Incomplete information. We do not know how far they walked. Maybe it was around the block? Also, what person would call the police on their elderly parent or mother in law with her spouse in the hospital. This story isn't complete. There are a lot of things the media should have included in this story or simply not published it.

hello wantnot, you're right. A recent supreme court judge's observation was that law enforcement officers are being trained by people who don't understand civil rights, therefore they are being trained to violate them. But she should have called the parents before sending the kids home. Thats the only thing she did wrong, unless the kids had to walk a long distance to get home.

@Hope, it was the same condo complex.

I would not have let my children stay with a 71 year old that is all ready stressed with spouse in hospital. She need a grown up not children. The parents wanted a baby sitter and to sleep late.

I walked much, much farther than these kids did that night, to school every day when I was 12, at 6:30 AM, which is only 2 hours later. Our school hours began at 7 AM. The sun was never up yet, and I did it all year long in our very snowy state, even when the temps hit lows of close to zero. It wasn't punishment for misbehaving, but my daily morning routine at that age, and the daily routine of every kid my age in that district. Yes, it was gruelling and I hated it, but obviously it was certainly not yet deemed an arrest-worthy form of child abuse.

BullS***...are they all nuts in Connecticutt...the police, the grandmom, the kids...and their parents!!! Jesus we can't arrest gangs who kill wantonly in the streets...but we can arrest a 70 year old woman because she has no rights in her home. I think a visit by the police and a ticket to appear in court would have been embarrassing enough. Oh yeah...the police arrested her because they are scared sh**less of the gangs.

What did arresting her accomplish? I think she should have called the parents to come get them first. That would have made them mad at the child and not hold her responsible but for a parent to dump their kids on a 71 year old woman who had all of that going on is pretty irresponsible to begin with. and Ralph-35875 I agree, obviously these kids are a product of the parenting of today.

Easy way out -- call the parents and tell them to pick them up (in front of the house). Arresting her accomplished nothing, more costs to the taxpayers. This could have been resolved the parents didn't need to call the cops -- for what? Negligence? Cruelty?

Although I do feel terrible for this lady, it was totally wrong. She should have called the parents.

"I felt like I had murdered somebody. That's how I was treated."

If someone had kidnapped the kids, or something terrible happened to them, then this would be a whole different story. Luckily, they're OK though.

The problem today is the older folks that used to leave their front doors unlocked and the keys in their cars do not realize "today's world" and how different it is compared to when they were kids.

It's the old, "When I was a kid" story every time you speak to them about your own life and how it is today....

They have to realize how times have changed and understand what those changes are.

I hope they go easy on her.

Sally in Chicago

I agree. Yes, I'd be extremely pissed off at the lady but I doubt very much that I would've called the cops.

Her civil rights were not violated. She broke the law. She endangered minors that she willingly excepted responsibility for. The police have to follow procedure. That's their job. She committed a felony, age has nothing to do with it. So, in a sense ... her civil rights were definitely preserved.

Then there is her lame blaming of the parents should have called her!! SHE should have called the parents ... or better yet, knowing she had a sick husband should have cancelled the sleepover ahead of time. The parents also should have checked the environment they were sending their kids too. I briefly lived in Middletown. Although they may have been on the same block ... it is still a small city, it is still winter and pitch black at that time and freezing and if one of those kids got grabbed ... this would be a WHOLE different story, now, wouldn't it?

There were several attempted kidnappings during broad daylight close to Middletown. If it was you 10 year old ... how would you feel? Of course there are many holes in this story, as it is incomplete. To the writer ... really, now! My teen conveys a more complete story than this.

Too many kids nowadays believe it is "all about me." BS!!! Little morons! I don't blame the 71 year-old grandma... I blame the kids' parents. If they can be called parents. Parents leave their kids wherever, with whomever, not caring about their whereabouts until something like this happens.

SHAME ON THE PARENTS! You are just a bunch of crybabies! You should NOT have had kids, since you don't know how to rear them right!

ARREST JUSTIFIED. Creek Dog said it best -- this is no longer the 60's or 70's -- "back in the day" is exactly that. We are living in a time when our children are not as safe as we were. Period. So with the threat of pedophiles, murderers, and just plain old garden variety crazies, it is never appropriate to send minors alone outside at 4:30 am to walk somewhere with noone expecting them at their destination (NOONE HAS MENTIONED THIS!!!), noone watching them for the duration of their walk, and no follow up that they made it to their destination. I'm sorry, getting arrested would be the least of her concerns if this was my children -- age 17 or 71 -- doesn't matter. With a husband in ICU, you would think she would understand how fragile life is, so she really doesn't get a pass in my book. Prosecute her to the fullest. We could easily be reading a very different story right now. Parents could be looking for their children, knowing in the back of their minds that they would be burying their children soon because some woman couldn't take 5 minutes to pick up a phone. And for those of you saying it wasn't that far, please explain to me how long it takes to abduct 2 small kids at 4:30 in the morning. THIS is why people who harm children can do so very easily -- stupidity, laziness, and denial.

@getreal . . . Wow, didn't realize you were the judge and jury! You already know that here rights were not violated. How do you make a 'fact' statement without having the facts or being there in person? And, you apparently, are the prosecutor as well as you say that "[s]he committed a felony". So you know the two counts of risk of injury to a minor are felonies. Hmmm . . . it's always to smart to add in the generalizations about there being several attempted kidnappings close to Middletown, you know, act like you know more than everyone else. Bring more drama to a story you really know nothing about.

@Hope was right . . . there is too much information we're all lacking in order to make an educated comment about the situation. Sometimes though, the uneducated and ridiculous posts make someone (like me) want to make a comment on the comments.

What kind of 11 or 12 year old do not do as instructed when at someone else's home? Trashy, ill behaved youth. If the Grandmother told them once to be quiet that should be enough. Sloppy parenting and no respect for elders or being in someone else's home.

Creek Dog - but we can't go by "what if" or "what could have" happened - what did happen is these kids walked to their home in the complex without any issue - that is the fact of what happened.

And don't generalize and put it like all older people are out of touch cause back in their day, they could...there are probably way more that know what's going on today than don't.

Being pissed at the lady, I'd understand; I'd also understand being pissed at your own kids who don't know enough about manners and respect to listen to a 71 year old lady in her home and to realize that someone at 71 may need a little peace and quiet at night.

As a grandparent who raised a grandchild from the age of 11 on I can understand the frustration that this woman went through. First the parents evidently didn't teach the children to respect their grandma or they would've settled down. Then what kind of people were the parents to lay the resposibility of taking care of two active children on this woman who is already stressed with her husband in the hospital? I'm not saying she was right in what she did, but I can thoroughly understand why she did it. Did she need to be handcuffed and led out of her home that way. I think not. I would like to see more info.....too many facts missing in this story. Maybe all involved should share the fault of what happened.

Once again, it sounds like parents not being responsible and in turn blaming someone else for their own stupidity!!!! Why the *ell would you leave your children with a woman that old? Further, perhaps if the parents of these heathens would have taught them how to properly behave, the old woman wouldn't have kicked their *sses out. She should have beat their *ss first, then sent them on their way!!!! Parents some of you are doing just horrible jobs at raising your children, just horrible....

Those kids were old enough to know how to behave, there parentsshould be the ones locked up for breading bad dysfunctional kids. I'm tired of all the mouthy, disrespect full, foul mouthed, nasty creatures, imitating human beings, if the kids were raised to be respectful then this would not have happened would it! note to all the Granny's when unruly kids invade your home and cause problems at 4:00 AM have the cops haul them off so you don't wind up in trouble. its probably more dangerous at 8:PM then 4:30 in the morning. you want to know what is dangeroussend your kids to public school in the middle of the day, hell when I was 12 I was up delivering news papers at that time every day 7 days a week, the problem with kids today is that there is allot of bad breeding stock out their that should not be allowed to breed. now since those little delinquents were so obnoxious that they had to be told to get out do you think they earned a azz kicking, they damn sure deserve a azz chewing but Ill bet they just get pampered, the wrong message will be sent and another set of bad breeding stock will be let lose on a already troubled sick society.

Short version= People need to do a better job raising their children. Grannie's should not be supervising sleepovers. if you are going to lock up Grannie then lock up the incompetent parents as well.

MSNBC left out the fact that the children lived in the same condo complex. The woman used bad judgement but the kids didn't have to walk miles through the snow to get home. Don't trust what you read here. The local NBC affiliate has the complete story on their site.

First of all "common sense" was not use by anyone involved ,why parents will let their children sleep over at the 71 year old G-ma 's house ........who can sleep at night knowing that their children are at someone else's care .When do Americans learn how many tragedy's happened at "sleep over " crap tradition .Keep your children safe under your own roof , for God's sake .Children are taking advantage of elderly by not behaving well .O she wanted her grandchild to have fun ,that is what grandparents do ,but knowing she had a lot to handle all ready ,WHY the mother of the grandson aloud that in the first place ,raise your own mother ,a 71 year old does not have the strength to put up with brats ........It doesn't matter of the circumstances , elderly are exhausted , in pain ,life is frail and sick husband ......

Bottom line this women was abused by everyone involved ,including the police department wich never use common sense in anything they are ROBOTS reads the book and do the job .Do not tell me this "public servant" crap . In that case you'll have to use common sense .

She should have sent her grandkid to THEIR house to @!$%# around all night! She would have had a good nights sleep for a change and the "parents" could fight the battle!!

WATCH OUT AMERICA ......Those BRATS are about o break in your homes and eventually shoot you for a can of bear ,when the time is coming......That is how those parents raise them by "NOTHING SHOULD STAND IN YOUR WAY SON OR DAUGHTER YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT " that is how they acted in this situation .That is how they raise them .

I think maybe the parents are whinny Baby's If my kids came home at that time I'd ask them what did you do to be told to walk home if they didn't want to answer I'd then contact the parent or guardian of the sleep over . I'd still do it in the end to make sure my kids were not lying to my face like they do to day because these kids have no respect for there parents . and if that is what happened at the sleep over and some loved one was in the hospital and had a lot of important things on there mind and they had ask them to quiet down the i would ask them did you learn your lesson !!! your not supposed to be loud and not listing to your buddy's parent or guardian any ways to sum it up i thing she did the right thing these kids don't give a crap about adults they don't give respect they need a kick in the butt every now in then the way the government is making it the kids are the parents and the parents are the kids you cant even smack a kid on the butt no more without getting your kid taking away and if you get child protected service's on you they don't listen to you they make you the bad person !!!!!!

What kind of parent calls the police on a person who's spouse is in the hospital recovering before trying to get both sides of the story? I fail to comprehend how the parents could be so angry at someone, they obviously felt comfortable enough to leave their kids with a few hours prior. There must be more to this story than what's being reported.

This whole thing is stupid, they live on the same friggin street, the kids probably walk over to the house all the time by themselves in the cold to hang with their friend.... Thats probably why the old lady didn't have the phone number for the parents and why it didn't seem like a big deal to have the kids walk back like they always do...

This is newsworthy because????? Why wouldn't the parents of these children have been aware of this situation and realized this wasn't an optimal situation? 71 isn't old, especially these days, however; this lady had a full plate. She is the guardian of her grandson, and her husband is in the hospital with complications following a stroke? Why didn't the parents of those two - that lived in the same apartment complex (MSNBC - you are good at leaving out facts, aren't you?) offer to have the sleepover at their apartment? This lady needed help; not to be used, and that's exactly what it sounds like.

As to the police; well, thank you, thank you for taking this dangerous woman off the streets. After all, I'm sure the grandson had fun in foster care since there was no one else there to take care of him??? (I don't know at all) The lady needed toughening up anyway, didn't she??? This is simply a case of fusterclucking that began with this ill-conceived idea of a sleepover. Whoever the parents of these brats - yes, I say brats, because children are not taught to respect anyone these days, and they were probably being little monsters who didn't listen to the grandmother, and didn't care what she said. Their parents didn't have much sense in the first place to let them stay in the house of someone who was already over-extended. They can't make their kids mind or respect others, but they can sure pick up the phone and call the police on a 71 year old lady in the middle of the night. Wimpy ass cowards; and I mean it. Even if it was to chew her out, why didn't they call the grandmother? That is simply ridiculous. Oh, but that's alright - they'll probably know what it's like with the two that got sent home later in life.

The fact that the kids didn't know how to behave or mind their elder is pretty telling, and I hope the community rallies around the grandmother. She obviously could use some help; not being arrested would be a good start. She, unfortunately, had uncaring, unwise, and vengeful neighbors. Hopefully, things will go better for her in the future.

@ Jen, be mad at yourself for not knowing the situation you left your children and for not teaching them to respect their elders.

What the @!$%# are you ranting about???? How is this relevant to anything Jen said? Maybe you should try calming down and read what Jen actually wrote instead of just going off an some irrelevant rant that makes you sound foolish.

Hummmmmmmmm .. She's Lucky! .. That they didn't declare her a "terrorist" and send a drone to knock her off!

Or perhaps our government can use these drones for useful purposes .. ~~~~~~~ Maybe a new ...... "CALL IN A DRONE ...." to watch that your children get home safely .... between killing the terrorist down the street ...

( the arrest of this grandmother is ludicrous and shows the "overreaching" power of all government!)

with jessica ridgway and the little girl abducted off her bike in nj and found murdered, with the story of casey duguard, and the 5 year old abducted by dykes in alabama--this is a very lucky outcome to a situation that could have gone bad on alot of different levels. while taking grams to jail might not have accomplished much, there is nothing that would have been accomplished by the parents calling the grandmother to complain the next day. those kids will never be at their friends house again, and grams would have just blown the whole thing off and diminished its importance. a better option would have been to call child protective services and had them check things out. i highly doubt the parents intentions were to get the grandmother arrested. but what she did clearly is child endangerment and i dont care if you were part of the past generation, you are not fit to raise a child if you think you can send them out in frigid temps in the middle of the night alone. grams did have another choice--call the parents and tell them to come get their kid. she prob didnt want to do that as it would require her to wake up more to call the parents and stay awake waiting for them to come get their children. she was tired and took the route that would allow her to get back to sleep the fastest. if this was my child, i would be upset that they hadent listened to the gramdmother and outraged that they had been sent to walk in the middle of the night. but anyway you slice it, sending kids out in fridgid temps in the middle of the night without notifing their parents is just plain child abuse and not having a consequence for it would be not right either. it is not because of grams the kids are safe, it just luckilly worked out that way. so letting her do what she did without reprimand wouldnt be right either. i feel for the young man who lost his father, who doesnt have a mother willing to care for him, who has to live with his grandmother now, and who probablly is embarrassed and feels terrible for the outcome to this story.

You have to think, back in this ladies day, they weren't thinking that someone would kidnap these kids, you see there weren't as many bad people because people could actually show their kids consequences to bad behavior, we are raising children who do not understand consequences because we fear what our neighbors may think, or worse, the law.

Childprotection,

Good points, but if a reprimand is warranted, and the outcome was the kids did make it home safely, I believe a warning to the woman would be sufficient. It is unlikey to ever happen again. I'm sure the parents aren't going to leave the kids with this woman and I'm hopeful this woman has the common sense to say she won't babysit again.

bambi@12

WATCH OUT AMERICA ......Those BRATS are about o break in your homes and eventually shoot you for a can of bear ,when the time is coming......That is how those parents raise them by "NOTHING SHOULD STAND IN YOUR WAY SON OR DAUGHTER YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT " that is how they acted in this situation .That is how they raise them .

#1.24 - Tue Feb 5, 2013 8:21 AM EST

You're Clueless man. Besides, how can they fit a "Bear" inside a can.

Pretty difficult to post on here at 12 yrs old isn't it.....

To the person who said they walked to school at 6:30 AM when they were 12--we live in a different time now. I walked to school by myself most days when I was in Kindergarten. Anything could have happened to those kids at 4:30AM. Their parents should have been called instead of sending them out the door, but also, I don't think the lady should have been handcuffed. and if these kids do live in the same apt complex as this lady, she still shouldn't have sent them out like that in the cold. A call to the parents would've been much better.

Creek Dog and The_Truth-1780794: You're both 100% correct. Per Creek Dog, the operative quote from the article is " I felt like I had murdered somebody. That's how I was treated." -- and, while not likely, indeed that could've happened.

Luckily no one got hurt, a very, very lucky outcome. All this lady had to do was call the parents of these kids and tell them to come and pick them up. Instead, she used very poor judgement and let her emotions overcome her clear thinking. That endangered the kids, so although I sympathize with her for her husband's health problems, she should have never agreed to a sleepover in the first place if there were serious issues impacting her ability to host it. Same with the parents of the other kids... they should have known this was going on (the grandmother's husband had a stroke), and they should have known this was a sub-optimal time to have a sleepover.

@ The Truth - actually "back in the day" is relevant. "Back in the day," if the kids were told to quiet down, they would have done that. In the present day, obviously that didn't happen. Discipline has taken a back seat and that has not done a thing for the current generation. All in all, without complete information, there is not much more to say at this point.

I blame the parents of those kids for not teaching the children to respect their elders.

bad parents= bad situations

Creek Dog,

The problem today is the older folks that used to leave their front doors unlocked and the keys in their cars do not realize "today's world" and how different it is compared to when they were kids.

