TIL You can leagally drop your baby off at the fire station in all 50 states
Pretty wild! All states give you at least 30 days to dump your baby, no strings attached. Some states give you 60 days!
I feel like more people should know about this! It seems like a highly under utilized ability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-haven_lawOpen linkView original on lemmy.zip600
Comments208
Nebraska had no age limit for a bit. Guy dropped off 9 of his 10 kids(1 was 18) cause he felt overwhelmed after his wife died a year earlier.
That actually kind of makes sense? I mean, dropping off teens is excessive, but maybe it highlights an issue? Overwhelmed parents of teenagers isn't something I had on my list of people that need more help, at least.
That is surprisingly kind for a Nebraskan legislator. Isn't NE one of the states where they'd rather let women die than abort a fetus?
No, they'd rather let the mother die and get a free child prostitute out of her than to abort a fetus.
10 kids jfc
I'm more concerned how he had ten kids and then felt overwhelmed when his wife left him. Like what the fuck?!
Grieving for a partner definitely doesn't make it easier to raise your children?!
And I've not met many men with 10 kids who are super into doing the whole "dividing the labor of parenting evenly" thing, and I went to catholic schools, I knew some big families. And even if he had been the type to do that, you aren't winding up being the breadwinner for a family with 10 kids and having both low stress finances and a low stress job. So adding in lots of extra home duties and possibly reduced financial capabilities and mourning will probably wreck you.
That said, I've never met a family that large where the parents kept actually parenting beyond number 3 or 4. Some of the most horrifically parentified people I ever met were middle daughters of large families. Also the kids are struggling too, and each of them is likely to have taken some lasting psychic damage from being abandoned by their dad, even temporarily, shortly after their mom died.
Because he didn't do Jack raising them probably
Or doubling the responsibilities was too much.
Double it and pass it to the next person
If doubling was to much, it would have been enough to "only" drop 4-5
As long as we are doing hypothetical, he may have been working long hours to pay for all the costs while she was stay at home. When she died, working all the time and trying to care for kids and grieving is going to be massively stressful. Bot to mention the aunt for 7 of the kids decided to have a custody battle so lots and lots of possible things leading to being overwhelmed.
But you clearly assume he is a deadbeat because he's a man. Have fun with that.
What has him being a man to do with all that
Would you have assumed the same lack of parenting if the father had died and the mother dropped off the kids?
Died, not left.
And likely yeah, someone would get overwhelmed doing two peoples' jobs.
I guess it highlights why there should be no age limit… the response to introduce an age limit of 30 days certainly is not the right one.
Wtf! That is insane 🤣 good read!
Most fire stations in the US have at least one person trained as a paramedic/EMT and in many places all of them have at least some medical training. Because in a lot of places fire trucks arrive, there's people who need immediate medical help.
So they have the basic skills to keep a newborn baby alive until they can get it to a hospital. And if it's older and healthy, they can just play with it and feed it and clean it as needed until Child Services arrives or it grows up and joins the crew.
Well, where did you think new firefighters come from?
Defeated fires?
The larger older firefighters split into two new younger firefighters.
Station!
Fascinatingly the fire is an important part of their reproductive cycle. When a firefighter dies in combat, the heat makes their body spread seeds far and wide. After roughly a year, a new crop will be growing from the ashes.
🏅
See, when mommy fire and daddy fire are left alone long enough and it warm and cozy...
The children yearn for the fires
Part of the truck, part of the crew!
In the event that this situation arises, hopefully the mother knows someone is at the station. There are plenty of empty stations that are used by volunteer departments.
Yes as a city dweller I take it for granted that my taxes pay for a professional fire-and-rescue service.
Other Safe Haven locations are hospitals, which makes sense, and some police stations (although I can't imagine a worse place to leave a baby!)
What about a 956 month old toddler?
Couldn’t hurt to try… sounds very old tho TBH. Have you tried a retirement home?
That’s functionally what the US congress is … so yes?
We keep hoping, but he keeps throwing press conferences.
They probably wont fit through the slot.
I think at that age, you just send them through the front door and call them a volunteer.
I’d be completely comfortable with doing whatever is necessary to make him fit through the slot, except for augmenting the slot in any way.
I'm sure as soon as that toddler goes into a fire, the orange will just disappear into the orange, and that will be that.
At least, one can hope.
C'mon! I'll be good now! I promise!
All 50 states of what?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=US+Defaultism
The US is simply where the highest number of anglophones reside. You'd have to sum up the next three nations to get more English speakers than the US (according to worldatlas.com).
Assuming an English speaker on the internet is American is still rude, but not exactly a bad guess - and hardly chauvinism imo
Around 1½ billion people in the world know English, less than ¼ of them live in the US.
I'd bet about 10% of them live in India alone! It's been my experience that when people think about the global populace as a whole they don't give India nearly as much weight as it warrants XD
Don't do numbers at me, if a quarter of the roulette wheel says USA we both know where you're putting your money.
