The other day I clicked on a link to a popular "Mommy blog", in which the mom was detailing the horrors of having to attend a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Chuck E. myself, and am pretty happy that my kids are mostly out of that phase. However, what disturbed me about this was the following anecdote:
Following a number of comments about Chuck E. as "pedophile heaven," which I find a flawed and paranoid hypothesis from the get-go, the mom proceeded to tell a story about not being able to find her son, chasing after him, and see him [GASP!] having. his. shoe. tied. by another parent. A FATHER, no less. The mother was panicked and displeased that a male adult would come near her child (no matter that another woman clearly found him trustworthy enough not only to have children with him, but to send those children to Chuck E. Cheese with him), and the man even made the comment that he had been afraid to tie the child's shoe, for fear someone might think him a predator.
Worse yet, a number of moms in the comments section VALIDATED this insanity. What the hell have we come to, that we can't trust other parents in what's got to be one of the least pedophile-friendly places you can go? (Come on, where are they gonna go? They can't get out the front door, and the bathrooms are full of little kids and their moms in various stages of Chuck E. Stress.)
Knee-jerk thoughtless paranoia has become the go-to reaction for our society, and we're already seeing the costs. Sex offender registries out of control because everyone qualifies as one, the TSA (need I say more?), parents afraid to let their children out of the house because God forbid they might have a life experience. Where does it stop?
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