A South Carolina mom who let her 9-year-old nephew walk her 3-year-old son to the McDonald's less than a quarter mile away has been—I'm sure you can finish this sentence in your sleep by now—arrested and charged with child neglect.

The reason? According to WSPA News 7:

The officer says the boys had to cross a street and pass several businesses and homes to get to the eatery, putting their safety at risk.

The mom, Tiesha Mesha Hillstock, 24, told the police the unthinkable: She had trusted the older boy to "take care of his cousin."

Which, apparently, he was doing. Nonetheless, when the kids were spotted without an adult, or drone, or armored tank to keep them safe, the cops swooped in and accompanied them back to their home. Then the Spartanburg police department then issued an arrest warrant for mom.

Because anytime a child is unsupervised, a parent must be arrested. It's as simple as that. Note that in another independent child story that is getting a ton of attention today, a 9-year-old Pennsylvania girl has been reporting on a real-life murder for her self-published newspaper. And people are mad at her, too, for not playing with dolls or having a tea party. They have written her nasty letters.

Now imagine if your own childhood had been lived under constant, state-mandated adult supervision. How many adventures would you have had? How much joy? How many memories with your friends and cousins?

Seems like America would like nothing better than to raise children who are completely inert unless an adult is on-hand to make sure nothing happens.

And nothing will.