Opinion: If You Want to Raise Your Own Kids, You’d Better Lawyer Up

I walked to school as a child. Alone. No GPS, no air tag, no adult trailing behind me. I also walked home for lunch. Every day. My parents weren’t reckless—they were responsible. They trusted me. Trusted our neighborhood. Trusted common sense.

That kind of trust is all but extinct now.

Because in today’s America, if your child steps outside without a full security detail, you’re liable to be arrested. Or worse—have them taken from you entirely.

Just ask Samuele Jenkins and Jessica Ivey. Two parents from Gastonia, North Carolina, who let their 7- and 10-year-old sons walk home two blocks from Subway. A decision most of us grew up with. A decision that ended in unthinkable heartbreak when their youngest son, Legend, was struck and killed while crossing the street.

Instead of comfort, they got charges. Arrested two days after burying their child. Jailed. Held on bond. Separated from their remaining children. Branded as criminals.

That alone should make your blood boil.

But it doesn’t end there. Because while North Carolina parents are being prosecuted for trusting their own children to walk home, California lawmakers are pushing something even more dystopian.

Enter AB 495—the so-called “Family Preparedness Plan Act.” On paper, it’s a bill meant to protect children if their parents are deported in ICE raids. But in practice? It gives any adult—a neighbor, teacher, volunteer, or stranger—the power to take custody of a child without the parent’s knowledge or consent. No court order. No background check. Just a piece of paper.

Let me say that again: A stranger can walk into your child’s school, claim they’re a mentor, and leave with them—legally.

What could possibly go wrong?

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills didn’t mince words: “If this bill passes, I’m going to ask you to leave the state of California. You’ve got to run with your kids. You’ve got to go.”

And he’s right. Because this isn’t just another overreach. It’s a full-scale assault on parental rights.

When I grew up, parents were in charge of their children. Schools and communities backed them up. The government stayed in its lane. That world—the Mayberry we keep referencing—is being bulldozed by lawmakers who seem to believe the state knows better than the family.

We’ve reached a point where you need a five-page application and home visits to adopt a dog—but if AB 495 passes, someone can take custody of your child without so much as a phone call to you. And yes, this includes the right to approve medical care. Think STD checks, hormone therapy, even surgery—without a parent’s knowledge.

So while North Carolina jails a couple for letting their child walk two blocks, California is legalizing the disappearance of your child from a classroom with nothing more than a signature.

This isn’t compassion. It’s lunacy.

And yet, it’s consistent with the same warped logic that’s now punishing parents for parenting. Jenkins and Ivey, after weeks of trauma, accepted plea deals. No prison time, thankfully. Just probation, parenting classes, and court fees. As if they haven’t paid enough.

District Attorney Travis Page said it well: “There is no punishment worse than a parent living with the knowledge that their actions contributed to their child’s death. These parents don’t need prison—they need mercy. They need grace.”

He’s right. But we need something more. We need to wake up.

Because while the system throws the book at some parents, it’s writing new chapters for how to take children away entirely. And not for abuse. Not for neglect. But for being born to the wrong ideology. Or living in the wrong ZIP code. Or having the audacity to want to raise your own child.

This is a culture that punishes independence, criminalizes grief, and replaces parenting with policy.

Let me be clear: accidents happen. It doesn’t mean someone belongs in a jail cell. And bills like AB 495? They aren’t solutions. They’re Trojan horses—dressed up in “emergency” language but hollowed out to gut the family unit from within.

This is about more than one family in North Carolina or a bill in California. This is a nationwide shift. From family-centered to government-controlled. From common sense to state surveillance.

It’s the death of Mayberry. And the rise of the nanny state.

I’m not saying we turn a blind eye to harm or throw out safety nets. But we need balance. We need to trust parents again. We need to stop assuming the worst and start supporting the best.

We cannot keep parenting from a courtroom or the State Capitol. And we sure as hell can’t outsource childrearing to strangers with clipboards.

If we don’t stand up now—if we don’t demand reason, responsibility, and real rights for parents—then stories like the Jenkins family’s won’t be the exception. They’ll be the rule.

And your child? Could be next.