In many ways kids today are safer than they have ever been. Violent crime is down significantly as compared to 20 years ago. In fact violent crime in 2011, per 100,000 people, was the lowest it has been since 1970. Total crime per 100,000 people, both violent and property, is the lowest it's been since 1967. She was 26 in 1967 and 29 in 1970 which means that she raised her kids during a time when crime, both property and violent, was higher than it is today.

Little Red Riding Hood went to grandma by herself - arrest her mother!

@watnot....I am a parent & there is NO WAY IN HELL my children would be there without me knowing EVERYTHING of where my child is & with who & surroundings....You obviously are barking up the wrong tree here so go home & lick yourself...My children DO HAVE MANNERS & ARE POLITE & LISTEN.

For those of us who are grandmothers and parents:

I would feel the same as thought I had murdered some one by being treated like that. 1# the parents of those children should of known better to leave a child or children with someone who had a spouse in icu, that in it's self is nerve racking, you have your thoughts on the love one not shildren shame on you parents for allowing them to stay there. Yes she should of called the parnts to come get them, but she was a nerves reck, and she wasn't thinking.

2# If this was my child she wouldn't have been there because I respect the elders and I would have find out who is watching my child and if there was a problem I would leave my phone number and my child would have called me. As a child I walked every where! and with the way people are now a days I just wouldn't let her go.

#3 I would have talked to her before the police were called to get involved in this because it's the right thing to do call find out the whole story and they were in the same condo's right down the hill. how hard is it to go talk to her or call her first?

I guess i'm a careful parent and grand parent. thanks for letting me talk

The KEY phrase in this whole story is the parents woke up and unexpectedly found their children home. How did they not know the children had entered the home in the early hours? Why did the children not have the courage to wake their parents and tell them that the grandmother asked them to leave for being undisciplined? How did they get in the house? If they had a key, good, if the house was unlocked then it is a different story. Safe neighborhood. More information needed.

So, we have seen in this thread, lots of finger pointing, blaming and shoulding, and not one thought as to what these little hoodlums just learned. Think about it. They have been given more negative reinforcement in one night than most kids can conjure in a month.

This one sentence speaks volumes; "Police say they were contacted by one the children's parents Sunday morning when they awoke to find the kids unexpectedly home." Here's a clue, folks. Those children are being housed and fed by people who have no idea about parenting. They are the little sh!ts who within the next ten years or so, will be the predaters and pedophiles everyone is so frightened of. Just who do you think will be responsible for their care and feeding then?

Why didn't SHE call the parents to come get their kids? She acted irresponsibility and got what she deserved.

If this lady was so overwhelmed by things going on in her life why did she allow her grandkid to have a sleepover to begin with? Sleepovers are rowdy in nature and she should have thought about that ahead of time knowing it would grate on her nerves. Then she wasn't able to make a rational decision and made a very bad choice and here we are.

Perfect solution to call the parents. Then, not only would the sleepover be canceled, but the parents would be angry with their kids over misbehaving rather than at the irrational grandma who threw them out in the pre-dawn hours.

Hope-295312 "Incomplete information. We do not know how far they walked. Maybe it was around the block?"

Agreed. While it would have been more appropriate to call the kids parents to pick them us, when a 71 year old grandmother has a husband in intensive care and has not had any sleep all night because of rowdy kids, her thinking might not be as prudent as desired - but I don't think it rises to the level of criminality.

So these parents knew this lady well enough to leave their kids with her for a night but couldn't just stop over and have a talk with her to find out what took place? Very neighborly for sure. Did the police really need to be involved? Now what happens to her grandchild while she's in jail, her husband in the hospital, his father dead and mother nowhere to be found? These parents just victimized him and put him in a bad situation because in their anger they made a thoughtless decision. Seems to be the theme to this story.

Recently there was an article about a 17 year old who threw a 9 year old off a roof. Some who are here today asked "People saw and heard the boys on the stairs, why didn't some adult intervene?" This story tells you why. Any adult who intervened would have been locked up just as fast as this grandmother! We now have a society where kids are allowed to run wild, and anyone who trys to stop them is a criminal! For everybody crying about 4:30 - 5:00 am being "the middle of the night" guess what? It isn't. An awful lot of us get up at that hour each day in order to go to work! One poster said it's probably safer at that hour than at 8pm, and it is. I'll bet the parents that called the cops don't worry about their kid being out at 8pm. The issue here is that someone embarrassed their little darling.

Most crime rates are lower now than they were forty and fifty years ago. The only reason crimes against children seem to have gone up is because of better news coverage and because of parents who are more alert to the fact that a child may have been abused. There have always been kidnappers, pedophiles, and molestors. Anyone who thinks that there was ever a "golden age" where children were always safe is living in a bubble. Children were being molested and kidnapped in the 80's when I was a child too. The only difference is that we didn't hear about it until we saw the milk carton.

That being said, we baby our children too much. There are all of these problems with children now, both mental and emotional problems, and it never seems to occur to anyone that the way they are being raised is partly to blame. Too many parents are much too overprotective. You may think it's for their own good, but the second they get on their own they don't know how to act.

I'm not saying you shouldn't protect your children. But walking across the street or down the block, even at night, isn't any more dangerous now than it was forty years ago. The same people lurk in the shadows then as do now. We're just more aware of them now.

Well, Jen you may have taught your children manners and to be polite, but it seems you missed that bus yourself.

Way to teach our kids to respect authority. My grandmother would have beat the crap out of us, and we probably would have deserved it.

When are you people going to realize that children are butt-heads and need discipline? My parents would have made me go over to her house and apologize for acting the fool, not call the police. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Sure, she could have called the parents, but that is not how things were done in her day. A day when kids actually had respect and parents disciplined their children.

I don't see a crime here, stupid cops. And to the little kids: You got an old lady arrested because you could not control yourself, how do you feel now?

Patrick Hanna,

Very well put, and so true!

not a good thing kicking them out, but I have no doubt the kids were ill mannered little brats, that have never been made to mind by there loving mommey and daddy

Why is it that our society cannot get control of all of these issues? I believe that we struggle to define root cause. And this is a perfect example. What was the root cause here? Was it an old lady that neglected some children? On the contrary, she disciplined children that required it. The root cause was the children. So why isn't this story about how the children are out of control?

No different then all of these mass killings. Instead of addressing the mental illness issue we have, we outlaw the type of gun that is responsible for the smallest number of killings in the US. Smart, way to use your deductive reasoning.

Shame on the police to arrest this grandmother. There's lots of older kids out there who could use the tough love of this gramma. Shame on them for undermining her. It's not like the kids were 5 and 6.

Being of the generation that at 10-12, I like many other boys was up at 4:30AM to deliver newspapers, sometimes at below zero temperatures, then go to school. It was about the time I first learned to shoot a firearm with cartridge ammunition too, and other boys did the same. This grandmother is of similar age, would have had similar parents and grandparents and stories of the Great Depression, WWII, probably knew some kid who had polio, and beer was considered food.

It is hard for me to fathom the children's parents in this case. One grandparent in the hospital with a stroke, and the other grandparent is supposed to be of the mindset to worry about social norms not of her generation, looking after kids who should have been babysat by someone without such heavy emotional distractions. Put the parents of the kids in jail overnight, then put the kids in jail overnight as well? Where were the parents of the kids? It seems to me that the police who were called to take the grandmother off to jail for a rowdy kid incident are lacking in the knowledge of other social services available to mitigate these types of issues.

I've read all the above comments, there is no one here going by a name which begins with "@".

As for the grandmother, she shouldn't have been arrested, but she should have acted hours earlier by making them each call their parents for a ride home. That way the parents are potentially upset with their own rowdy kids.

One question I have is, how out of control is this woman's grandson if she cannot handle these boys? I guarantee you, when my son was that age and he had friends over, I first of all, made sure they had enough (non-sugar) snacks to get through the night, movies, games (board and video) as well as other amusements. I set the ground rules at the outset and they all knew they could stay up all night if they wanted as long as they were 'reasonably' quiet and respectful of others trying to sleep. I only had trouble once and it only took pully the miscreants aside and reminding them of their promise to behave. I pointed out that how they behaved would dictate future sleepovers and excursions. They promised to keep it down ... and they did.

Granted, a lot depends upon this grandma's capacity for tolerance of the noise, and pre-teens can get pretty raucous, which she may have forgotten since her son's adolescence. And she may have lacked the personal authority to control her son at that age. But, even if she felt the need to intervene in the partying, there are always better solutions than putting children in harm's way, no matter HOW upset she was.

Rick-881466 - I think most of us agree on that, but it's easy to sit here and say what should have happened.

She should have made it simple on herself and called the cops to pick all of them up. Let the police work with the parents since that is the choice the parents made.

You are precisely right "Lordraven"..but I'm afraid too late as well. No body wants to hear the truth in this country. We are so used to smoke screens and evasions,minced words and half truths this population doesn't know which end is up anymore. This is a direct result of lack of discipline and a refusal to accept any responsibility for your own actions. You mean to tell me those parents..who lived in the same Apartment complex no less... didn't know that this woman had grave worries on her mind? Oh! okay And you mean to tell me that the little snide snot nosed brats didn't know either?

There is no sense of respect and accountability in this nation at all anymore! And we as a society created this horror of an era and the new generations of miscreants along with it! What gets me is the parents "wake up" to find the children home and..safe by the way. What does that tell you?

One... they got back without worry or mishap...and two... they immediately went running to momma to tell her what mean old granny did to them and then what happens? Momma doesn't walk down to mean old grannies house to find out what happened...she calls the friggin police! Are you kidding me?

It's hopeless...just flat out hopeless and just like a massive and diseased computor this grossly offensive society that wev'e managed to construct in less than three decades needs to be shut down and rebooted!!

Hunt-797031

I'd love to find that button on society, I think a ton of us would be standing in line to press it.

And you forgot to mention one little part. It says that the parents woke up to find their kids home. That tells me that the kids didn't bother waking their parents to tell them they got kicked out for being butt-heads. So even the kids realize they are at fault here.

"Child Protection"....what a joke!!!! They help create the monster children that we see out there today! They are taxed with protecting children but in fact put them in harm's way more often than not! What a friggin joke!

WOW, Has everyone forgot what it is like to be a 10 year old at a sleep over? When my son has a sleepover, I plan on not getting any sleep. They are all loud, having fun and playing games. If she had so many concerns, then she needed to call off the sleepover to begin with. Should the children have calmed down when told, yes, but from experience, when you have a group of kids at a sleepover, they end up loud again. This is normal child behavior and I remember it clearly happening from when I was that age over 30+ years ago. So to say these are bad kids, or poor parents is just wrong. The only person here to blame is the grandmother. There is NO excuse for what this woman did. All she had to do is call the parents to come and get them.

This lady is 71 years old raising a grandchild as her son died.Where's the grandson's mom,maternal grandparents,aunts and uncles?My hat is off to her for not putting up with these kids shenanigans.The parents of the kids who were sent home should applaud her tough love.It is a shame that these two kids parents don't see if they can help this lady out to help ease her burden while going through a difficult time. Sending them home at that hour was wrong but I'd say that this lady has enough on her plate and deserves a medal.The police over reacted as did the parents of the rowdy kids and should be ashamed of themselves.

jlmyers72 - yes, I remember being a kid too and having rowdy sleepovers. And I remember my parents yelling at us to calm down. And if we didn't, kids were separated or sent home.

just a cleaning lady - If these parents were worth a crap, they would have offered to have it at their house to give this lady some peace during her hard times.

JLMyers---As I said above, what MSNBC "reports" is rarely the whole story. These children were being so rowdy that they were knocking things off the walls. That's not how children act on a sleepover.

The poor woman is all stressed out with an ill husband and she is getting up there and trying to raise a grandson. They were in the same complex. She should have called the parents and said the kids need to go home, but wasn't thinking clearly. Don't the boys parents know her well enough to know she is having a hard time and if not, why not? They live in the same complex and their kids were sleeping there. Poor woman.

Lord Raven @ #1.63 & Hunt @ #1.64, the fact of the matter is, once this woman agreed to the sleepover she was giving tacit acceptance of the responsiblity for the safety and wellbeing of the youngsters at that sleepover. That means that she legally was bound to keep them safe as long as they were in her care. And that means that, until they were safely returned to their parents (NOTE: NOT dumping them out the door in the middle of the night!) SHE was their legal guardian. No. The parents probably did not need to call the police on granny first thing. Maybe calling her, instead, and expressing their unending disapproval of her actions, might have been a better avenue. But, still, granny was wrong in what she did and what she did WAS against the law. Ergo, granny's butt spent the night in jail. And, instead of gracefully accepting that she deserved what she got, she is angry with the parents for calling the cops.

Hunt, there are more problems with society than merely undisciplined children.

Here's the problem with this situation. I blame the parents more than anyone else. They lost the chance to teach their children how to behave and respect older people. If I had behaved like that as a young boy staying at my grandparents home overnight I would not have been able to sit down for a week. My parents would have asked why I was home, why I was sent home, and what did I do to cause my grandmother to send them home. Not hear the child's story, which most likely was a lie, then call the cops. The parents were wrong to allow their kids, whom they had to know was not well behaved, stay overnight with their troubled mother. In other words they had no respect for their mother so how can anyone expect their kid to respect her?

As far as the cops behavior in this situation, it could have been an overreaction from the Newtown, CT. incident or it could have been a group of grumpy old cops that did not like being called out for a domestic dispute. Either way I feel it was wrong to treat an 81 year old grandmother that way and it should have been handled with a lot more common sense which seems to be lacking in this story.

Gramps shudda call ze parens before turnin the kids out on zair own so late in ze naite.

Ze parens didja rait thing by callin ze cops on her stupido arse.

thewordsmith - A judge and jury will determine if this was against the law. I'd be willing to bet that the DA drops the charges.

I am a bit curious, what specific law did she break?

Creek Dog, #1.34- It's funny because I was going to reply to your #1.10 post by referencing bambi@12, #1.24, but there it was, EXACTLY, in your #1.34! #1.10 you assert that what's most key is that "times have changed" but, at that time, you also seem to be implying that it is the fault of the Elder to not only recognize that, but TO ACCOMMODATE IT? bambi"s post #1.24 goes on to "nail it", not only in what the Elder is "presumed" to have to (MUST) ACCOMMODATE, but also in "nailing it" for showing and naming EXACTLY how it is that The Police WRONGLY USURP and strip any power of an Elder, "for show" to the "youngsta's" that it is perfectly alright to "overthrow" the Elder; and wrongly and wrongfully aid and abet to detrimentally perpetuate the situation, "Collectively and Societally". (read and comprehend mediumdad's EXCELLENT post, #1.3) The Constitution enters in at not only Illegal Search and Seizure but then on to pre-judicial Cruel and Unusaul Punishment, ie, THE PUNISHMENT HAS TO FIT THE CRIME. wantnot's EXCELLENT post, #1.1 ALSO NAILS IT, in that the Protections of the Bill of Rights exist for the Individual to be able to defend themselves. The Bill of Rights doesn't only "maybe" come into play AFTER VIOLATION; AND LAW ENFORCEMENT SHOULD KNOW THAT (but obviously don't and obviously don't care because there is no real accountability and a punishment to fit that CRIME, post-violation).

In the best possible scenario the Grandmother should have let it be known to the Kids that they were to "knock it off", RIGHT NOW, or she would be calling their Parents and then followed through with that and called the Parents, if they didn't stop. (AND, it's also a two-way street here in this story, "How is it that these Kids were able to get back into their home and The Parents didn't know anything about it while it was happening?)

Also:

1) Has anyone yet thought about how the Grandmother might have been acting out of concern for her Grandson by allowing a sleepover with "Friends", at this time, when he more than probably is upset because he just lost his Father and now obviously is probably fearful that he's going to lose his Grandfather?

2) This Woman is 71 years old. Is she a Social Security and Medicare Recipient? Did or does she have the option for support for escalated Mental Health issues, at this time, with all that is and has been going on for her? (10 to 1, ALL THAT, is "supposedly" be overseen but (sshhh) underhandled by an INCOMPETENT SOCIAL WORKER, MINION for the Hospital and for whatever "Agency" would be involved with her being in charge of raising her Grandson.)

3) Being OVERWHELMED and doing the best you can IS NOT a Crime. But knowingly exacerbating and/or neglecting and obstructing competent amelioration of the situation to take place IS. (including the VIOLATION of an Individual's RIGHTS, especially to the detriment of "creating HARM" to that Individual).

Again:

whatnot, #1.1; mediumdad, #1.3; bambi@12, #1.24- EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

(:reek Dog, not in any way to insinuate that I've never seen and read some "alright", "good" and "excellent" posts from you, too.

thewordsmith - your post sums up perfectly the problem with our society. "Tacit acceptance", "legal responsibility", and "legal guardian" are nothing but examples of using the law to avoid exercising common sense.

The law is supposed to be there to provide redress for wrongs. It isn't supposed to be there so people can avoid thinking and using common sense.

It is a damned good thing that grandma didn't think that those rowdie kids were intruders and shoot the both of them.

While Grandma made a poor choice, the real blame here lies with the kids. They are the ones who would not behave. I have kids and when my daughter has sleepovers, they all know that when I say it's time to settle down and be quiet so that others can sleep, they better do it. Also, as a kid, I knew that if I got sent home from a sleepover for misbehavior, I was the one in trouble. My kids know the same thing.

