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Jewish World Review March 4, 1999 /16 Adar, 5759
Mona Charen
Not home but library alone
(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
IN SAN MARINO, CALIF., parents will soon be charged a fine if they fail to
collect their unaccompanied children from the public libraries after closing
time.
According to the Los Angeles Times, large groups of children -- some as
young as 4 -- are left at San Marino libraries and at libraries across the
country by parents who think they have hit upon a free baby-sitting service.
Librarians are dismayed. "We don't provide day care," Terri Maguire, a South
Pasadena librarian told the L.A. Times. "We aren't responsible for the
children." Neither are the parents, apparently.
This dump-the-kids-in-a-seemingly-safe-place isn't limited to libraries.
Some parents leave their children in churches on Sunday morning, the better
to take advantage of free baby sitting. They show up as if to attend the
service, drop the children in the basement child-care center, and head off
to the mall or wherever for a couple of hours --- a shameful but at least not
terribly dangerous practice.
Abandoning a child at the library for several hours, on the other hand,
leaves them completely vulnerable to any number of horrors. "A library isn't
a safe haven," Maguire said. "Anyone can come into a library, and I mean
anyone. Parents would never think of dropping an 8-year-old off at the mall
alone."
Other 8-year olds are sent to libraries as the caretakers for even younger
kids. A Monterey, Calif., librarian recalled having to call the police about
a set of four siblings, the eldest 8 years old and the youngest 4, who were
dropped at the library daily. The policeman had to explain to the parents
that 8 was too young to be given such a responsibility.
The presence of so many latch-key and abandoned children has changed the
atmosphere of libraries. No longer do adults attempt to maintain quiet. The
kids chat, nap, surf the Internet, flip open cell phones and talk to
friends, or do homework. Few seem to be spending the time reading. One
Palmdale, Calif., librarian told the L.A. Times that she was alarmed to see
an unsupervised boy swinging from the outside of the staircase.
East Coast librarians report the same phenomenon. A Virginia librarian who
worked in the District of Columbia said she first noticed unaccompanied
children around 1985. And the numbers have been increasing ever since. At
Long Beach's branch libraries, before being issued a library card, parents
must sign a pledge promising not to leave kids under the age of 11 at the
library alone.
Now, there are two things to consider about library dumping. The first is
that conservatives who are hot for "parents bills of rights" and believe
that parents always do what is right for their kids had better think again.
The evidence is everywhere that parents, even affluent parents in
well-groomed suburbs, are neglecting their children in breathtaking ways.
The second factor to consider about this phenomenon is this: Why do so many
American voters tell pollsters that they are not interested in tax cuts
right now? If we are not in need of more of our money, if we are feeling so
flush that we're prepared to say, "Spend it on buying down the national
debt," we must think everything on the home front is pretty well set.
And yet, these same people are also so strapped that they cannot afford to
pay the cost of a baby sitter to keep their children safe. Nor can they
manage the financial sacrifice of having one parent stay at home.
Teenage girls give birth at proms or in hotel rooms, and what do the
parents say? We never knew. Kids get a hold of guns and shoot up the
playground. And what do the parents say? We have no idea where he got the
gun. Record numbers of children are taken from their parents and raised in
the chaos of foster care because their parents are too cruel, too selfish or
too strung out on drugs to do even the basics for their offspring.
We talk a good game -- about "protecting" the children from cigarettes and
AIDS and kidnappers -- but in reality, we're busy with our own interests.
Not to worry: The library will love them, teach them and raise them right.
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