<em>The Onion</em> Joins <em>Reason</em> in Bashing the War on Moms

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Reason's reporting on the government's war on parents who give their kids a modicum of freedom and responsibility has brought scrutiny to an out-of-control nanny state. Now even The Onion is making fun of cops and busybodies who treat parents like criminals for letting their kids play by themselves.

The Onion's latest infographic asks "Should Parents Who Let Kids Play Outside Unsupervised Be Arrested?" Some hilarious answers:

Absolutely not. I only support it when people get arrested for things that could never happen to me. Yes, it's much more responsible to leave your children unsupervised at home. No way. When I was a kid, we played outside by ourselves and everyone except Brian came home just fine.

Best of all:

Of course. You can never have too many reasons to arrest people who can't afford child care.

Reason's Lenore Skenazy has been documenting this exact phenomenon: Consider the case of Debra Harrell, a low-income mother who was arrested for letting her daughter play at the park while she worked at McDonald's.

But it's not just the financially disadvantaged—parents of all stripes are threatened by the mindset that an independent child is an endangered one. Recently, children's author Kari Anne Roy was investigated by Child Protective Services because a neighbor reported her for letting her child play on a public bench within sight of the house.

Read more from Reason on the War on Moms here.

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