As for people saying it's so much more dangerous now than it used to be, it's not. Statistics show that violent offenses and kidnappings are down. The difference is now we have 24 hour news stations and instant access to information via the internet. It's highly unlikely that someone was patroling the streets at 4:30 in the morning waiting to kidnap a wandering child. More likely that something like that would happen at times that kids would usually be out. By the way, where I live, no one locks their cars at night and houses are left unlocked during the day when people are home. We just don't have much crime and everyone looks out for their neighbors. There are still many places in this country where that is the norm.

chief--That's just absurd. Why would she think that? The vast majority of gun owners are responsible people who aren't idiots. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make this about guns.

OMG, two boys had to walk home at 4:30am and it was cold, THAT is horrible. Next thing we'll hear is their schools are going to ask them to do homework... CALL Child Protective Services! Good thing the grandma didn't point a finger gun at them, she'd really be in trouble. Punish the hell out of her, make her play dodge-ball.

The parents that called in should be the ones thrown in jail. Look at what they just taught their child; it's okay to disrespect an adult, it's okay to be unruly in someone else's home and even the slightest inconvenience makes the boy a victim. Sheeze, at least we know this boy will be voting Democrat.

Maybe this grandma should have called the police on the kids at four in the morning.

chief1055 - What a dumb a$$ comment. Hopefully you aren't a gun owner.

They lived in the same complex. The walk was just to he bottom of the hill, visible from the grandmother's apartment.

They were frequent visitors to the grandmother's place. Calling the police was over the top. The parents who did so have not ostracized their child.... other parents will be wary of having their child befriend him for fear of making a minuscule wrong move that will result in law enforcement being called.

These are the type of parents who will seek a reason to sue for a stubbed toe.

I don't recall ever having done this before, but I reported chief's comment as having "no value." There are plenty of other threads to rant about guns.

screminmimi - you should know by now that there are monsters when it is dark outside. There are all kinds of child abusers lying in wait for children when children are most likely to be outside, which is evidently 4:30AM.

It's really amazing that people would actually "blame the police" for the actions of this woman. Being 71 does not necessarily make you a "little old lady". This woman made a very, very bad choice which could have ended up causing bodily harm or death to two children. By her own admission, she did not even know their correct age. Did she ever think to walk into the room of boys and say: "YOU, YOU AND YOU....GET DOWNSTAIRS AND CALL YOUR PARENTS TO COME AND GET YOU RIGHT NOW!". No she didn't. And if she was that stressed out with her husband being in Intensive Care, why did she agree to let her grandson have a sleep over in the first place. She got fed up with the noise children make at a sleep over, had enough, and lost her ability to parent effectively and make rationale decisions regarding the situation and the safety of the boys...now she pays the price for that action.

She complains that she wishes the parents of the children she endangered would have "called' her first before the police. Give me a break....she had a legal obligation for the care and safety of those children in her home, she should have called their parents. And the Police did exactly what the law in 50 states requires them to do. Arrest her for child endangerment, let her bail out, and file the case with the district attorney's office for charges. No one should feel sorry for her....she made a very poor decision that night and now she has to suffer the consequences of her actions.

Blaming the police and the children's parents is ridiculous. Mrs. Aiello admitted those children into her home, had a responsibility to provide for their safety, made a quick and unthinking decision when she got tired of the noise and her ability to control the children (and at a sleep over with boys that age....good luck with that) and reacted without any common sense what-so-ever. The children are not to blame, the police did their job and followed the law, and the parents did what was right. Mrs. Aiello took this opportunity for a crying photo opportunity for the mistake she made to gain sympathy as a "Granny in handcuffs...treated like a criminal. Well Granny....that is what you choose to do without thinking of the children's safety first...now cry all you want, but you admitted to what you did and unfortunately....you committed a crime. Hopefully you will only be charged with a misdemeanor and not felony child endangerment that would risk your continuing to care for your own Grandson.

These brats were thumping the wall so hard that they knocked trophies from the wall! They only had to walk to the bottom of a hill. For pity's sake, no wonder kids are obese and disrespectful these days - their entitled wastrels for parents smell money and go for the lawsuit first.

Plus, these kids were "often" at this woman's home - did it occur to these greedy parents that they have now lost a sitter? Good luck finding someone else to watch your little hellions - don't bring them to my library, we are not a free babysitting service!

I'm so tired of hearing people saying she "endangered" the kids. She made them walk a few hundred feet to their house. Stop using buzzwords to inflame passions that should be reserved for people who actually endanger children.

Kids need to learn that there are consequences to how they act. That may include walking a few hundred feet in the cold. They aren't made from glass. They will be ok, and they might have learned something from it if their parents weren't right there to make sure that they became victims.

Amused Muse

Now these kids are called "brats" and their parents called "entitled wastrels". You assume quite a lot. There were two adults there that night according to the video. What did the other adult woman do? This is not a case for a lawsuit, because their was no apparent injury to the children. And then to go off about kids being obese and disrespectful.....nothing in this story indicated the children were disrespectful or obese. Aiello made a poor parenting choice, and a poor choice not to contact the boys parents to come and get them. If she had...those parents woke up between 4am - 5am as Mrs. Aiello herself claims the time was, to come and get their kid would have been more punishment to those kids by the mere fact their parents would be been told face to face what havoc they were causing. Those parents would have really let their kids have it for the mere fact they were woke up to come and get an unruly child.....but let's be realistic here. If the children had been told (threatened) to shut up, lights out now, and go to sleep or I'm going to call you parents to come and get you....they would have shut up, calmed down, and problem solved. then tell your grandson the next day....that was his last sleep over with friends. But she did not do that, she over-reacted and in that process made a terribly poor judgement call by throwing the kids out of her house at that time and in those weather conditions, regardless of how far they had to walk. And the consequences of that judgement call on her part, unfortuantely, she committed a crime.

LorraineH

And the consequences of that judgement call on her part, unfortuantely, she committed a crime.

What was the crime? Is it illegal to make kids walk home in the dark (4:30am)? Is it illegal to make them walk in the cold? If that is the case, many school systems and parents are breaking the law every day because I see children (some older than 11 and some younger) walking in the dark to school. It's winter, it's cold, so what? Is it really rational to think a pedophile might be lurking in the neighborhood waiting for a child at 4:30am?

I say give these poor boys a trophy so they don't feel bad about themselves, get them a a new violent video game and make sure there are no consequences for their bad behavior. Yep, nothing wrong with our society, nothing at all.

thewordsmith - your post sums up perfectly the problem with our society. "Tacit acceptance", "legal responsibility", and "legal guardian" are nothing but examples of using the law to avoid exercising common sense.

The law is supposed to be there to provide redress for wrongs. It isn't supposed to be there so people can avoid thinking and using common sense.

Ironic really, given that this woman obviously didn't use her common sense and call the children's parents. Doesn't matter that they only lived in the same complex, the kids parents had entrusted their kids in her care and she let them out of it at a point in time that had obviously not been agreed. Doesn't matter that the kids were behaving like morons either, since calling their parents would have been the best way to get them in trouble for doing so.

Also massively ironic that people who seem so into parents being responsible, etc, want to give this woman a pass on it.

Let me put this another way. If a parent allowed their 10 year old kid to leave the house to go to a friends (even if only 100 yards) at 4:30 in the morning, by themselves, and they then got kidnapped and murdered. Well, you'd be on here screaming about poor parenting.

She shouldn't have been allowing the sleepover to happen if her husband was in intensive care and she was stressed. She should have said no. You can say no to kids having sleepovers, it isn't all about letting them do what they want at your inconvenience. That's on her as well. Normally you lot would agree with that as well.

I do feel sorry for her, given she was most likely stressed and not thinking entirely straight. But, once again, since when did most of you people give people a pass on being responsible due to extenuating circumstances? Normally all about people being responsible for their actions, no matter what, aren't you!

Kids need to learn that there are consequences to how they act.

Agreed, because then perhaps they won't grow up to act like Mrs Aiello and try to avoid responsibility for their actions by blaming other people.

Oh, wait, hang on....

I have to agree with CreekDog, the lady endangered children, period, end of story. We can all say, blame the parents, blame society, blame poster XXX. But in the end, it was the old grandmother that send these kids out into the night unprotected. That old Grandma had too much on her plate to have a sleep over, and I see no place in the article where the parents, society, or poster XXX held a gun to the old lady's head and forced her to have a sleep over.

Lets see, the old lady;

1. had to OK having the sleep over in her house, I see no article on her gettting strong armed.

2. Took full responsability for two other children that where not her own.

3. Deceided to end that responsibility with no contact to the parents, at 4am in the fridgid cold.

REALLY are some of you so irrasonisble to actually think that the old lady was OK in doing so??? No wonder there is a lack of parenting skills in this generation. Children are children, even the best behaved act out (Say otherwise to prove you've never even seen/watched/had a kid). In all likely hood, grandma OKed the sleepover, then hid out untill she couldn't handle any more. I mean, she waited till 4:30, in any normal house that would have ended midnight, children in bed or parents called. Granted in my youth, I've walked home from friend's at all hours, but with all the local attempts at grabing kids walking to or from school and the sheer amount of amber alerts that didn't happen when I was a kid, its just no longer safe for younger kids to be out after dark.

If anyone puts my child, or any child in danger, your damn right I'll call the cops. Stupidity should be painful, child neglect and abuse should be painful, public, and costly.

And of course had something happened to one of these kids, everone would cring for the old lady's head. How fickle our society is.

Rob, that's not the point. Would it have been ok if she sent the kids a few hundred feet to their house at 9:00 at night? What is it about 4:30 AM that makes it so dangerous? Is that when the werewolves are out? Someone better tell the paper boys. Kids who are twelve and thirteen don't need their parents there waiting at an open door when they come home.

I said in my very first post on this subject that she used poor judgement. What I was saying in the comment above, that you seem to have missed, is that we, as a society, are hysterical and overly reactive. We pass all of these hundreds of thousands of laws and then use little to no common sense when we are applying them. You can talk all you want about what her "legal" responsibilities are. That's not going to change the fact that they were in less danger than what they are in every time they get in a car or walk outside the neighborhood to go to school. That's where the common sense should come into the equation. I never once said that she handled the situation properly.

Teri, unless you are really young, then I can say with great confidence that you didn't hear about Amber Alerts as a kid because there was no such thing as Amber Alerts. Kidnappings aren't any higher now that what they have ever been. You only think they are because they get so much more attention and the news can be spread so much more quickly.

I don't care how big of a brat a kid is being, or how close they live. You don't send them out alone in the middle of the night. Even if you assume that there would be no kidnappers out at that hour, how about a drunk driver racing through the parking lot? What if the kids were unable to get inside and were stuck in the cold?

The woman should have cancelled the sleepover in advance, worked out another location with the other parents, or at the very least, called the parents before sending the kids home.

For those complaining about the parents- Did she tell the parents she was having problems? Did she give the kids a bunch of junk food before trying to get them to settle down? All we know is that the kids were rowdy, and the woman sent them home alone, in the middle of the night, without letting the parents know.

Rabbit trail

What crime? Child Endangerment. To accept a child into your custody for care and then willfully throw the child out of that care with the express expectations of the parents knowing their child was in your care and not release yourself of that expectation by notification of the child's parent under certain circumstances is a crime. In this case...parents had a reasonable expectation their 10 and 11 year old children were at a friends house for a sleep over and that "reasonable expectation" was that their child was supervised and was in a safe place. The woman who accepted that expectation on the part of the parents for the reasonable safety and care of that child was Mrs. Aiello. When she terminated that expectation on her terms under conditions unknown to the parents, she violated the law.

Of course kids walk down the street leaving a friends house all the time, of course kids walk in cold weather and snow alone, but the circumstances of the implied "care" responsibility this Grandmother took when allowing these children in her home for a SLEEP OVER made her responsible for the well-being of those children. And throwing kids out of your house at 4:30am (and there is a curfew law for underage children not in the custody of an adult from 11pm - 6am) without permission or being accompanied by an adult was a crime. This is not a case of kids going to a neighbors house at the end of the street to play and then walking home. This was placing a child in a dangerous situation at that time of morning, in the dark, in the cold, without parent notification or adult supervision and Mrs. Aiello unfortunately did not think her choice through when demanding the children leave her home at that time. As I said in my earlier post...hopefully this was just poor judgement on her part because of many personal circumstances in her life and only misdemeanor charges will be filed and not a felony for her and her grandson's sake.

What curfew law are you talking about? Where is this law?

It seems to me, LorraineH, that you assume a lot. Let this story develop, let the parents make the boo-hoo rounds on morning news shows as I also predict, and watch this case be dismissed in court.

At any rate, whether or not this woman does jail time, the parents will have lost their free child care, being that their kids were "often" at her house. Those calling for this elderly woman's head seem to have forgotten that.

Patrick Hanna, amber alerts have been around sinse 1996, 18 years, and I'm in my 30's.

Also, I dunno if you live in Wanka Land, or Disney Land, but everywhere I have ever live has had a huge differeance between 9pm Sat and 4am Sun. Drunk drivers, gangs, even worse that wasn't around when I when I was young. But, here are some facts before you think its safe to send children out at night all by themselves.

The following facts were provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

1 In 15 of the past 18 years, there has been an increase in the number of missing children.

2 The increase in missing children since 1988 is 500%.

3 The FBI receives more than 2,000 missing child reports every day. That means 2,000 yesterday, 2,000 today and 2,000 tomorrow.

4 According to the Vanished Children's Alliance, every 40 seconds child disappears or is kidnapped in the United States.

5 Justice Department statistics of kidnapped children in America indicates that the risk of abduction by a stranger is relatively low for preschoolers, but increases through elementary school and peaks at age 15. Teen-age girls are considered most vulnerable.

6 Justice Department statistics of kidnapped children in America also reports 24% of all kidnapping cases are "stranger-kidnappings", compared with 49% family kidnappings, and 27% acquaintance kidnappings.

7 According to an article dated September 8, 2002, in the Miami Herald, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports 3,000 to 5,000 child abduction by non-family members each year, most of which are sexually motivated cases. About 200 to 300 cases are serious enough to involve murder.

8 A review of 19 separate studies was examined for the ratio of heterosexual-to-homosexual molestations of children and the ratio of female-to-male child victims.

Using random-probability studies reported by three different sets of investigators, an estimated 4% of the general population is bisexual-to-homosexual. this study was employed to generate relative degrees of 'dangerousness' of the various sexual orientations. It appears that at least a third of all the reported child molestations involve homosexual acts, while girls account for about two-thirds of children victimized. Those who practice homosexual acts are at least 12 times more likely to molest a child sexually, and with suitable corrections for bisexuals (who molest both genders), probably at least 16 times more likely to molest a child. A review of recorded cases of teacher-pupil sexual interaction indicated that of the 30 instances detailed in the literature, 80% involved homosexual acts. It appears that school teachers who practice homosexual acts are 90 to 100 times more likely to have sexual relationships with their students than teachers who confine themselves to heterosexual acts.

9 Missing-person experts estimate that the bodies of 40,000 to 50,000 unidentified children were found by police during the past 50 years.

10 42 percent of all unidentified bodies found in the U.S. are found in California even though that state has only 12 percent of the nation’s population.

11 Studies show that a very large number of runaway children are forced into prostitution. 300,000 to 600,000 juveniles are actively involved in prostitution in the United States. However, The U.S. Department of Justice estimates the numbers to be between 100,000 and 3 million. These figures include children involved in prostitution, child pornography and who have been trafficed into the United States from other countries.

12 In 2001, 800,000 persons (adults and children) were reported missing to police departments around the country. The FBI estimates that 85-90% of missing persons who were kidnapped were children (juveniles). Approximately 700,000 child disappearances, or 2,000 per day, were serious enough that a parent called the police.

13 In 2000, 119,237 cases of missing children were categorized as "endangered", defined as "missing and in the company of another person under circumstances indicating that his or her physical safety is in danger."

14 In the year 2000, more than 28,765 cases of missing children were categorized as "involuntary," defined as "missing under circumstances indicating that the disappearance was not voluntary (abduction or kidnapping)."

I dunno where you got your statictics, but my source is listed Soldierandkids.com, I'm unable to find any reports that say child abductions are stablizing/ed, instead able to find article through 2010-2012 claim abductions are on the rise, some going as high as 115%, seems to like its more dangerous.

Patrick and Amused

National standards state curfew for under aged (under 18) at 11pm - 6am. In Middleton the actual curfew regulation is 9pm - 6am. Middleton is so strict about it's curfew regs that they refuse to lift it to 10pm on Halloween, as many residents requested last year.

And Amused...I have not assumed anything. You, however, ranted about childhood obesity in your post. I have kept on subject matter and responses to information documented in the story and on the NBC video only in conjunction with the law. You talk about the parents making their boo hoo rounds, yet there has been only Mrs. Aiello making the boo hoo round on NBC. You're telling me to "let the story play out". The only statements and crying jags have come from Mrs. Aiello herself admitting what she did and trying to find justification for it now that she faces charges on Feb. 11th. I do think she is just a lady who made a poor choice...I've said that many times now, and for her sake and for the sake of her Grandson in her custody, I truly hope the District Attorney's office will NOT file the case against her and this will just be a lesson in parenting for her. She made a mistake, but unfortunately that mistake was a crime. So where do we draw the line. The next time a hungry, out of work father of 3 goes into a grocery store and commits petty theft by stealing food to take home to his kids, do we prosecute him for misdemeanor petty theft because of the circumstances that drove him to commit the crime and look the other way or not? Does the law let Mrs. Aiello off the hook for this misdemeanor crime of child endangerment because she committed a crime because of circumstances that drove her to do it? And she would not do jail time, depending on how the DA files the charges against her, she would get probation and perhaps a mandatory child safety program. I do hope it does not come to that for her, but she seriously needs to get a wake up call regarding parenting, especially if she is now entering being a custodian for a grandson about to become a teenager.

