feel comfortable leaving their children home alone at a younger age than the state-mandated minimum requirement; other children might not be ready to stay home alone even in their teens.”
Most importantly, Christine wonders, what happened to good old benefit of the doubt?
Parents and adults should be keeping an eye out for each other, having each other’s backs instead of calling the police and throwing them under the proverbial bus.
“In the case of this mom vacationing in Delaware, maybe the incident itself was enough of a learning lesson. Maybe a fine was even in order. But arrested?
“One can only assume that there is more to this story than has been reported so far; if not, apparently common sense is dead and parental discretion means shit these days.”
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