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Comment by goodJobWalrus | Hacker News Reader

> A Winnipeg mom was doing the dishes while her three kids, 10, 5 and 2 , played in their fenced-in backyard. A neighbor called to report “unattended” kids frolicking and Jacqui Kendrick was visited by a child protective services rep. The rep asked questions about what Jacqui’s own childhood was like, how she punished her kids, and where they slept. She even looked in Jacqui’s fridge.

Oh crap, I thought Canada was better.

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Generally when a story is reported like that there is almost always 'more to it', e.g. the press have probably twisted it and it wasn't actually a case where 3 kids were playing in a fenced-in backyard, totally safely and there were no prior incidents.

The police and social services aren't usually keen to waste their time investigating clearly well-tended-to kids. They get so many bullshit callouts, they really don't want to take on more than they need to.

Be cynical of the press for political-correctness-gone-mad/nanny-state stories as it's generally nonsense, especially when it relates to 'family matters' (we have a whole newspaper in the UK that specialises in this - Daily Mail).

From a sibling:

>> Who in their right mind thinks that kids playing in a fenced backyard are in danger?

No one. Which is why it probably did not happen like that, and has been misreported.

By what I remember, that actually happened but it was quickly determined that there was nothing to the report and it was dropped. There was a disgruntled neighbour involved.

Added: Here is the story from just after the incident:

* http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-mom-cfs-back...

> The police and social services aren't usually keen to waste their time investigating clearly well-tended-to kids. They get so many bullshit callouts, they really don't want to take on more than they need to.

But they have to investigate all of them, except for the clearly unhinged ones.

I wonder if reporting something like that is more of a spite thing than actual concern. Could the neighbor be annoyed with the children's volume? Did she do some unrelated thing that bothered them and this is revenge?

Who in their right mind thinks that kids playing in a fenced backyard are in danger?

Haven't you followed the discussions on Facebook about the kid that jumped into Gorilla enclosure ? Did you read the horrible things that people said to the mother for not holding the kid's hand all the time ?

I know from first hand experiences that in certain cities people and cops think of this as a concern.

I wonder whether she actually used the word "frolicking" when reporting. I mean, imagine calling the police b/c someone is frolicking.

"Yes officer, I'd like to report a suspicious frolic! It's like they're in some sort of jamboree."

Maybe it's just someone who's aware that homicide is a leading cause of death of children, and that neglect at an abusive level is very common in childhood?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-34491753

> A mother has been jailed for five years after her toddler son drowned in a pond while she chatted on Facebook.

> Claire Barnett pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to four charges of neglect.

> The court heard the 31-year-old was on Facebook instead of supervising Joshua, two, while he was in the back garden.

> Prosecutors said Barnett was told to cover the pond by relatives and had been warned by social services after two of her children were nearly run over while playing unsupervised.

Or maybe this one?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/nov/17/binge-mother-drug...

> Stark photographs have emerged of the home in which a 22-year-old woman abandoned her four children for 24 hours while she went on a drink and drugs binge. The pictures show their pitiable attempts to find some food in the family kitchen.

There are countless others.

If social services are only having a chat it doesn't seem too onerous. Obviously how they have that chat makes a difference, and it's a bad thing if they leap in with over restrictive "protective measures" in families that don't need it.

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