Teri, I did not post statistics. I stated a fact, that fact being that the rate of abductions has not increased in the last thirty years. The vast majority of abductions are by someone the child knows, usually a family member. And most of the 2,000 reported missing every day turn up within a day or two and were actually lost and not abducted.

A child being abducted by a genuine stranger is very rare. You can post all kinds of numbers, but for any given area it is rare. All any of what you posted means is that people call the police more often when they can't find their children. It used to be that someone had to be missing for so long before the police would even file a report. Now they file a report as soon as they are called. That's what is being reported in those statistics you cite.

Again, I'm not saying the woman was right to do what she did. I am saying that it did not warrant a call to the police. Just stop associating with her. Teach your kids how to behave when they are a guest in another's home. Use this incident to teach your children something about reality. There isn't any reason to turn your children into victims over this. That's just starting a cycle that they may not break out of.

Lorraine, I've never heard of that curfew. I don't know what you mean by "national standards", but the only curfew where I live concerns only who is driving a vehicle.

Maybe the difference is that I live in the country. I don't have streets or blocks or even sidewalks. You're more likely to run into a deer or a bear than you are a person. I don't trust strangers, but I don't distrust them either. Maybe it's different in the cities. I don't know. But I still think many people are overreacting.

Teri, I had a link there for you, but evidently Newsvine still considers me a "new" member, even after a year, so it disappeared.

What was the crime? Is it illegal to make kids walk home in the dark (4:30am)? Is it illegal to make them walk in the cold?

If it is, I submit that the parents and bus drivers involved in the infamous bus strike that has been the focus of national news lately all be hauled into court and charged, as it was noted that some of the children were forced to walk to metro stations while temperatures were still below freezing, and I do believe some parents were saying that it was still "darkish" when their child had to leave the house.

Patrick - National standards I quoted is in accordance with standards for Cities Manifest for Regulations. It just happens that in this particular town the curfew public ordinance was 9pm - 6pm. In the Beach city I live in, in So. California, it is 10pm - 6am. So cities ordinances can adapt within certain guidelines that meet their own needs for their community. And I agree that there may have been overreacting on the part of the parents, especialy if this lady's home was visited often by their children. But on the other-hand, that could have made these parents feel even worse because they had a level of trust with this woman, who knows?

If it were my kid, and he was not hurt in anyway....I would have been knocking on her front door to ask WTF happened and certainly my son would never be allowed to spend the night there again. A strained relationship might be all that happened. But once police were notified...Mrs. Aiello was in trouble. It would have been the same if the kids went to school and told a teacher...they are also mandated reporters. This lady didn't think she was doing anything wrong....she just wanted QUIET. Who could blame her, but as I said many times here this morning...her choice for getting it was not the right one. I do hope it works out for her for her grandson's sake, it seems she may have more than enough on her plate as it is, unfortunate all the way around.

Yes, Lorraine. I can agree with that. I don't think they needed to call the police. Even if what she did was illegal, we need to use some common sense. The parents should have gone to her first, and I really don't know why they didn't, and that's what bothers me the most. It's not the actions of the police. It's the actions of the parents involved. We don't need to involve the police in everything.

And just for the record, I'm not totally ignorant of what goes on in cities. I work in downtown Pittsburgh. I see cities. But I drive 122 miles round trip every day so I can live my life in peace.

Patrick, a few years ago my daughter had a birthday party where about 15 or so kids, aged 11/12 were at my house. Their parents dropped them off and had either agreed to pick them up at 11pm, or they were sleeping over. At some point they got it into their heads that they were going to go see a school friend (not at the party, obviously) that lives about a 15 minute walk away. They all started out the door before we could stop them. I told my wife words to the effect of "we have a duty of care towards them, and if anything happens their parents can hold us liable" and she went out after them to get them back while I stayed in the house with the few that remained.

No, I don't necessarily think the time of day matters, but it is not usual for a child to be out at 4:30 in the morning. The streets are empty and there is nobody around to witness if anything happens.

When I was a kid, plenty of my friends had morning paper rounds (mine were in the evening). They weren't out until after 6-7am, when people are starting to head out to work/jogging/walking the dog.

I am saying that it did not warrant a call to the police. Just stop associating with her. Teach your kids how to behave when they are a guest in another's home. Use this incident to teach your children something about reality. There isn't any reason to turn your children into victims over this. That's just starting a cycle that they may not break out of.

That, I agree with. It could have been handled better by the other kids parents too. We don't know whether those kids were appropriately punished though, do we?

Patrick Hanna, you did say a statistic, you claimed abductions where not up, whereas the FBI, child services and other groups say its so.

But, defend the old lady all you want, she broke the law, and if something had happened it would be a differeant story, and I'm sure you'd be in the lynch mob.

It doesn't matter if its 100 miles, or 100 feet, if someone else has responibility over a child, even one that may have miss behaved it is there responsibility to keep them safe. You may not think eather of those children where in danger, what just because its not that common? You can't really be that stupid, how many people do you see on the news saysing "I can't believe it happened to me", because the second you stop believing bad things can happen, it happenes. Ask any parent waiting for their kidnapped child to one day return, hopefully alive, in most cases a hair of common sense could have saved out.

Even poeple defending her have mentioned, maybe she should have call their parents, but just because these two made it home safe doesn't let her off the hook. We all know what could have happened, even if chances are unlikely, thats why we have child safety laws. Everyone is willing to admit she went about it wrong, are you really willing to say she did the right thing by kicking 10y/o children out in the fridgid cold at 4am? Why did she not attempt to call the parents, seriously, the rowdy sleep over didn't start at 3am. Yes, all she did was throw two young boys out into the cold night, but remember, THATS ALL SHE DID, and that is agenst the law, period, end of story, she gets everything coming to her.

We have a curfew here in Albuquerque,(everywhere I have ever lived has had minor cerfew), but even as an adult I'd not be caught walking around here at 4am.

Lots of people keep asking what law was broke. Some even believe that no law was broke. Here's something for you... when you are arrested, you are usually told what crime you are being arrested for.

As per the article, this woman was charge with....

Two counts of risk of injury to a minor

Please stop pretending she was arrested without charges. She was arrested and charged with a crime against children. Sending two 12 year old kids out into the night at 4:30 a.m. SHOULD BE A CRIME.

Teri, you're not listening to me. I'm not defending her. I never was. I have stated multiple times that she acted badly.

You're not understanding the difference between reports of missing children and children who are actually missing. Reports are up. That doesn't mean abductions are up. There are many reasons for a child to be missing, and I already stated that twenty or thirty years ago they didn't even take reports for many things they do take reports for now. There isn't a bad guy behind every tree waiting to get your kid.

Rob, no we don't know if or how the children were punished. And I suppose it isn't any of our business. I just lament the fact that we have become so cut off from one another as a society that we need the police to settle what should be a relatively minor matter.

You defend her by attempting to downplay any risk. The point is, she broke the law by putting the children in ANY RISK, and gets whats comming.

Have a play for statistics or not, like I said, no body ever thinks it will happen to them.....

And, like me, those parents did the better thing by calling the police, I mean what would have happened if the parent called her "Oh I kicked them out for misbehaven", she still did something stupid, and stupid handeling children needs to be punished.

"I felt like I had murdered somebody. That's how I was treated."

Welcome 2 the system, Granny.

Patrick Hanna, a huge differeance that comes between our views; I'm an ex-paramedic, I've worked on bodies of children in the middle of the night, I've seen what happens when civilized people go to sleep and leave their children unattended. I've seen more boogiemen behind trees then you could ever believe.

Teri, I appreciate what you have done and what you have seen. But at the same time, that is bound to skew your view. You were called to the scenes where this stuff happens. You're not called to the scenes where everything is just ok. To an extent, the same thing happens to everyone. We are bombarded with the news of every bad thing that happens but no one reports when something does not happen, which is the case the vast majority of the time.

And I am not defending her at all. I think her actions were dumb. But I also think the actions of the other parents were over the top. Yeah, she did something dumb. Then the other parents compounded the problem by overreacting. Statistically, it is more dangerous for those kids to be in a speeding car. I would be willing to bet that the parents have put their children into that situation more than once. Late for school, late for soccer practice, whatever. The point is that they, and all of us, need to look past how bad this sounds and consider how bad it actually is. That's where the common sense thing comes in. Lawmakers pass laws while sitting in their legislative buildings. We are the ones who actually have to live with these laws. They could have given her a chance to explain herself. They could have asked her if she watched the children walk to the other condo. They could have done many things. But they chose to just take the most drastic step possible without any consideration for the fact that maybe they shouldn't have allowed their children to stay there to begin with.

I'm not playing with statistics. "Missing" does not mean "abducted". That is a fact. Most abductions are by family members. That is also a fact. When you and I were children, police routinely waited to file missing person reports, whereas today they do not. That is also a fact. There was a girl who was just a couple years younger than I was who was abducted about twenty miles south from where I grew up. Her name was Cherrie Mahan. It was a real kidnapping by a stranger, and she was never found. I remember my mother keeping us inside the house for the next two months. I remember her standing at the end of the driveway when we were let off the bus. We had to wait inside the house in the morning until the bus was in sight. That was my mother caring, but she really needn't have worried. I was more upset by the way she was acting than the fact the girl had been abducted. That's the kind of stuff that traumatizes kids. This was two boys, twelve or thirteen years old, walking somewhere within site of their origin. That didn't traumatize them. If anything does traumatize them, it's parents overreacting to something that could have been handled with a phone call.

This is what our society has been reduced to, picking on an old lady because she was upset with 2 kids who were not listening to an elder and had to walk the end of the block to get home when it was in the 20's outside, oh the horror of it all. Give me a break and the older lady as well.

When people (Parents of the brats who walked home) cannot even talk with another person before calling the police (but yet they allowed her to watch over there kids for the night?) something is wrong with these people. But I see it now, they were just upset with her! Sounds familiar huh?

Sick period, This whole deal has been blown out of proportion by the parents of the 10 and 11 tear old's and the poor lady is suffering now because people do not know how to communicate with each other anymore.

need to look past how bad this sounds and consider how bad it actually is

Really? She dumped two 10 year old childern into the fridgid cold at 4am. Thats pretty bad, she put them outside at night in the cold, unsupervised, when she was left responsible for them. We can sit here and think "thank god they went straight home and nothing happened", but this isn't the way all these stories end. What if they didn't go straight home? They are 10 year olds, I don't expect them to know better, there children and children are commonly known for bad desisions (Just check Youtube), its already bad enough that the adult here made a bad desion, at least the children elevated themselves agenst making a bed desion.

There is a reson why we are called adults, were suppose to act like grown up, think about our actions before doing them, doing then thinking is just plain immature. Adults are suppose to make desions for children, and this adult sent two 10 year old child into the fidgid night with absolutly no supurevison.

This actually sounds not nearly as bad as it is or could have been, think would any sane adult do what she did? Heck, I dunno about else where, but here most middle schools don't even allow a child to walk home from school without permission nowa days, and even still, after last years local attempt at a AM school child grab (less them 1/4 mile from my house in a GOOD neighborhood), they are making children walk with buddies here and watching the schools with armed guards (yea, we had them here before the NRA made it cool).

When you give up the responsibility of taking care of a child, without passing it on to another adult, you get what comes to you.

Teri-1837093

Patrick Hanna, a huge difference that comes between our views; I'm an ex-paramedic, I've worked on bodies of children in the middle of the night, I've seen what happens when civilized people go to sleep and leave their children unattended. I've seen more boogiemen behind trees then you could ever believe.

The endangerment appears to be because she sent them out in the cold not because it was 4:30am. I can't imagine these kids didn't come with a coat, if they did, that would make the parents irresponsible. The week this happened the average day time temperature was hovering around 30°. I can't imagine how much 'danger' a 10 and 11 year were in when they were very accustomed going to the house. They lived in the same condo complex and they should have been prepared for cold weather. Child endangerment? This seems as silly as kicking a child out of school for making a gun with his fingers.

Sometimes parents can take being 'protective' too far. My son had a friend (an absolutely wonderful kid) that had an overprotective mom. In an incident similar to this, she assumed I had given her son permission to walk down to another friends house at dusk along with my son. She ranted and screamed at me and couldn't convince her that I wouldn't have given him permission, it wasn't my place. She was convinced my son was going to have a 'bad influence' on her son. Needless to say, after a long conversation, my son and I decided it was in his best interest to stay away from this nut job mom, essentially ending his friendship.

The end of this story is a sad one though, while my son will graduate from college this year with honors. Her son, couldn't handle his overly protective mom and rebelled. The last she saw her son was two years ago and heard he was dealing drugs in Seattle.

The endangerment appears to be because she sent them out in the cold not because it was 4:30am

The endangerment was because she kicked two young children out at 4:30 in the cold, with no adult care. In the US legal system thats Two counts of risk of injury to a minor. It wasn't the cold, it wasn't the time, its becuase she dropped the responisibilty she took for those children on the children themselves, and kicked them out into the cold night, unattended. People don't seem to understand, when you take responsibility for a child, you have legal obligations, even when its not your own child.

I seriously dout she would have done that to her own grandchild, I'd exect andone watching my child to take care of them, wouldn't you expect the same thing? What if someone did this to your own child, what if they made it home safely, but what if they didn't.......

Just because middle schools require parental permission for a kid to walk home from school doesn't mean that it's a good idea to treat the students that way. People like to refer to six year-olds as "babies" and fifteen year-olds as "children". Just because they like to do that doesn't mean that it is an accurate reflection of reality. Children who are six years old are not babies. People who are fifteen are not children. When you call them that and treat them as that it only makes them become poor adults. A kid in eighth grade is physically a young adult. Thirty years ago, most fourteen year olds were also emotionally young adults. They didn't act and think that much differently than people in their late teens or early twenties. Coddling them and never making them take care of themselves turns them into emotionally stunted adults.

It wasn't long ago, relatively speaking, that people in their mid teens were commonly getting married and starting families. Of course, I don't think that's what it should be like. But we know that children and teens have the capability to be more emotionally mature than what we are allowing them to be. But we don't let that happen because we would rather coddle them and never let them make a decision for themselves or face anything until they go off to college. When that happens, they are suddenly on their own with no guidance and no idea how to act. The problem is becoming worse every year. There's even an argument to be made that bullying, predatory, and self-destructive behavior can oftentimes be traced to too much coddling. How many serial killers had overbearing mothers?

So yes, something could have happened. Something could happen when you let your kid ride a dirtbike in the woods or go swimming in the lake. In fact, something is more likely to happen in those situations than two kids walking together for a few hundred feet down a sidewalk. All kids need to know about strangers is some good common sense. They don't need to be traumatized for their whole life with horror stories of what happened to other people. They don't need to spend their whole childhoods in fear, looking over their shoulders for the bogeyman hiding behind the trees. That is no way to live. Most of the time, the bogeyman is not there.

This woman is obviously not emotionally stable. That, combined with her age, should have made the parents wary of allowing their children to stay over there for the night. They could have shown some compassion for her and and tried handling the situation with her rather than involving the police.

When I was in school, and two boys got in a fight, the parents were notified and the boys were suspended. Everything was handled in school. Now, they call the police and the participants are arrested. Guess what? Boys have been fighting since the dawn of time. That's not to say there shouldn't be consequences, but getting a criminal record at age twelve or thirteen is more than a little absurd. Why do you think kids snap and start shooting up schools? We need to stop overreacting to them being kids. We need to stop overreacting everytime something happens. In this situation, the parents had a right to be angry. But their first phone call should have been to the woman who put them out of her house. Not to the police.

And yes, I have been to youtube. What I see is comment after comment from kids saying the most vile and disgusting things imaginable to one another. I see them acting like complete idiots. We need to turn off the computer and make them go outside and interact with other people face to face. And we need to do some interacting ourselves rather than expecting society and the police to take care of all our problems for us.

muddiemike

the poor lady is suffering now because people don't know how to communicate with each other anymore

You're exactly correct. Mrs. Aiello did not communicate with the children's parents regarding their disruptive behavior and that she wanted them picked up from her home immediately. She made a snap decision at 4:30 in the morning to throw a 10 and 11 year old out of her house and send them home on their own and did not communicate that to their parents. That is why she is suffering now. She is suffering for the poor choice she made regardless of what the children did or did not do, they are children and she was responsible for their well-being in her care. That did not include her terminating that responsibility at her discretion without notifying the children's parents of a problem and just sending them off into the night toward their home. So communication goes both ways....Mrs. Aiello had a phone also I would imagine, and even in the midst of her frustration, aggravation, and being overwhelmed by other factors as well...she was still the adult in the room and the choice she made was a mistake. She did not call the parents regarding a problem.....the parents did not call her or talk to her about what happened, police were notified and therefor, now she faces charges. Very sad for her and her grandson.

For some reason, I doubt that the parents would have gone to pick up their children. I think they would have turned on a light and unlocked their front door and watched them through the window. It doesn't mean she shouldn't have called, or told the kids to call themselves.

