Mom Arrested, Sentenced for Letting Son, 5, Walk in Neighborhood

In a quiet gated community in Virginia, Karyann Parkinson took a little bike ride with her 5-year-old son one morning this summer. They passed the grassy area where the boy loves to pick up goose feathers, next to a pond. When they got home, the boy asked if he could walk back to get some more feathers. Parkinson, 8-months-pregnant, said yes. The pond is half a mile away. The sidewalks are separated from the street by 10 feet of grass. The two streets he’d have to cross he had crossed hundreds of times before. Off he happily went. Security! A security guard brought him home. Someone had called to report a child unsupervised. And here we must pause. An unsupervised 5-year-old is in danger if…there’s a real danger. If, say, they’re walking along a highway. Or if they are neurodivergent and apt to run into traffic. Or if they are the type who might jump into a pond willy nilly. A parent knows their kid and their neighborhood – as my mom did. She let me walk to school at age 5, because…