> But when it comes to your own individual life, you can either live your life in fear of the boogeyman or you can live your life the way you want to live it. Let your kids live their lives the way you think they should.

> That's what a grownup does.

The sheer condescension and lack of empathy you packed into a single comment is quite sad, tbh.

I tell you I have personal experience with CPS...and your response is I am terrified of a monster under my bed that isn't real.

K.

> And if CPS shows up one day when they shouldn't, you lawyer up and fight.

Most people can't afford $50k legal bills to fight the government. Are you really this isolated and ignorant that this doesn't even occur to you?

Look, Harry, you say things like this:

> Yes, I do think it's less than 0.0036%.

I show you the false negative rate is a helluva alot higher than that and you still spout when you clearly have no clue what you are talking about.

Just walk away before you continue to embarrass yourself.

I'm not embarrassing myself. There is a lot of research literature that makes me pretty convinced that the way Americans raise their kids has gotten worse. We are, as a society, overprotective. We don't let our children out into the world enough. We don't let them experience independence early enough. We don't let them fail at small things so that they develop resilience. These are big problems.

In order to fix this we've gotta be a little defiant. If one person acts differently they're gonna be the oddball and the system is going to knock them down. Maybe it's CPS. Maybe it's a nosey neighbor. Who knows. This gets better when A LOT of people start acting differently.

Sure. If you're poor or otherwise not in a position to fight the system I don't expect you to be first in line. But I've got a dollar that says that doesn't apply to you or DanBC or some of the others in this thread. The median Hacker News reader is a white engineer with a good salary and is, more that almost anyone, in a position to stand up to the system if it causes them problems. I'm in that group too. It's our responsibility to make things better, not just for ourselves but also for the people that aren't in a position to do so on their own.

That's what I think.

> I'm not embarrassing myself.

Making blanket statements with numbers that in no way reflect reality doesn't embarrass you? Making statements about other people's life experiences from a position of clear ignorance of how the system works doesn't embarrass you?

I'm honestly concerned for you at that point because you remind me of that family friend my parents had that lived out in the desert and believed in conspiracy theories because he "felt" they were real.

> There is a lot of research literature that makes me pretty convinced that the way Americans raise their kids has gotten worse. We are, as a society, overprotective.

I'm waiting for your evidence that the risk is less than 0.0036% as you previously stated you "felt" it was.

> That's what I think.

I care about facts that can be reinforced by actual evidence on some level. You clearly do not have any in regards to the topic at hand.

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The rest of it is a tangent about your opinion on "solutions" that are, ultimately, irrelevant, unless you have evidence you've succeeded with these tactics on some level politically. Do you have such evidence?

Are you even aware the burden of proof is a preponderance of evidence in many states (for instance NY?) Or that they allow hearsay which is little more than gossip?

http://www.jdbar.com/Articles/Child-Neglect/child-neglect.ht...

> For a disposition hearing, evidence need only be material and relevant, meaning that hearsay is permitted. In addition, any new facts occurring up to the date of the dispositional hearing may be considered by the court at a dispositional hearing.

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Look, if you can't back up BOTH of your opinions with clear citations showing it is true you need to stop.

You might want to look at the burden of proof needed to remove a child from a family; or at the disruption a family experiences with a full on CPS investigation.

And that's ignoring the huge cost involved.