Patrick Hanna, I didn't get past the first paragraph, I can't believe you trying to tell me that 10 year olds are "young adults". I know you specifically didn't say that, but sure made it sound like thats what your arguing (as no where have I talked about 15 year olds, or anything other then the 10 to 11 age range these specific children are in) They likely haven't even hit puberty yet, and the biggest things on their mind is if T-Rex can beat a pokemon. Yes, children can be wise beyond ther years, but a 10 year old's brain isn't developed enough to make good choices all the time, and thus not even close to being a young adult. We give them titles like young adults to make them feel more confident, not because they are capible. If they where capible, the legal age would be lower, its 18, as thats when the brain is considered mature enough for the average person to make adult desions for themselves, not 10, not 11, not even 15.

This is not 30 years ago, this isn't 90 years ago. We hinder our childrens maturity now to grand them a better education. They arn't living on a farm and dieing at 50 no more eather. It doesn't matter if you think a child is capilable at 10 or 15, legally its 18 and it doesn't matter if they are 1 year old, or 17, they are a minor (the legal word for Baby/child/younadult).

Being 15 is moot, these boys wern't 15. 15 year olds can make better choices, 15 year olds can be considered young adults, but they are 5 years younger, and in the child development of the brain thats huge differeance. Also, AFIK, its only middle school children that need permission to walk home, another differeance between a 10 year old and a 15 year old.

You're right. You didn't say 15 year olds. Not everything I say is only in response to you. In addition, I was making the point that we coddle kids for too long, similar to the point others have been trying to make, and giving examples of how we do that. I'm sorry if you can't make that connection.

Hindering maturity does not help education. That is absurd. Hindering maturity does nothing but hinder education. That's why so many people don't finish college until they are in their mid to late twenties. That's why the dropout rate at college is so high.

I didn't say that young adults are capable of making adult decisions. I don't know how you are getting that from what I wrote. We don't call them young adults just to make them feel good. We call them that because that's what they are. It doesn't mean that they don't need guidance or boundaries set.

18 years old is a legal standard that predates any research on brain development. The only reason we have a standard is because we need a standard as a society. It's not like someone who is 17 years and 364 days old just suddenly wakes up the next day with abilities that they lacked the day before.

A baby is a person who is completely helpless and incapable of doing anything to take care of themselves. The day they can open the refrigerator themselves and remove their bottle or sippy cup themselves is the day they cease being a baby, and is the day we should stop thinking of them as babies. After that they are children. By the time they start puberty, they are young adults.

I know this doesn't correlate exactly to this situation. My only point in saying this is that we coddle children too much. That's it. If you don't want to talk about that, then don't respond to it. It's our coddling laws that cause law enforcement to get involved in every situation, no matter how minor. It's dividing us as a society. We need to try to work out things like what just happened before we involve law enforcement. Some people have said that there was another adult in the house. If that is true, why didn't the parents try to notify that person? There are a million things they could have done. I do not think she was right to throw them out of her house. I just think the kids' parents could have handled the situation better.

These kids went, on their own, to this woman's home all the time. We have no idea what her mental or emotional state is, other than that it is fragile. She probably needs help. There are resources for that that don't involve law enforcement and fines and jail. But when you involve law enforcement, fines and jail are what follow. Help rarely follows. But that doesn't matter to anyone because we would rather get hysterical about children who have made that walk, by themselves, a thousand times before. Yes, she made a mistake. Yes, she showed poor judgement. But it's not like she is thirty years old and completely "there". We should be helping her instead of punishing her. But you would all rather gather up your torches and pitchforks and go storm her house and demand she be punished instead. That's how we handle everything now. It's a really sad statement for our maturity as a society.

LorrainesH,I disagree with everyone of your posts.If disrespectful kids are not corrected their parents will be visiting their kids in prison,mark my words.I would love to throw this woman a parade for not putting up with these ill mannered self centered brats.They learned their behavior at home so it is apparent that rudeness in others homes are accepted by their parents.

And it doesn't matter that this isn't thirty or sixty or ninety years ago. Our genetics haven't changed. How we develop has not changed. When we allow their brains to be more developed physically than they are emotionally it is going to cause problems. Children with high IQs have all kinds of problems because they are too far devoloped mentally compared to their emotional development. We are turning all of our children into that. We can protect them by teaching them to protect themselves and not calling the police every time someone says "boo" to them.

Patrick Hanna, I have to agree with you on coddeling children. Nore do I think lenghtening maturity has ever been a good idea, but its not like we can argue with evolution. As a species we have ALOT of knowagle to pass on, along with the movement from farms to cities, parents no longer growing old and dieing in their children's house hold. We now focus on education not life experiances. As a society we've made our children more helpless, a 10 year old now is not the same as a 10 year old back then, and even if we don't perticuarly like the way our society is evolving we still need to protect them. Its sientifically proven the brain is fully developed around the ages of 19 to 21. while your correct in saying the federal age limit was made before this science, most of the states adopted after the science on threats from the federal gov (I was young when the state I was born in finally adopted the legal ages) and the science was a good reson reson it has stayed at 18 (I've heard a few states way back when tryed to change it to 16).

Though that all is truelly moot, the parents, what would calling the old grandma do? And in all fairness, the old lady is getting the reminder she needs, she will likely see no jail time other then her booking, and be put on probation, a good punishment for a bad lapse in judgment. Talk it out, she broke the law........ I mean really, she didn't even check in to see if the boys made it home alright, her care for those children ended when she kicked them out, and didn't even consider their safety untill she was in handcuffs. If she didn't have the decency to even check on the children, why should the parent even try to call to hear appologies from someone that did't care.

Teri--I don't know that calling her would have done any good at all. I just think they should have tried. Maybe they could have convinced her to get the help she needs. Maybe she knows she needs help and doesn't know where to turn and they could have provided that for her. You're assuming that she did this with malice in her heart when it could have just as well been incompetence.

I realize that for this she probably won't get jail time. But what I do think she will get from it is trauma and no help at all for her emotional state. I would love to be proven wrong, but we really don't make any attempts at rehabilitation in the criminal justice system.

Like I said, I just think it's a bad idea to mess with mother nature the way we are. Young people all over the place are snapping and flipping out and having all kinds of mental problems because they are too smart (too mentally developed) for what they are emotionally capable of dealing with. Yes, many of the laws that have been passed in the last twenty or thirty years are very good. But some are overreaching and it is teaching us as adults to rely on those laws to keep our children safe instead of relying on what we teach our children to keep them safe.

But I'm happy we've been able to agree, at least a little bit.

just a cleaning lady - Do you have children and do you remember a time when you thought it was a good idea to let your son's have a "sleepover". I do...about 24 yrs ago, my then 10 yr old wanted a sleepover and pizza party for his 10th birthday. I figured, how much trouble could 9 boys 10 and 11 be? BIG MISTAKE!! You speak about these children as if they were incorrigible disrespectful kids. Maybe they were, but just maybe they were just 10 & 11 yrs old boys behaving like 10 & 11 yr old boys do. They are loud, rambuncious, full of energy, and that is part of being a 10 or 11 yr old. How did you get the idea they were disrespectful because they were playing and rough housing loudly. That is what boys do at sleepovers. You talk about their parents visiting their kids in prison "mark my words". My one and ONLY experience was miserable...that is why my boys never had another sleepover. And those boys way back then behaved just like these boys did. There was no information of property destroyed or even that the boys in this story were disrespectful. As for my little group...they went on to serve our country, one an English Lit professor, One an Emergency Trauma Surgeon in Manhattan, and my son who is a police officer.

Don't throw the woman a parade for making a bad decision that night, she was the adult, with obviously another adult in the home that night as well...they were the ones who were responsible for making respectful decisions...and that is not what Mrs. Aiello did. And I don't care if you agree or disagree with everyone of my posts. Mrs. Aiello will be lucky if misdemeanor charges are not filed against her and I sincerely hope she will avoid any charges. She made a mistake, which I have said repeatedly throughout my posts today, but she did in fact commit a crime in doing so whether you agree with my post or not. I think she was most likely overwhelmed and tired and made a poor choice. I hope the District Attorney will take that into consideration and that she is the custodian of her Grandson and cut her some slack. But make no mistake...she was wrong in what she did and to blame 10 and 11 yr old boys and call them self centered brats is completely uncalled for. If they were bad children, this grandmother would not have had them in her home as she said "often" now would she? They were little boys being little boys and she snapped.

Patrick Hanna, it was completely incompetence, but the fact she never even thought to check up on the boys, while not mallice, was overall "I just don't care".

But, thats why the legal system has probation. Probation is the legal way of saying "I screwed up, I won't do it again, because if I do the punishment will be harsh". And aslong as she's not throwing children out in the cold dark, it won't effect her. Her mental trauma of the situation, well she should be like the rest of the world when it happens to them, learn from your mistakes and and remeber your responsibility.

Now just imagined if she was in the news again with another child endangered, everyone would be saying they should have hung her out to dry. Now if she's on probation, it give the courts an opertunity for the courts to end the issues promtly. As most news reports show, its all too common for people to let these small acts of incompent parenting to continue untill the child is dead, then say we should have done something sooner. Something is done, her act of stupidity has been recored by the law, and if any future issues arise, they have a way to permently stop them.

As for those calling the children monsters, I'm more likely to believe the grandmother lets her child run the house (quite a common occuarnce for gaurdian thats raising children of dead parents), and as they say, monkey see monkey do, the other boys joined in, and in lack of any true parenting skills, she just oped to throw them out.

Incompetent would include that it may not have even occured to her that the kids weren't safe. People with mental problems or who are under great emotional stress don't make decisions or think the way you and I do. It's completely possible that her grandson was normally well-behaved, and it changed when his friends came over. I was a kid once too, and I went to sleepovers and camp outs. We were never still awake at 4:30AM. When we were awake, we were never rowdy enough to be wrecking the place. We have no idea how long it had been since she'd slept, and we have no idea what her emotional and mental state was. It is perfectly possible that it never crossed her mind that she may have put them into a "dangerous" situation until the police showed up at her door. So, it makes sense that she would inquire into the kids' well being at that time.

Additionally, how did the parents know that their kids weren't lying? Everyone lies, and kids do it too. They had no way to know if they hadn't just snuck out and walked home. Had they tried to find out, I would be more supportive of their decision to call the police. What about the other adult in the house? My wife can sleep through a tornado. Did the parents try to contact this person and alert them that there may be a problem?

There is no such thing as "just" probation. It will also include fines and court costs. It doesn't seem to matter much to anyone, but the money to pay those fines will come from money that should be used for the care of her grandson. This stuff doesn't just happen in a vacuum. Probation also means dealing with a probation officer, travel restrictions, and in some areas it also means random drug tests. The lady is 71. How much longer does she really have left to live? This isn't just punishing her, it is punishing her grandson as well, after he has already had to deal with the death of his father.

We are way too fast to rush to judgement in this country, and it just gets worse every day. When we do this it ruins lives. Nearly every single one of those day care sex abuse charges from the late eighties and early nineties turned out to be completely fabricated. The Duke Lacrosse rape charges were bogus. Tawana Brawley lied so she wouldn't get in trouble at home. The Norfolk 4. The West Memphis 3. In every single one of these situations, lives were completely destroyed because people rushed to judgement and wouldn't think rationally. This exact case doesn't rise to that level. But this is always where it starts.

That's what happens when we overreact to things and involve the government before government involvement is warranted. These parents made no attempt to do anything other than involve the government. They overreacted by not getting her side of the story before calling the police. What if their kids had snuck out? Are they going to call the police on themselves when their kids sneak out as teenagers?

@Lorraine

Just an FYI, curfews are set at the City level not state or federal. Not all cities even have curfew laws.

Patrick and Tam.... you are wasting your breath on these people! They just don't get it! They so badly want to paint old granny as a villian, as inhumane and abusive...yet they cannot for the lfe of them see the complete apathy, the total lack of empathy or general humanitarian concern on behalf of those childrens parents..for calling the friggin police on the word of a child without ever once making the effort to walk the less than a football field down to Grannies house first to see what wen't wrong.

It really boggles the mind to see how warped the general mentality is these days! Yet it is proof positive of why so many children are completely lacking in respect,compassion or any empathy at all for the elder population! They know that no matter what they did or do!! THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT! It's a tragic joke!

These people on this thread screaming and crying about what granny did to little Johnny....simply cannot see the travesty of error in the way little Johnnies parents handled the situation. They just are blind to it!

How in the hell did those children benefit in learning even basic social interaction by watching their parents completely ignore any other avenue of dealing with that situation other than imediately running to call the cops before they even once thought to go down there and address the problem themselves?!!! It is just so fuugged up it's unbelievable! Yet here you are arguing with these people who are so far up on there high horses they have buried their heads up the azz of any reason or logic at all and are profoundly and unabashedly arrogant about it. God help us all!!

What is amazing is that there are so many people posting messages, questioning why parents would leave their children with someone so old at 71 years old..... wonder how many of them are in agreement with or are doing a push back on the republiconservatea plan to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 years old?

So, still want those 70 year olds - who some of you think is too old to even be caring for young children in their homes at age 71 years old- to still remain in the work place? LOL

Regarding the article, it appears that the children were warned to keep the noise down and did not listen, thus the overwhelmed lady told them to go home. The children lived in the same condo complex so they did not have far to go. For that matter the children could even have lived in the same building.

Anyhoo I blame the parents, because - when the children showed up at home that early in the morning- instead of calling the sleep-over Grandma's home to see if she was alright and if everything was ok or if there was some trouble/issues- health or otherwise, considering 1. her age, 2. the fact that she was caring for a very active grandson whose parent had died the year before , and 3. the fact that her husband was hospitalized from a stroke- rather caring only for their own children and the now inconvenience of being woken up that early in the morning by the unexpected return of their fractious, unruly, disrespectful offspring they instead called the police.

The parents actions - i.e. calling the police instead of calling/ checking on their neighbour- shows their lack of caring and their childrens lack of discipline, thus giving a view into the level of disruptive, disrespectful behaviour of those children why the woman finally snapped and kicked them out of her home. The parents should have been the ones arrested for elder abuse.... as the children are minors thus the parents are responsible for their misdeeds/actions.

When are we going to start teaching our children about having respect for themselves and others including the elderly? Read an article recently which stated that elder abuse, both physical, emotional and financial i.e. including taking/stealing funds and property from their older / elderly relatives, putting them in homeless shelters- is on the rise or has risen higher in these difficult financial times.

Time for the wars to end, our soldiers to be brought home and for our govt to start looking to solve problems/rebuilding within our own borders for a change.

Peace.... ''do onto others as you would have them do onto you''....i.e. treat others how you would like to be treated.

Back @ Jen; I apologize, my intent in posting @ you was you came on in your post like the parents who's children showed up unexpectedly. you posted "..I would be one hopping mad parent..the Grandmother had too much going on & I don't think was @ her best....didn't know their ages & even @ the age she thought is still too young." I was going along with you, as if it happened to was you as a parent. You also put the shoes on of the grand ma, in which I didn't comment because I didn't think it was relevant to the main point. That the children were left with a elderly woman, yet close to home, they were sent away to fend for themselves and they chose to do what they were told and go home. Their really is no blame to be tacked upon anyone, its just life in action. Many will be mad at the grandmother, I'm not mad at either, it is what it is, and when the police were called they should have seen it as that, but they chose to see it as more, as a crime, like it sounds like Creek Dog sees it. After all bad people can be any where at anytime, and to just put these kids out on there own in its self, put them at risk. Adults should either be able to see children or hear children, and if they can't, and they were the last ones to see or hear them they need to follow up till they are certain another adult has taken over responsibility. The question is, at what age can kids be before you let them stray from the (seen or hear) nest?? Personal preference or law? If something bad happens to kids without adult super vision, is the last adult criminally responsible, specifically, if there were no intent of harm?

Nobody said she was too old to care for children. They said that the parents, due to her age, should have vetted her before allowing their children to stay there for the night. Had they done that, and had some kind of relationship with her before allowing their children to stay there, the parents may have given the women the courtesy of contacting her before they went running to the police like a bunch of victims.

Sorry guys, I don't give a s@$# if this old bitch is old or not, still a bitch. Old age is not an excuse for inexcusable behavior and we damn well better stop this stupid culture of saying, she's old, they need to respect their olders -blah blah blah.

The proper (and only) response in her situation would have been to wake the kids rude parents up on the phone and tell them to come and pick them up.

Forcing a 10 and 11 year old to walk home in the middle of the night on a below freezing temperatures is f@#%$ unbelievable. She should be damn glad nothing awful happened, or she'd be facing the needle.

I don't give a s@#$ what your going through, seriously endangering the lives of young children is not never ok.

I do agree with all of you that said she should have called the parents of the kids she sent home, but please tell me in what paragraph did it state that she has/had a phone or computer and that she has/had their parents phone numbers on hand. You cannot conclude in this poorly written story that what YOU would have done is what she should have done based on the very minimal amount of information this situation played out of. Notice that the story spot lighted the fact that she was 71 years old. I've never heard of a woman as elderly as she is having a "sleep over party" while her sick husband was not home, in the media. This story is full of B.S., and the cops once again have gone overboard. I like how the police justify their arrest because of the kids age, yet kids the same age in gangs don't count because the police find them to be a lost cause unless they commit a crime that will justify an arrest once again. See the cycle yet?

O, what a bunch of crap.

If your kids don't comprehend the fact that they have to respect other ppl's homes & their boundaries whilst they are invited guests in the home, then keep your uncivilized, ill-mannered brats at your own house instead of palming them off on someone else.

