Would you send your 8 year old on a "field trip" that began at 6:00 p.m. on a Friday night?

Yes….a “friend trip”

Edit. Read details….

Yeah. It sounds kind of shady.
That being said, kids cry for lots of reasons.

Learning can happen at any time, and a lot of educational venues (such as libraries or museums) have a kids’ night on Friday or Saturday while their normal patrons are busy doing other things (and when parents are more likely to feel comfortable letting them stay up late). They could also be going to an observatory to look through telescopes and learn about astronomy.

^^yup I’d guess it was something like that. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to see Halleys comet. I remember multple other things like this too

My daughter’s Girl Scout troop has had overnight trips to museums where the parents and kids visit in the evening and then sleep over at the museum. Maybe it was that type of thing. 8 years old is old enough that I don’t think they have to be in bed at such an early hour on a non-school night, in my opinion. If they’re 3, yes. At 8, if my daughter was at her friend’s on a non-school night at that age at that hour, it wasn’t unheard of.

Why speculate or judge when we have no idea of what the facts actually are?

Maybe I miss read the “details. ”

It sounded like a kid getting forced into a van…...

Never would I allow that, I’ve been called an “An Old Father Goose”. Maybe I am, but I won’t even allow my grand kids out in the front yard unless an adult family member is with them, or at least my oldest (18) grand daughter. Too many flakey people in the world today. As my old Pappy used to say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I was the same over protective way with my own kids. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror of having a child disappear and having no notion of what happened to them. Frankly, I’d probably kill myself. I had an apoplectic fit (figure of speech) when my daughter told me she let my grand daughter walk home from work at night. Does she have any idea what could happen to a young girl walking alone at night? I think half of our society today must be smoking crack.

You shared this on Facebook? I don’t even know what to say here. You are talking about people that could know these people. You are talking about them like trash. I think you should take the post down from facebook.

Oh! I got pictures of it Haley’s comet when it came around in 86 – 87, somewhere in there.

@chyna You’re on a roll today.

@janbb Just because of the history of abuse in that household. I’ve called the police on them once, other neighbors have called too because of the screaming by the kids, screaming of the adults in the house, the fighting, the raging.
A field trip just doesn’t sound right. Astronomy is out. It doesn’t get dark until 10:00. I can’t imagine keeping a bunch of 2nd or 3rd graders up that late when they can’t even start until 10. Maybe a movie, or to the park for an hour?
And if it was a field trip, why would they try to force the kid to go when he obviously didn’t want to? Field trips are supposed to be fun. At first I thought the van was some sort of social service, and that wouldn’t have surprised me, but then I saw the name, and now I’m just puzzled.

Like I said, I’ll just ask them next time they’re here.

So. Was it a kidnapping, or a field trip?......

6 p.m. on a summer evening with 2.5–3 more hours of daylight is not too late for your average 8 yr. old to be taken on a trip. If the kid does have some emotional problems that is up to the parents to determine what they might or might not be able to handle. Obviously if the kid is prone to melt downs the person, parents, school or whomever is hosting said trip/field trip should be alerted as to any potential behavior problems that could be disruptive to the group as a whole and the kid that suffers from them. In this particular case though, it sounds like you just need to MYOB, not your problem, not your place to judge what other parents choose to do with their children.

Maybe this kid had been signed up for weeks and decided to throw a tantrum at the last minute and the parents made him go anyway, who knows.

I don’t understand the point of the question. Were you afraid the child was being kidnapped or badly treated? If so, what did you do at the time? How do the long involved details fit in with the main question? Did the child come home?

An “extended trip” to the “farm”, yes.

Only if it is astronomy.

The grandmother was out there trying to talk to the child. She was being uncharacteristically subdued about it, almost like she was concerned and cared, unlike her usual screaming and cussing. (I hate it when she cusses at them, calls the little 4 year old a fucking bitch and stuff. >_<) He was so into meltdown and there were a couple of adults standing by the van, watching, which was what made me wonder if it was child services.

@canidmajor He didn’t go in the end.

Well, if he didn’t go, it wasn’t child services. When they go somewhere to get a kid, they don’t leave without the kid.
It could be the van wasn’t there for anything official.
Lots of vans used for some sort of services are also used after hours as the personal vehicle of the owner or a volunteer. It could be somebody was going to pick him up for a sleepover with their kid, or other completely innocent thing like that.
I too think it was a very wrong move to post any of this shit on facebook. If you really thought something was wrong you should have called the police, but it is way out of line for you to judge someone else you don’t even know, and totally fucked up to post a neighbor’s issues online.