Continuing my little interest into the news and parental/child issues, today I'm going to talk about a news article I read recently about a young boy who got into trouble mowing lawns.
What's that? In trouble for mowing a lawn? I hear you cry. But Lucky, don't we want our kids to get off their screens and go outside and do something wholesome? I don't understand!!
Fear not, my friend. Let's explore this together.
Our story is set in the delicious sounding Maple Heights in Ohio, America. The plucky protagonist is Reggie Fields and his aptly named lawn mowing business Reggie Boyz Lawn Service. This is a business he started in the holiday to raise some of that much needed cash. I think we can all relate to that.
It's kind of refreshing to see a twelve year old kid doing this hard work instead of just vlogging or becoming a wannabe Instagram git. Wow, do I sound old and bitter or what?
Anyway, the story comes to a crux when young Reggie accidentally mows over the border.
Wait, that that makes it sound like he crossed into Mexico - what I mean is that he accidentally trimmed over a boundary and into a neighbour's territory. This neighbour called the police.
There are so many ways to look into this story. The first thing I personally thought of was the ridiculous track record America has for unnecessary police calls. Actually, let's face it a lot of countries apparently have a misunderstanding about what this line is for.
Two year old girl calls cops for help putting on pants
Druggie calls police because she was stiffed on her last marijuana order
Father calls police on his daughter after she refused to buy him a beer
Man calls cops to arrange taxi and locate missing football
Man calls police after his kitten is refused entrance to a strip club
Diner calls police after a deli got his sandwich order wrong
Husband calls police after wife refused to let him use Facebook in peace
Man calls police to advise that his emergency is being broke and needing to talk about Hitler out of boredom
Druggie calls police when he ran out of rolling papers - claims he thought he was calling a friend
Drunk man calls cops when girlfriend (babysitting a grandchild) didn't want to have sex
Man calls cops after his girlfriend let their cat eat his bacon
Another man calls for emergency information.... asking which actor played Magnum P.I
Man calls police when his air conditioner stopped working
Man calls police after stand-off with cat
Person calling police after they were stuck in traffic following a fatal car accident on that road
Woman calling police because McDonald's didn't serve her nuggets fast enough
This is just a hand full. There's more for large spiders, missing jelly, complaints about fines, complaining about a red card in soccer and what have you. You can read more here: Huffpost
My point is, people don't know or don't care how 000/911/999 works but you can bet your bottom dollar that if the police dispatchers don't answer their call when something really bad happens they'll start a veritable shit storm.
I don't know why this neighbour called the police on the kids. It seems to me like this whole furore could have been avoided if they'd just come down and said 'Hey, this is actually my part of the lawn and it doesn't need mowing but thanks anyway.' This obviously didn't happen and I think that's part of the problem. We're so afraid to actually approach people, preferring screens to faces, a new crop of anxieties popping up.
This neighbour - I get the impression she's either older or elderly - probably doesn't have the technology addiction issue but I hope no one is harassing her unduly. I am not saying she should have called the cops but if she was immobile or paranoid or really sick or maybe she'd spoken out at someone and gotten bashed for it... would you blame her for panicking?
Anyway, since then the kid's had a Kickstarter/GoFundMe/similar fund set up for him and has probably got a bucket load of holiday cash right now. I'm glad that we haven't heard anything negative from him about what happened, he seems like a good kid and I'm glad it hasn't got him down.
What's that? In trouble for mowing a lawn? I hear you cry. But Lucky, don't we want our kids to get off their screens and go outside and do something wholesome? I don't understand!!
Fear not, my friend. Let's explore this together.
Our story is set in the delicious sounding Maple Heights in Ohio, America. The plucky protagonist is Reggie Fields and his aptly named lawn mowing business Reggie Boyz Lawn Service. This is a business he started in the holiday to raise some of that much needed cash. I think we can all relate to that.
It's kind of refreshing to see a twelve year old kid doing this hard work instead of just vlogging or becoming a wannabe Instagram git. Wow, do I sound old and bitter or what?
Anyway, the story comes to a crux when young Reggie accidentally mows over the border.
Wait, that that makes it sound like he crossed into Mexico - what I mean is that he accidentally trimmed over a boundary and into a neighbour's territory. This neighbour called the police.
There are so many ways to look into this story. The first thing I personally thought of was the ridiculous track record America has for unnecessary police calls. Actually, let's face it a lot of countries apparently have a misunderstanding about what this line is for.
Two year old girl calls cops for help putting on pants
Druggie calls police because she was stiffed on her last marijuana order
Father calls police on his daughter after she refused to buy him a beer
Man calls cops to arrange taxi and locate missing football
Man calls police after his kitten is refused entrance to a strip club
Diner calls police after a deli got his sandwich order wrong
Husband calls police after wife refused to let him use Facebook in peace
Man calls police to advise that his emergency is being broke and needing to talk about Hitler out of boredom
Druggie calls police when he ran out of rolling papers - claims he thought he was calling a friend
Drunk man calls cops when girlfriend (babysitting a grandchild) didn't want to have sex
Man calls cops after his girlfriend let their cat eat his bacon
Another man calls for emergency information.... asking which actor played Magnum P.I
Man calls police when his air conditioner stopped working
Man calls police after stand-off with cat
Person calling police after they were stuck in traffic following a fatal car accident on that road
Woman calling police because McDonald's didn't serve her nuggets fast enough
This is just a hand full. There's more for large spiders, missing jelly, complaints about fines, complaining about a red card in soccer and what have you. You can read more here: Huffpost
My point is, people don't know or don't care how 000/911/999 works but you can bet your bottom dollar that if the police dispatchers don't answer their call when something really bad happens they'll start a veritable shit storm.
I don't know why this neighbour called the police on the kids. It seems to me like this whole furore could have been avoided if they'd just come down and said 'Hey, this is actually my part of the lawn and it doesn't need mowing but thanks anyway.' This obviously didn't happen and I think that's part of the problem. We're so afraid to actually approach people, preferring screens to faces, a new crop of anxieties popping up.
This neighbour - I get the impression she's either older or elderly - probably doesn't have the technology addiction issue but I hope no one is harassing her unduly. I am not saying she should have called the cops but if she was immobile or paranoid or really sick or maybe she'd spoken out at someone and gotten bashed for it... would you blame her for panicking?
Anyway, since then the kid's had a Kickstarter/GoFundMe/similar fund set up for him and has probably got a bucket load of holiday cash right now. I'm glad that we haven't heard anything negative from him about what happened, he seems like a good kid and I'm glad it hasn't got him down.
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