How late are these *innocent* 10-11 yo kids allowed to stay up at home if they're still that much of a nuisance at 4:30am? Yes, kids generally stay up later than usual at a sleepover, but they haven't wound down yet by 4:30am?

These so far *awesome* parents only discovered what time their precious darlings had arrived home later in the day after the parents had gotten up. Either they're dumb enough to turn in w/o locking the doors, or their kids are *latchekeys* anyway who are quite used to walking home alone & letting themselves in.

4:30am is hardly prime time for kids to be outdoors, so I highly doubt some *predator* was lurking in the bushes in the cold, waiting to pounce. These are not little Kdg kids who would sit crying on a curb for hrs until someone found them. They are pubescent MS-aged brats who knew perfectly well where they lived just a few doors down & no doubt hustled to get there b/c it is damn cold at that time of morning.

I am so sure they actually disclosed the whole truth of why they were kicked out to their idiot parents, whose initial response was then to lunge for calling 911 for a non-emergency. Kids lie their asses off when they get in trouble & downplay their wrongdoing when no one is present to contradict them.

Y'all seriously would not be horrified that your kids got kicked out of a sleepover at that time of day & demand to know WTF they did for that to happen, but would immediately blame the adult whose home & rules they were blatantly disrespecting, & call the cops?

Not contact the homeowner whom your kids incessantly harassed, which they must have done if the hostess flung the door wide & told them to go home, & apologize for your parental shortcomings that permit your kids to act like animals when invited guests?

What a sorry passel of infants most of y'all have become. Scared to discipline your own kids, scared to teach them right from wrong, scared to have them do a 2-min dash thru the snow unsupervised, apparently scared of the dark, & expect the cops to do your parenting for you by roughing up the person who extended hospitality to your brats that was summarily abused. Nice.

The grandmother made a couple of bad decisions. The first was to not postpone the sleepover for a better time. Maybe she wanted the boy to have company and thought it would be good for him and she could handle it, and it just became too overwhelming for her after so many hours of sleep deprivation and hospital visits. If these boys spent a lot of time there, she may have felt confident that this night would be no different from any other time the boys spent together, and by 4 in the morning, it was just too much given all she was dealing with. Logic flew out the window and emotion took over. Pretty common thing to happen to one who hasn't slept, regardless of age.

The second bad decision was to not walk with them the short distance home and deliver them on the doorstep. Let's not even argue about whether or not she had their phone numbers, or a phone, or any other communication devices for that matter. Everyone was awake anyway, bundle up because we're marching your little butts home. Make the grandson come along, too...can't leave him unattended for those few minutes...and teach them all a lesson, including the parents if one is warranted. Having granny banging on your door at 4AM to give you back your wide-awake roudy children would be quite the eye-opening experience. If these parents are worth their salt, the interrogation would have begun right there and then, and focused on the boys' bad behavior.

She had too much on her plate and it's just really sad that nobody decided to lighten her load instead. Thankfully the boys are OK.

Why didn't the KIDS call their parents? Everyone has a cell phone. Someone needed to babysit these kids Not a grandmother with a load on her plate. Truth be known the parents were glad to get rid of their kids. Don't farm out your kids on some grandmother. Kids up at 4am? They need to be in jail not grandma. Parents you lost control of your kid a long time ago. Why the heck don't the law have a talk with these parents for allowing them to keep grandma up all night?

This is no excuse for her but as parents we sometimes do things without thinking, especially when we have a lot on her mind, and she had a lot.

Uh, most 10 and 11 year olds do NOT have cell phones; you certainly can't ASSume that they do. Why the hell couldn't she call their parents to come pick them up? That's what NORMAL people do. This woman is NOT normal. And if she had "so much on her mind", she shouldn't be hosting a sleepover for kids that age to begin with. Anyone knows that kids at a sleepover, at that age, do not sleep...they are excited and WILL stay up all night.

Ralph you receive the award for dumbest comment ever..10 and 11 year olds don't have cell phones.

Boo Hoo Granny has a lot of things going on,guess what so does everyone else that is no excuse for being totally irresponsible and outright stupid.

How do you know the parents were glad to get rid of their kids because of a sleepover?

Kids have always been rowdy at sleepovers been that way for a VERY LONG time.

Once Granny said yes to the sleepover those children are 100% HER responsibility and sending them out in frigid temperatures to walk home alone at that age IS and always should be a crime

Or is she too old to pick up the damn phone herself and call the parents? If thats the case then she needs to be put in a retirement home

Kids that age DO have cell phones. Most of them even have I-phones. Where have you been?

To all who are saying 10 and 11 year olds do not have cell phones - what are you smoking? Yes they most certainly do! I have seen a THREE YEAR OLD pitch a fit because mom left his IPAD AT HOME!!! So yes they could have called mom and dad before they left home.

Okay why did they not behave and quiet down AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING? Yes she could have called the parents but what if she had called the police for the little 'criminals' not being quiet?

She may not have known the parents number. The kids clearly have no respect.

Well my kids don't have cell phone, and neither do I.

You can try to deflect responsibility toward some hypothetical cell phone that may or may not exist.

You can blame kids all you want but kids are kids and a responsible adult is just that, a responsible adult.

The fact is when your kids go to a sleepover you expect them to be at the sleepover all night, after all it's called a sleepover. If grandma did not have enough authority to make them behave then she should have called the parents. Just throwing them out in the middle of the night is a very serious lapse of judgement.It could very easily have been worse.

You don't accept responsibility of watching over other people's kids if you obviously can't do it. So all of you ranting about personal responsibility, what about the grandma's responsibility.

@ Mike do you have a g-ma ,or you are the category of those children's parents .Good Lord .....

They probably had to walk a whole 50 ft to get home. As usual, PMSNBC never gives all the facts.

they only had a couple hundred feet to go, people are overreacting as usual, I'm sure they had coats and there never was a danger, damn nanny society the safest time of day to be out, just because the cops are afraid of the dark. How many child molesters hang out waiting for some unsuspecting kid to fall into their hands at that time of the day get real, true things were not handled well but handcuffs and arrest get real. hay maybe Obama can order her execution.

calling the paretns would have required grams to wake up more, turn on the lights in the kitchen and then more than likely have to wait for the paretns to arrive or maybe even make several attempts to wake the parents up with calls. she did the thing that would allow her to get back to bed the fastest. she didnt think she'd be caught. and it doesnt matter how old you are or what generation you grew up in, you would have to live under a rock to not known some of the horrbile crimes and child abduction cases that have been going on: casey dugurd, jessica ridgeway, dykes with ethan, the girl in nj on her bike who was strangled by two teen boys. you do not shove your kid or anyone elses kid out the door in the middle of the night in winter. period. grams could have made a better choice. and anyone no matter what age who made the choice she did needs to answer to it. yes there is a context but someone younger with the same context would still be repremanded. grams is old enoguh to know her limits and old enoguh to know what child endangement is. it doesnt matter if the kids had cell phones or not,grams is an adult woman, she knew better than to do this,she did it and didnt think much of it. and she is now with what is called a consequence. she gave the boys a consequence for being up in the middle of the night and child endangerment, no matter why or how also has a consequnce.

missing from this article but was in the actual one, they lived in the same apt complex

Police said they one the children’s parents, who lives in the same condo complex, contacted authorities on Sunday morning when they awoke to find the kids unexpectedly home.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Grandmother-Arrested-After-Ending-Rowdy-Sleepover-189762851.html

poor reporting as usual

I can't believe people are defending her actions and blaming the parents of the kids. We don't know that they are bad kids, or bad parents. The old woman showed extremely poor judgement in this situation.

She even says "Why didn't they come over and say Mrs. Aiello, 'Why did you throw my kids out at 4:30-5 in morning?' None of that."

Well... Mrs Aiello... Why didn't you call the parents to pick up their kids. Calling them at that hour is not illegal, and would have shown them how important it was to you to get them out of your place. There would have been hard feelings, sure, but no police involvement.

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!!!! How can you think it is o.k even if they do live in the same complex, street, block? If these boys had been abducted or murdered & it was your child what would you do....if you think it was o.k then you have something wrong with you.

Apparently they did not even hear the child come in since they did not know he was there till they got up in the morning. Have to wonder how many times this one has come and gone during the night under their care.

My kids DIDN'T have cell phones at 11, so quit assuming all kids do. If you live in a nice neighborhood, maybe the kids there do, but not all of us can afford to give kids phones, ipads, etc. Bottom line is SHE - the grandmother - is responsible for the kids, and should have called the parents, or escorted them home. If she didn't want the responsibility, she should NEVER have allowed them to spend the night.

As far as the so called bratty kids with no respect, I have taught kids in church for years, of all ages, of all group sizes. It's really funny how I can have 13 - 11 year olds and they behave for me, but some other person can't handle them. Maybe its how you deal with them. I demand respect from them because I participate and educate them. Others just don't have that ability. This woman should have recognized way earlier in the evening that she lacked that ability and had the kids go home (calling parents first).

Moral of this story? Grandma should have called the police to pick the kids up. Then the parents could go down to the station and pick these little butt-heads up.

And I know the exact comment that will come from the parents. Why did you call the police? EXACTLY!!!!!

ps...even my 15 yr old does not have a cell phone. But we lend him one of ours when he stays with someone else. Why not use the tools available?

@Lordraven

that's a twisted moral-- why should she have called the police? What's wrong with calling the kids' parents and telling them their kid is out of control, come pick them up? That is what a sensible person would do.

Charle7834

@Lordraven

that's a twisted moral-- why should she have called the police? What's wrong with calling the kids' parents and telling them their kid is out of control, come pick them up? That is what a sensible person would do.

The parents seem to believe that this is the police's responsibility. The parents would have thought that to be out of line, no more then I believe them to be out of line for them calling the police. Either way, this is not a police issue, and shame on them for even getting involved. What's good for the goose......

RE: Bonos_rama @ #2.3:

It is entirely possible that this woman, wanting to help her grandson return to some sense of normalcy after the death of his father, thought the sleepover with his friends would be a good idea. Obviously, considering how disastrously it ended, she did not fully think out how complicated it would be. And, certainly, nothing can excuse tossing children out of the house at 4:30 in the morning and into the bitterly cold night. Once she accepted the boys into her home, she had a responsibility to care for them with the same degree of responsibility she would show for her own grandson.

It takes more than good intentions to be the "good granny".

kathrynfmstar

Thank you, well put.

And in NYC (The Bronx, to be exact) a 7 year old was arrested and cuffed for beating up and robbing another child who he had been bullying all year. His mommy is now contemplating a $250,000 lawsuit because her 'precious little angel' didn't do anything wrong. What? Excuse me? This is exactly they type of parenting that's going on these days - no one gives a damn what their kid does until it affects their good time party, then it's always someone elses fault that they didn't raise their kid properly. I hope the other boy's mother sues the little thug's for $500,000 for what he did to her kid - maybe then she'd learn to be a real mother and stop encouraging her brat to be a bully and a thief!

JHC, people, kids younger than 10 now have cell phones! For those of you saying, "Well my kid doesn't," who cares? Your anecdotal and individual experience does not trump the larger trend. Go to a public place and look around. For pity's sake, go to a public school and watch the kids texting during class. It's a huge problem.

And speaking as someone who works with the public - we allow unaccompanied children without cell phones to use our phone to call home for a ride - half the time the parents don't answer! Who wants to lock up a library with kids still standing there, waiting for their worthless parents? One time, some kid was assaulted by a teen (who ran off), and there we were after closing, waiting for the police and for the poor kid's stupid parents, who did not even answer his cell phone!

kathrunfmstar is absolutely right - these parents deserved a literal wake-up call from the cops. Too bad that the cops violated the public's trust by overreacting to the statistically minimal threat of "lurking pedophiles" on a cold night at 4:30 a.m. on a short walk down a hill. Kids are much more likely to be abused by someone in the family, but that isn't a good news story.

Knowing they live in the same complex is a deal breaker for me.... They make that walk all the time and if the kids were there when the parents woke up it means they have a key... if they have a key, they walk home by themselves from school or elsewhere which is a LOT further than the same complex... overreaching and overreacting....

I'm 100% on the Grandmother's side. When you are a guest in somebody's home you need to respect their rules and their home, and if you can't or don't want to then you need to leave. They lived in the same complex, they weren't being forced to walk 15 miles in bare feet through the snow. These are going to be kids that grow up into adults who think they can throw tantrums in resturaunts about being served the wrong drinks and it ends with an officers knee pressing their face into the pavement. And as far as I'm concerned, being arrested for kicking people out of your house with cause is a huge breach of Americans' basic liberties. Can't kick people out of your own home? I hope she sues the hell out of the PD and the parents.

Don't any of you people...who are actually condoning the involvment of the police in an incedent where it's more than obvious that everyone knew everyone..not see how grossly melodramatic that is? You mean to tell me you actually believe that to be the right course of action? And you don't consider that to be a complete overeaction and a tremendous copout in dealing with the concerns of your own damned children? Concerned parenting? Please!! It's not as if they had to go and confront a well armed and drunken ex navy seal or anything even remotely threatning at all!

What the hell is wrong and unreasonable about walking the 200 feet down the sidewalk and knocking on Grannies door first to find out what the hell went wrong? It's plainly obvious from the article that they woke up to find Junior sacked out in his bed and danm near immediately ran to dial 911 just on juniors word alone!

But that's perfectly reasonable behavior to you people...you don't see anything remotely amiss about that. And this after knowing granny is dealing with some fairly grave issues. Not a single solitary one of them stopped for one second to wonder to themselves about whethe ror not there might be some grave problem at old grannies house and that junior..who is all of ten years old... might have told a flat out lie! Misread the situation somehow or maybe old granny had a flat out nervous breakdown from the stress of being aged, alone and a having a husband about to kick off in intensive care! Yet all of you are condeming granny for a lack of humanity! LOL. On the word of a pubescent alone! And you people wonder what the hell is wrong with the world? I mean really!

And some of you are actually screaming about communal responsibility of looking after eachothers well being. It's a friggn joke! No wonder our children are so friggin screwed up! That truly is about as warped a mentality as you can get...but oh no...you people don't see that at all. All you see is red and wanting to hang old granny out to dry! Fine ,fine parenting and people skills there and what a wonderful way to teach junior how to interact with the world youv'e created for him. Give yourselves a smiley face and a friggin gold star!!LOL.

Wow....one of the parents & her sister were over on that link to the source story badmouthing the grandmother like crazy in the comments....but not a word said about her obnoxious child who was obviously not taught to be respectful of his elders or of a home in which he is an invited guest.

Not one word about the bad behavior that led him to be tossed out the door. Her kid knocking stuff off walls in other rms by being so rowdy is not exactly something she wished to address, I suppose. Blamed it all on the grandson for *being a bad influence*, yet admitted she knew absoutely nothing about the grandmothers recent woes, etc. Just some mother wanting a free babysitter for the night, I reckon, & not caring much about where she dumped her kid.

Lots of crying that Precious left his cell phone behind (for those who insist kids that age don't have one) & couldn't call her. And whinging that her poor darling could *of* suffered being *froze* to death (in 20 degree temps, hardly likely, I bet her kid stayed out a lot longer than that playing in the aftermath of the snowstorm, & equally unsupervised) b/c she *didn't hear him at the door for 90 min*. Then how was she supposed to hear him calling on the phone if she couldn't hear him leaning on the doorbell?

I found it curious that upthread her sister was all, well, what if the parents weren't home, b4 she IDd herself as one of the kids' aunt. I thought that was odd, considering the time. Even in NY where the bars are open extremely late, last call is at 3:30am. I know they're not open that late in the New England states.

Hmmm. I bet Mom had a sleepover of her own & was just coming in at 6am. Trying to cover her tracks, striking 1st so she doesn't find child protection on her own doorstep for neglect & letting her kid *freeze*. She was the parent who called the cops.

Yes, she accepted the sleepover. Yes, they were unruly and deserved to be sent home.

BUT - as the adult in charge, it was her responsibility to ensure their safety. She was already up and already pissed. Take the short walk with them and ring the doorbell, knock, whatever. It's called CYA...cover your arse. Obnoxious boys delivered safely, from one adult to another. Eliminates the need for anyone else's involvement. "You are no longer welcome in my home, gather your things, I'm taking you home!"

If the parents knowingly sent the kids there with everything going on in grandma's life, maybe they should be charged with Parent Abuse..

I wouldn't have turned them out of my house; I would most definitely have called their parents and told them to come pick up their disrespectful brats immediately. What were kids that age even doing up at that hour, making that much noise? This woman was clearly overwhelmed; I don't agree with how she did what she did, but having other people's children for a sleepover doesn't mean she should have to give up the expectation of peace and quiet in her own home. "Kids will be kids" only goes so far. Whether or not the parents knew what is going on in this woman's life, her grandson surely did. Another shining example of the "it's all about me" mentality so many kids have today.

I'm also a bit surprised that at least one of those kids didn't have a [parent provided, naturally] cell phone. Age 12 and 13? That's very unusual these days. I'm guessing the other side of this is they didn't want to call their parents and have to explain why they they'd been told to leave. As for "frigid temperatures", I presume the parents of the kids provided them with coats... it is Connecticut in the winter, after all. The story makes it seem as though she turned them out naked and shoeless to freeze.

Arresting this woman is ridiculous, in my opinion. Shame on the parents for not teaching their children how to behave like housebroken and civilized humans in someone else's home... where they are a guest.

Are you people really that stupid? She accepted responsibility for those kids when she said yes to the sleepover cant blame the kids parents for Grandmas stupidity...and If she has so much going on why did she say yes in the First Place?

What she did IS a crime so she SHOULD have been arrested you cannot pick and choose who to arrest based on age/race/religion etc

And Boreal you seem to have the mentality of "I won't take responsibilty for my actions" by blaming 10 and 11 year olds for their behavior and not the person who accepted responsibility for them...EVERY Sleepover is this way with the kids usually staying up late and being noisy(Nature of children)

Tell the kids that you will call their mothers if they do not be quiet and go to sleep(Works 99% of the time)

If the Lady cannot handle that then say NO!!

4:30 am is a great time for predators...If those kids had been kidnapped and murdered your tunes would be totally different

Hey JohnSmith78,I dont think anyone on here is stupid,all are saying 1st ammendment-free speech on what they think.

Maybe Granny was wrong,but to arrest is not right.Yes she had alot going on,husband in hosp.raising grandson,allot of things all go together,an ppl. at stressfull times can and do make a wrong choice.Just like children.

Somewhere along the line here ,those kids must have no respect for being at others home spending night ,if they cant listen..& do what they were asked.

You say 4:30 am is great time for predaors 24 hrs a day is a great time ,just niot at 430am,Majority of kids being taken is Broad daylight,early afternoon hrs.Read satistics.

You sound mentally incapable yourself.My childern had many a sleepovers as have my grandchildern,When we say ok kiddos lights out,time to sleep ,or please be quiet no problem ,they do,Sounds like to me those kids at sleepover didnt know how to behave.

You sound like to me you have never done anything wrong in your life,Wake up,no one is perfect in this world.I am sure down the road you have made mistakes,We all have.

Exactly John. As right or wrong as her decision was in taking these kids in, she DID agree to it.

The guy in AL kidnapped that little boy, and killed the bus driver with his gun. BECAUSE of him using a gun, I read a lot of posts about him being a ringwing psycho.

Now we have Grandma here, who didn't need gun to put the lives of these two kids in danger. And I read posts blaming the kids, blaming the parents.

I agree that she had a lot going on in her life, and I wonder why the parents would put more on her shoulders. But then maybe they figured that having the kids in the house would take her out of her problems. Give her something else to focus on.

Regardless. What Grandma did was CRIMINAL. Sending two 10-11yr olds out in the cold where God only knows what could happen. I live in New England and while we all have winter coats, few of us regularly wear coats warm enough for extended time outside. This time of year we go from car/bus to school, work, home, someplace inside.

The police were right to arrest her. Anything could have happened to those children.

What she did IS a crime so she SHOULD have been arrested you cannot pick and choose who to arrest based on age/race/religion etc Really? The Federal goverment picks and chooses what laws to enforce everyday by not arresting illegals, not enforcing drug laws, not enforcing gun laws....get the hint?

If the parents didn't press charges, would the police have arrested her at all?

@ John Smith 78 I believe you are the parent of those brats and you should take parenting lessons and not send your children in care of 71 year old ,probably on medication and so much going on in her life .Before you want to get reed of you brats check the place where they are going first ,common sense man .........

Do not just be happy .......they are out of your hair .check WHO is the person in charge of your children over night ......it is all your fault.SHAME , SHAME , SHAME on you pressing charges on this poor old woman by calling police and calling everyone on this forum stupid ,YOU THE ONE .

john smith--you are 100 percent right. if those boys were missing today, had been killed or abducted all these posters would be singing a different tune. they would be outraged! what was this woman doing taking care of chiildren! she should be arrested! it doesnt matter if she had a lot going on, she allowed the sleepover and she took responsibility for these boys! there isnt a post on here that would read against these boys or in praise of the grandmother were something bad to have happened to them.

What rude obnoxious behavior, knocking things off the walls in the neighbors apt, these kids need some discipline from their parents, they are the perfect example of what society does not need, the biggest mistake was letting them in the door in the first place, the parents should be ashamed of themselves for creating these dysfunctional brats, the cops should be ashamed for their handling of the situation and the judge should throw this case out. this is not what we have law enforcement for we need to trim the fat off the government before it suffocates us all. those incompetent parents should have charges filled against them.

It is sad when things get to this point. I see alot of the blame game going on and I truly believe things could have been handled different on so many points, however, it wasn't and mistakes were made. Have you never reached the end of your ropes made a decision without thinking.

What has me wondering in my mind is who is more wrong here. Can only comment on the story released but it did state that the parents didn't even know these kids were home until they woke up the next morning.

Why did the kids not wake them up when they got there and tell them what happened and they were home because they could not calm down?

You think only the grandma is wrong. NO i think there is more than one to blame!

@ child-p If is a big word why don't we lock everyone up because they might do something you disagree with, if we lock everyone up before something bad happens think of how safe it will be for everyone, if only you were in jail today you might not run a red light tomorrow. if if if your logic is going to save the world.

Again Childprotection some good points.

But nothing bad did happen. The kids weren't killed, didn't go missing or abducted. They made the cold walk home safely and hopefully they learned a lesson too. And your question as to what she was doing taking care of children is one you should be asking the parents of these kids.

It kind of does matter that she's got alot going on in her life. The parents should have taken that into consideration.

Do you think you would ask your son's friend's 71 year old grandmother to have a sleepover knowing what was going on in her life?

Bambi, if this woman is so fragile how did she get custody of her grandchild? Sorry, you can't lay the blame on anyone but HER. Should the parents have questioned her more closely? Maybe, but she's the one who agreed to it. It doesn't sound like she was being badgered to take those kids in for an overnighter.

You can't pick and choose what crimes to arrest a person for and WHO to arrest. This womans actions were every bit as dangerous to those kids as the guy who kidnapped that little boy.

Only difference was, she didn't have a gun.

And if these boys had left Gram's house and gone out and committed crimes, or attacked Gram, would Gram still be the only one accountable? 10 and 11 year old kids kill people nowadays because of bad parenting. If these parents don't start raising these kids to be responsible for their own behavior, they will be the next criminals, not the victims. Sorry, but if something bad had happened to these kids, it would be because their parents failed to raise them to be responsible and respectful, and I have no problem stating that fact. True, it is not the boys fault, but their parents fault, should something have happened to them. The parents should have been the ones arrested, not Gram!

@John Smith there was no need for any arrest, what purpose does it serve, I cant stand the Nanny attitudes of people that think everyone needs to be locked up, why don't people like you move to North Korea where you can work for Kim in one of his reeducation facilities you would be very happy their, you can get everyone to behave like little puppets, people grossly overreact to every little thing the fact is nobody was hurt so no crime was committed just a poor judgement call hardly worth sending someone to the concentration camps which is where your kind is leading America. when I was that age we would be out working at that time of day, shoveling snow or delivering the morning paper, you people are turning into worthless wussie crybabies try getting a life! pretty bad when a kid cant walk half a block without it hitting the world news and people being sent to jail because of it damn Nazis.

John, #3.3:

"And Boreal you seem to have the mentality of "I won't take responsibilty [sic] for my actions" by blaming 10 and 11 year olds for their behavior and not the person who accepted responsibility for them...EVERY Sleepover is this way with the kids usually staying up late and being noisy(Nature of children)"

What a load of bovine scat. I am a mother; I reared a polite young man [now 22 years old] who was not allowed to act up at home, nor did he act up in anyone else's home. He wasn't perfect, and his father and I aren't "authoritarian" types; we just knew he was going to have to learn to get on in the world, so we set clear boundaries, which is something too few parents seem to be willing to do any more. [And then they whine and howl about why little Johnny or Susie is unwelcome everywhere s/he goes... go figure.] I received compliments from not only his teachers but other parents and family members on how well behaved he was... and still is. He had plenty of sleepovers in our home, and his friends got carried away at times. But no one ever knocked anything off the walls, and no one ever had to be told to keep it down more than once. I guess it's all about how much work you put into parenting.

A child of 10 or 11 is definitely old enough to understand what is acceptable behavior and what isn't. Do you believe children are supposed to just absorb "personal responsibility" without being taught by their parents? Dude, I hope you don't have kids. I feel for them if you do, because clearly they will learn nothing from you but how to rationalize poor behavior and make excuses.

I can see kids that age being up a bit after midnight, and maybe horsing around as kids will do. But 4:30 a.m.? After several warnings? Nope, that won't fly, weekend or not. Again, I wouldn't have turned these brats out. I would have contacted their schlock parents and had them haul their butts out of bed at 4:30 a.m. to retrieve their spawn. But I can understand why this woman said "enough is enough".

Predation. "Things that make you go hmmm." Of all the attacks on children cited on this thread and the previous one, how many occured at 4:30 am? What, crickets!?! That's right, folks. There are no youthful newspaper delivery carriers out there any more, just garbagemen and cops who are both glad the streets are bare. No prey, no predaters. So, if you think that blowing off your own life by tending the drapes because you're afraid there are pedophiles, rapists and gang bangers behind every tree is a worthwhile endeavor, then it is your life to waste. Better than exposing your fear and ignorance in cyberspace.

childprotection - Nothing happened to these kids except learning they can disrespect their elders in their own home and then get theri mommy and daddy have them arrested. Oh and yes, there are many 10 and 11 year olds with cell phones....get out from under your rock.

Boo22174 - You forgot to mention that they learned to call the police when they get disciplined. These parents will never have control over these kids again, if they even had it in the first place.

As an additional note, I heard on CNN that this was a condo complex and the kids only walked "several doors down" to get home.

Every time my child ever attended a sleep over, the first rule was

"If there is any problem, CALL ME !" That pretty much was the rule for any kind of socializing.

The fact that the children didn't do that AND the parents called police in THIS situation speaks volumes.

She should have called the parents to pick them up but it is a well known fact that severe stress impairs cognitive ability plus the fact that she is 71. Either you want to solve problems or you don't.

I don't see anything positive here. All that was accomplished is a further traumatizing a wounded

soul. She was wrong, she made a mistake. The others involved, parents, police..... they were both in the position to do better than they did with the situation.

Stand 4 Truth, something would have been learned if the parents didn't call the police. The kids would have learned a lesson about being a guest in somebody else's home. Instead they think they can act like inconsiderate little punks and then have the police and taxpayer's dollars sort out the problems they created. I can't blame kids for too much since they are kids, but the parent's reaction is absolutely pathetic and some of the worst parenting I've ever seen. If that happened to my kid I would ground him for acting like that when a guest in someone's home, especially with what the Grandmother is going through. The Grandma should have called the parents, you are right, but the parents should still punish their kids. The fact that they were kicked out of the home doesn't change the fact that their behavoir was way out of line.

The way that mother carried on in the comments on the source thread, her kid was an angel who never did a thing wrong except be tossed out for no good reason to *froze* to death in 20-degree temps by Devil Granny.

Apples don't fall far from trees. This kid is like the cat licking the cream over his mother calling the cops & having an old lady arrested. She didn't punish him one bit.

@ Retired _Vet...would you be saying the same thing if it was a younger person? Any person with empathy would feel bad for ANYONE with their spouse having health issues....these kids were rude, disrespectful snots, but they do not deserve what she did.

Jen, they were 10yr olds. Don't you remember sleep overs?

Ya the trick is to sneek out the window and goof of all night, not reduce the house to ruin. and since when does 20 degree weather slow down a kid? kids now days have no sense of adventure. they must have been testube babies.

Jen-Lance I might be. I didn't say she was right in putting them out to walk by themselves but I am saying that is sounds like these were a bunch of disrespectful little brats. She should have called their parents and told them AT 4:30 AM to come pick them up because they were not following the rules and not letting people sleep. I wasn't there so don't know how many times she asked the kids to quiet down but the fact that they were put out at 4:30 am would lead me to believe they had been at it for quite some time.

Jen, they were 10yr olds. Don't you remember sleep overs?

Yes, & if my friends or I had dared bounce off the walls at 4:30am, they all would've been thrown out the door. My parents didn't take any crap from any kids. My mother would poke her head in at 1am as she was going to bed & (if we were still awake), tell us *lights out & shut up*.

I don't understand how kids of that age managed to be so lively by 4:30am that they were literally knocking things off walls in different rms. Obviously no regular 9pm age-appropriate bedtime for this bunch. Even at my HS slumber parties we never managed to stay up that late. No one dared turn those lights back on after Mother shut them off. My guests were always invited for 8pm on a Fri nite, & 5 hrs was a long enough party, esp when we got up at 6am for schl & it was way past our bedtimes, even for my Sweet 16.

the fact that they were put out at 4:30 am would lead me to believe they had been at it for quite some time.

I think they had been *at it* since the min they walked in the door, & commendable restraint was shown in not throwing them out sooner. She did day stuff was falling off the walls in other rms. I bet that one was the last straw in a long & tiring night of aggravations.

Me , being a Grandmother that raise her Grandchildren , Knows all too well how out of hand a situation like this gets. I say give her a break because at her age she wasnt thinking correctly , maybe they lived two houses down , The law should of never jailed her , thats ridulous. Bless her heart and the parents of the unruly kids should teach their kids some respect.

If her age is an excuse for her decision to send the kids home in 20-something degree weather, then she shouldn't be the legal guardian of her grandson who is about the same age. She can't have it both ways.

I watched the video. She complains that the parents didn't call her before calling the police yet SHE didn't call the parents to alert them that their kids were being sent home. She shows the same lack of regard for the parents that she is accusing the parents of having for her. In addition, we don't know if the kids had keys to their houses (since they were undoubtedly planning on staying the night they may not have had the keys) and had to sit outside in the sub-freezing weather until their parents woke up. I would wager THAT is the reason that she was charged with risking injury to a child.

"...had to sit outside in the sub-freezing weather until their parents woke up"

because OBVIOSLY they couldn't POSSIBLY have knocked on the door and woken Mommy and Daddy up to let them in....

If her age is an excuse for throwing kids out in the middle of the night then the kids age is an excuse for not behaving.

But then again one has A LOT more experience than the other, and should know better.

exactly CAT and Jo, she didnt call the parents then lamments that they didnt call her. what would have been accomplished by their call to her anyway?. those kids certainly arent going to grams house again and grams would have more than likely diminsished the act anyway. you dont call a child abuser and try to get them to see how bad it is to abuse a child--they are the ones who did the endangerment in the first place! anyone who is out of it to the point to send the kids they are responsible for out into the cold in the middle of the night is beyond poor judgement. she did have a lot going on--which is why she should not have had the sleepover in the first place--or she should have had a back up plan in place with the parents in case the boys didnt listen or the sleep over needed to end. there were infinate other choices she could have made. why would the kids have keys? no one in their right mind would think a child would be walking home in the middle of the night. and some houses are big or the parents sleep with the bedroomdoor closed out of habit from having a child in the home, it could easily have been a hard task for these kids to get into their homes or wake their parents at that hour. grams gave the boys consequences for their actions, now she is with consequences for hers. i feel bad for the son who lost his father, does not have a mother willing to take him, has to live with gram and prob feels horrible and embarrassed all the way around. if grams is this poor in judgement, she shoudl not be rearing a child. but unfortunately there is no place else for the child to go. i can guarantee, if anything bad would have happened to either of those boys--with the cold or being killed or abducted,there is not a comment on here that would be praising the grandmother for what she did! and most be outraged if she wasnt arrested.

OK childprotection,

Now you're just beating a dead horse.

"she did have a lot going on--which is why she should not have had the sleepover in the first place--or she should have had a back up plan in place with the parents in case the boys didnt listen or the sleep over needed to end. there were infinate other choices she could have made"

Right. This is also why the parents should have, maybe, considered the same before adding more stress to the woman's situation.

Maybe the disrespectful kids should have stayed home that night.

Maybe she should have said no sleepover.

IMHO, the parents never should have asked. If the kids had to have a sleepover, why not in the parents' home?

All would be fine and this would be a non story.

There are alot of "what ifs?" in alot your outraged posts, but that's what they are. What ifs?

Nothiing really bad happened here and if you prefer to look at it another way, maybe some good can come out of this. Maybe the next time you need a babysitter or your kid wants a sleepover, you'll look at all of the "what ifs" first. Maybe some of the people here, including myself will too. But there's no reason to call for this woman's head.

The Nazis are thick, lets lock everyone up that makes the slightest mistake, better yet shoot them before they hurt themselves.

@ child protection they lived in the same condo complex they were not left on the streets.

Bob fu- where does it say the parents of the kids asked her to have the sleepover? I must have missed it.

had to sit outside in the sub-freezing weather until their parents woke up

Y'all who are carrying on about the temperature like they were wading thru liquid nitrogen do realize it was 20-something above zero, not below....right? That this took place on the continent of North America well south of the Arctic Circle, rather than on the continent of Antarctica square on the Antarctic Circle....right?

Ain't no one getting frostbite from that. Even the kid whose mother is on the source article comments claiming that Precious couldn't wake her up until it hit 90 min of him leaning on the doorbell. I guess Precious was too dumb to either go to the condo of the kid who got in, or go back to Granny's & apologize for being a Junior Criminal & beg to be let back inside?

I still think his mother was out at some no-tell motel until 6am & called the cops to cover her own ass for CPS showing up waving the neglect handbook at it.

In the same condo complex - not far at all.

I have a feeling that the kids didn't have keys for their front doors since they were spending the night and expected to not go home until their parents were awake. If the kids (10 and 11) didn't have keys then they could have spent HOURS outside in sub-freezing weather in the dark, which would have justified the alarm the parents felt and the charge of the Grandma.

if they were too stupid to knock on the door and wake their parents to let them in...they DESERVE to spend hours outside in sub-freezing weather in the dark.

Police say they were contacted by one the children's parents Sunday morning when they awoke to find the kids unexpectedly home.

It says the kids were home not huddled outside in the cold. Sounds to me like you are making an absurd assumption based on the way the story reads.

@ Maea-455355...how stupid are you? My mother had her alarm clock right next to her head full blast & never heard it..& my mother was a very good mother...point is no matter how old the person is watching these kids messed up.

mara, do you live in a trailer? or a bunker? people with ten year old boys usually have a habit of closing their bedroom doors at nightfor privacy. some people live in houses with not just one floor but TWO! houses that are big, with a closed bedroom door at the back of the house might make it hard for the parents inside alspee to hear knocking at the door. the boys more than likely felt on that walk home that they were going to be in alot of trouble. they migth not be pounding on the door like survivalist maniacs at 5 in the morning! is it possible for you to read this story and not see a scared cold ten year old boy as stupid, but actually consider that the responsible parent endangered the kid by doing what she did. things are not always one dimensional as you may think. if these boys would have frozen or abducted or killed, i doubt many posters on here would be praising the grandmother or calling the boys stupid. yes they are boys, but they are still kids and most kids would feel scared being booted out in the cold in the middle of the night. so grams endangers a child and you call the kids stupid.

My question is, separate & apart from the issue of how the grandma handled it (which obviously could have been much better), did the parents of those kids even address the issue of their children's behavior? If my children were at a sleepover but got kicked out & sent home early for misbehaving, there would be some serious consequences for my children. There is no excuse for being disobedient, disrespectful, & rude like that. Those parents should apologize to the grandma for their children's behavior, but they probably think their kids are perfect angels who always listen to grownups and never do anything inappropriate.

The kids are 10yrs old. How many of you were ever at a sleepover at that age? Do you remember staying up for all hours then? I certainly do.

Sounds to me like the kids were just being kids.

I blame Grandma. If they were too much for her, she should have called their parents or not taken them in for the night at all.

childprotection,

You insinuate people who live in a trailer are more ignorant than those who live elsewhere? That is just an ignorant implication. You're beginning to reply as if these kids are your kids or have a personal realtionship with them. People who do not share your beliefs are not wrong. Or are they?

@ child protection they lived in the same condo complex. It was not far. I think you are thinking they had to travel to another house or blocks away. This is not the case.

Janine, I don't remember knocking trophies off of walls at 4:30 a.m. at my sleepovers. I remember whispering ghost stories to each other with a flashlight.

I used to live in Middletown. After I had my kid, we moved. Dead bodies and petty crime and not a rare event.

mara, do you live in a trailer? or a bunker?

If that's supposed to be meant as the deliberate insult it looks like, I suggest you & jen hyphenated & a few other ppl acquaint yourself w/ the rules around here. Keep getting reported, & you get banned that much faster.

Irrelevent. These kids lived in condos. Which is like, yknow, a house.

people with ten year old boys usually have a habit of closing their bedroom doors at nightfor privacy.

Single mothers don't need to do that. Unless they have live-in BFs or 1-night stands. Which can be very bad for the children. Since this is all about the poor children.

some people live in houses with not just one floor but TWO! houses that are big, with a closed bedroom door at the back of the house might make it hard for the parents inside alspee to hear knocking at the door.

I think we've already established what a condo looks like.

I think we can also safely say that condos, like houses & apartments, have doorbells. They're this really kewl invention that have been around for, o, at least the last 150 yrs or so, keep up.

the boys more than likely felt on that walk home that they were going to be in alot of trouble.

Obvs not, since Mommy called the cops on Precious's hostess for ejecting him for being a bad guest.

they migth not be pounding on the door like survivalist maniacs at 5 in the morning!

Anyone would pound hard if they were cold enough, consequences be damned. But then there's that doorbell thing that jolts ppl right awake.

And wouldn't *survivalist maniacs* like to be out on their own in the cold w/ no other humans? Just sayin'.

is it possible for you to read this story and not see a scared cold ten year old boy as stupid,

Nope. They proved they were stupid by agitating the household in which they were guests for hrs on end until they were told to get out. Not very smart behavior, considering the consequence for it.

but actually consider that the responsible parent endangered the kid by doing what she did.

Yes, that would be the idiot mother who called the cops, posting from her FB acct on the source article, trying to defend her own stupidity & bad behavior by stating she had no idea what sort of a household she allowed her child to hang out in.

things are not always one dimensional as you may think. if these boys would have frozen or abducted or killed,

You cannot *freeze* from a 2-min dash in 20+ temps. It's scientifically impossible. You would not even freeze if you sat in 20+ temps for a cpl hrs. Just not cold enough. So enough w/ the drama over the *frigid weather*. It was not frigid. *Frigid* is when it's single digit temps, maybe, depending on the wind chill.

4:30m is probably not the optimal cruising for victims time for those who want to kill & abduct young boys.

i doubt many posters on here would be praising the grandmother or calling the boys stupid. yes they are boys, but they are still kids and most kids would feel scared being booted out in the cold in the middle of the night. so grams endangers a child and you call the kids stupid.

They are stupid. A child of that age should have basic manners. Even if his parents are too stupid to teach them to him, he should still have picked them up from other children by the time he hits MS age.

They weren't too scared to flip Granny the bird & keep carrying on like animals all night, were they? You're not going to try to say they were perfect angels all night & then did just one wrong thing, b/c I doubt that's how it went down b4 the door was thrown open. They weren't too scared to lie to their mothers & have them sic the cops on their supposed friend's grandmother, were they?

Esp the kid whose mother called the cops, blaming the grandmother for the fact that Mom claims she allegedly slept thru the doorbell for 90 min straight & Precious *could of froze*. Is it now someone else's fault that you're not home or maybe too busy gettin' busy at 4:30am to let your brat in, having taken advantage of the fact that you had a free overnight babysitter? I don't care how big the house is; she couldn't be arsed to get up if she was home, & I don't think she was just from that claim alone constituting *child endangerment* to the dozy mare.

The kid was dumb as bricks for supposedly sitting there those 90 min. Not smart enough to start throwing snowballs at Mom's window? Not smart enough to go over to the condo of the kid who managed to get in & beg for succor from getting *froze*? Not smart enough to take the Walk of Shame back over to his friend's house, squeak out a few tears & an apology? O me o my, I left my cell phone behind, I am now totally helpless in a world of hurt. Puhleeze. Stupid kid.

I call BS on that one. Maybe the kids should have tried acting in a more respectful way in someone else's home? HEY, there's a thought. OH...wait.....there's no longer any accountability, is there?

Had I been tossed out of a someone else's home for misbehaving, my parents would have made me very sorry....for days.

It was her house, not yours.

Yep, Ralph, you are correct.

You know, the kids might have been loud and rowdy..........but she was irresponsible and wrong......and she is crying for herself because she can't believe somebody would do this to her.

@ PSP 420.......... Please do not have any children ,if you have them allredy ,I feel sorry for this society .

"..there's no longer any accountability, is there?"

And yet a responsible adult accepted the responsibility of having the kids for a sleepover then threw them out in the middle of the night. And she get a free pass in your mind.

Where's your "accountability" in this.

And bambi, psp put the blame where it is due, not on some could have, should have or on some imaginary cell phone like others on this thread. But on the actual irresponsible actions of the adult in charge. I'm sure psp is a much better parents than the others who try to deflect the blame with some hypothetical events.

The parents of my sons friends used to tell me how wonderfully he behaved when he was at their house. I always questioned whether it was actually MY son that was there. hehehe..

But seriously, kids will be kids. Grandma was completely WRONG in the way she handled it.

I don't blame the parents for calling the police. I would have too.

If it had been my kid, it is unlikely he would have been there in the first place to sleepover, because if the grandma told me her situation with her husband, my answer to my kid would have been "no". Because I always called and spoke with a parent before my kids slept over.
This is sorely lacking today, as when my daughter had 30 kids to a Halloween party in 10th grade, and a dozen girls were staying the night - only one parent called me to verify that, and I was floored - and I told the dad he was the first and only to call. This is in "suburbia". Parents today are too stressed out and busy apparently.
My dad, remarried and with a young teen stepdaughter, warned me times have changed. When the step had a 13th birthday party some years earlier, the kids started throwing cake around his upscale home. But he called the parents to come get them. (In all fairness to good kids, his now ex was a truly terrible parent.)

Hey Jo,

Initial accountability for decision making regarding juveniles starts with the parents of the juveniles (brats) involved in this.....how's that? Makes sense now or, still too difficult?

Seems to me that knowing this lady's situation would hinder a responsible parent in allowing their kid to stay over......even if granny said "YES".

Well, pretty soon the parents will be crying, because those kids were "often" at this 71-year-old woman's home, and now she will never babysit them again.

Now, the parents will have to actually watch their "rowdy" kids and believe me, they will soon be crying for themselves because they cannot believe that somebody actually expects them to do their job.

If it had been my kid, it is unlikely he would have been there in the first place to sleepover, because if the grandma told me her situation with her husband, my answer to my kid would have been "no". Because I always called and spoke with a parent before my kids slept over.

And at least the one frantically trying to play CYA on the source article comments didn't do that. She had no idea what was going on in that household. So the sole conclusion one can draw from that was, she saw free babysitting & jumped at the chance to go out & party. Esp since her kid was sitting on the doorstep until 6am getting *froze*, & of course that wasn't her fault at all, even tho she didn't let him in.

Who doesn't hear 90 min straight of banging, yelling, & ringing doorbell? A parent who is either not home, or too drunk or drugged up or gettin' busy to bother going downstairs to ans it. She claims if only the kid had brought his cell phone home w/ him....how would that have helped, since you're trying to get ppl to think it takes 90 min for someone at your door to get your attn when *asleep*? I'm thinking passed out, or not home at all, more like it. Wonder what time it was when she decided to call the cops? Bet it wasn't at 6:05am.

Yes she should have listened to wayne pierre. She needed a gun for these bad kids.

Yes she should have listened to wayne pierre. She needed a gun for these bad kids.

*Ding* Ding* Ding*. And the most idiotic comment of the day goes to.....

Noooooooooooooooooooo!!! ralph-358785 do not bring that up!!!!! shoots...another gun topic....this going to turned bad.... figures...

Ralph......go back to sleep dude, you are clearly "out of it".

The day is young. I'm betting Ralph will come up with something even dumber real soon.

@ Dave-735909, What police state? What she did was ILLEGAL.

The police state that says that what she did was illegal. Why is it illegal to send children somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12 outside at 4:30 in the morning? Farmers have been doing it forever! I bet the next time the kids go to someone's house for a sleepover, they will quiet down when thy are told!

Or better yet, no parenting Kathy.

@ Kathy .........I feel the same way ..........My child is never wrong .....but always someone else .

I would imagine that she might agree to a sleepover with just a couple of friends; she might've assumed that since they were her grandkid's pals, that they were nice kids & wouldn't act up or refuse to stop doing something that she requested them to. Come to think of it, did her grandchild do anything to calm things down, like tell them Grandma's really tired & stressed since Grandpa's been in the hospital, so everybody cool it? The grandson surely knew about his grandparent's situation.

Yes, it was thoughtless & irrsponsible to turn the kids out at 4:30A, yes, she deserved some kind of charges to be brought against her, but hauling her off in handcuffs was a little over the top. What I think would have been preferable, if she had a car, would've been to pack everybody up & take the little loudmouths to their home, then pounded on the door & ring the doorbell repeatedly & rousted the parents out of bed, to give them a taste of what she'd had to put up with. Then a little chat with her grandson about all of this while driving home would be in order.

LMFAO...yes, these kids where brats...explain to me why so many of you on here are willing to put blame on kids & their parents for a grown a$$ woman throwing these kids out in the cold in the middle of the night?

Bubbacat,She deserves our compassion.She deserves understanding.She most deservedly should be apologized to by the parents of the bratty kids and the police.It's 4:30 AM. and these kids are awake and causing total chaos.It makes me wonder what kind of homes they are being raised in.If it were in my power I'd throw her and every grandparent, who is raising or has had to raise a grandchild, a parade.

they are kids and it was a party, the old woman should not have accepted responsibity for them or held a party if she was not able to handle them, if my 10 yr old came home at 4:30 and told me he was told to get out and walk home, i'd have called the cops too. this is not the 50s. when i was a kid and for example, it was ok to trick- or- treat after dark with friends never alone even then, and there was no effin way my parents would have let me walk a block alone at 430 am, for any reason, even in 1976 when i was 10; at 71, shes old enough to know better, the cops didnt treat her any different than they do anyone else they arrest, they did not abuse her as for'' treated like a murderer'' how is it exactly they treat murderers they arrest any different than anyone else, and how would she know. clearly shes an '' oh woe is me' actor

The parents should have called granny and pitched a fit, not the cops. Everyone wants someone else to "handle it". And then no way would my kid ever get to sleepover at the house again - in addition to a "talking to" about minding the house parent to avoid such an incident as being thrown out at 4:30am.

It wasnt a party...they are 10, it was a sleep over. If they are to young to walk home they are too young to party! jeez

wenezdae,You referring to this woman as an "old lady" shows me that you are not teaching your children respect for the elderly as you don't even address them respectfully.

I'll take the latter for $2000 Bob, but only because I now need to pay off the court fines and lawyer fees.

I agree with all the people saying this country is getting "arrest happy," and common sense has gone missing!! These kids shouldn't have been making noise at 4:30am and should have stopped when they were told to be quiet. Of course, the grandmother should have called the parents, and I'm sure she knows that now, but she was under stress. She shouldn't have been arrested, but next time, she shouldn't accept someone elses' poorly behaved children for a sleepover. There was no reason her to be arrested, or for charges to be pressed against her, or a court hearing, this is ridiculous!!

She THOUGHT they were 12 or 13 but they were actually 10 and 11.

Kids at 10 or 11 years old need to behave as well...The problem is that everyone wants to blame everyone else for their problems...The Eagles song "Get Over It' pretty much sums up what's wrong with the U.S. today...I went to an elementary school where the principal had a wooden paddle and other kid's parents could spank you if you were being a dink at a sleepover....and then they would be thanked for stepping up, not arrested for being so mean to a special little darling....

Me too

Yup, and the parents shouldn't have called the cops on her. They should have gone over to talk it out, even if they were angry with how she handled the situation. Whole thing could have been avoided if people would TALK before calling the police.

It was a sleep-over, not babysitting. Nowhere in the story does it say that the parents asked her to watch their kids.

Not all cops are bad, it only takes a few to make it look that way....As for the rest of the comment I agree. I wonder exactly what these "little angels" told their parents.

They also need to stop breeding if they're that stupid.

Really?? is there a "parent class" course in the nearby community college??... It will be a blast!!!

Again, I am really curious if the parents didn't know the kids were home until they woke up..(so the story says)..why did the kids not wake them and tell them they were home and why they were sent home?..There is more than one to blame here!!!

Probably because the kids knew they blew it.

No laws were broken? How about child endangerment. Just because your not aware of a law doesn't mean it doesn't exist Justtis4u. This airheaded women agreed to host this sleepover, the police must respond because the parents want to press charges. Not everything is an attack on the American public. It's just a simple case of being stupid. And double spacing doesn't make your comments any more intelligent or truthful.

Hey Grind,

Don't talk about someone's double spacing when you can't spell. The case in point is you used "your" instead of "you're".

"Just because your not aware of a law..."

YOU'RE stupid! Your is possessive, meaning belonging to you. You're is a contraction of the words you and are. Those in glass houses...

@Justis4U: Totally agree the situation is blown out of the proportion. I anticipate the case gets dismissed by the judge. However, the grandmo has better thing to do then to sue the city. She got a husband in the hospital

@MrsWilbert - dedicating your entire post to correcting a grammatical error and then explaining why it's wrong makes you look even worse.

A one liner pointing out the mistake would've sufficed. Explaining it looks like you have to try to make yourself look smart.

@MrsWilbert - dedicating your entire post to correcting a grammatical error and then explaining why it's wrong makes you look even worse.

A one liner pointing out the mistake would've sufficed. Explaining it looks like you have to try to make yourself look smart.

Pot meet kettle.

Makes me feel sorry for MrWilbert!

Grind55 - maybe she pays an incredible attention to detail and is thorough in what she does...he may be a very lucky man, you don't know.

Wow...Are you a lawyer? I agree with you, but... I don't want to be close to you... probably you will sue me just to be at your side in the sidewalk, hell you probably sue me when you read this post... hope not. Peace!!! :)

Us and Them re: #20.5;

Delightfully succinct.

My son at age 12 got up at 4:30am to swim.

".....another example of liberal life in a broke state like ct (sic)."

Take your pathetic, moronic comment and shove it where your head appears to be.

It was also in Connecticut that the kids were slain in the school by a nutcase criminal.

Leave it to Connecticut to prosecute the wrong people - responsible gun owners, grannies...

1st of all, they should take child endangerment seriously nomatter how old the perpetrator, and secondly, they were there you were not, the only way they could granny to have her head examined was to arrest her because who knows how she was really behaving to the cops, and yes they had to cuff her for their safety and hers. why was this old lady hosting a party to begin with? why didnt these kids' parents kow who they were sending their kid to be supervised by, over night no less?