Again, nobody said it was clean thinking or appropriate to pre-judge, only that you can easily see how the mistake gets made without ever calling it chauvinism.
This is the point where I strongly disagree with you, constantly mistaking less than ¼ for being the most likely is not easily made, there's a good reason for why the expression US Defaultism exists, because a particular mindset is required for such a mistake to be easily made.
~25% is a lot when you're talking about demographics that large. It's saying that there's a 1 in 4 chance of any English speaker you encounter being from the US vs every other country in the world.
If you're looking at native English speakers, it's about 63%.
But that's not the point, the point is that more than 3 out of 4 people able to read this post don't live in the US.
Anglophone is an incorrect metric.
There are more non native English speakers than native English speakers.
On English speaking websites and communities there is no difference between those two as long as the website or community is not specifically for that purpose.
Most people on Lemmy do not live in the US.
Again, and I've tried to be very clear about this, I'm not saying they're correct. We agree that it's a mistake. I'm explaining how it is an easy mistake to make.
This is a frustrating conversation.
I feel this, deep in my bones, upon reading it.
I found this little cozy spot. I'm gonna curl up in a post right here. *spins 3 times and plops down
For a while, I was trying to start all my comments with things like 'to add... ' or, 'just to clarify..' if I was agreeing but context pr more info or whatever
etc since it seems like the default is to assume any response to a comment is conflict / disagreement.
May be time to bring that back
Some people are just influenced by the evil of Giygas, always on the attack. It's not my job to hit them with a frying pan.
There, fixed
looks at the biggest crowd in the lineup
Yes, that's a safe enough inference.
It starts solid, but then there liquid, gaseous…. Scientists will need to help me with the 47 others here…
Bose Einstein Condensate
I mean, there's like ~22 phases for ice alone.
Ice-nine when?
Right after ice-eight, ofc
50 states of gray
For people with a real punishment fetish
Micronesia
Matter
Consciousness
Uh, the 50 states of our country? Surely you learned about them in elementary school.
It’s clear if you click the link - the article will tell you if your inference skills fail you!
A while back I fell into the rabbit hole of people dropping off the baby without informing the other parent. turns out it's really hard to get the kid back
Omg, that is insane! Imagine coming home from work like
“Honey, I dropped the baby off at the fire station today and the fireman yelled ‘BACK BACK NO TRADE BACK’ when I handed it over, so I’m pretty sure the decision is final. I hope you weren’t too attached to the babe.”
"I dropped Billy off for camp at the fire station. What do you mean thats next week?"
Reasonable. Now who's gonna bet that some dip shit in Washington makes it illegal because "mothers should face the consequences of their decisions" or some bullshit.
Call me a cynical old bitch but when the US does something reasonable I always think "how they gonna fuck it up this time?"
Can you drop off your baby, once a month, for a couple of hours on a date night?
Nah, I was thinking something along the lines of the Right saying that Young mothers are abandoning their kids because "they're selfish" or "they are avoiding responsibility" so some state passes a law that states that abandoned kids get DNA tested and traced back to their mothers so they can be forced to raise kids they can't afford/can't raise "to protect the family".
The US has a track record of fucking over women and girls, what with their war against contraception, abortion, adequate child care, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if the next move is "stop women giving kids up for adoption" under the guise of "protecting the family" or "personal responsibility" or some shit, but in reality is just a way to create cheap labour from underpaid women with a mouth to feed.
KY is making abortion pills controlled substances, like heroin. Women must be punished apparently
Reasonable for the mother. The baby is rolling the dice.
Healthy babies are in high demand for adoption, so the odds are good, but not perfect, and its a terrible system to get stuck in, at least in my state.
Healthy white babies are in high demand.
True, if you aren't white, the decision is gonna be a lot harder.
And people are going to use that argument to get rid of safe haven zones.
Can you pick them up again at the end of the day? Free daycare would be nice.
Yes, the firemen tend to them until you're ready to pick them up. It's a wonderful service.
Back back no trade back!
Black, black no trade back*
TIL the US has free child care.
Where did you think firemen come from?
Toddlers are perfect for getting in all the small fiery caverns which the grown firemen can't fit into.
Yeah, but when I drop a teenager off at the fire station, they just bring her back home and tell me I can't do that because it's considered "child abandonment."
Shoulda been in Nebraska smh
Have you tried screaming “back back no trade back no trade back” when you drop them?
Sorry you missed the easy return window!
That's were you messed up. Teenagers are supposed to drop themselves off at the fire station. For older kids they are called "Safe Places" and require them to do all the work.
From what height am I allowed to drop off my child?
/s
Depends. How high are you?
;-)
No it is: Hi, how are you?
Yeah my mom always brought that up when I got in trouble
Can I legally drop someone else's baby off at the fire station? 🤣
If it’s on fire, yes.
The baby or the fire station?
Yes
Yeah this directly came out of people abandoning babies in all sorts of place. Some places have these nest type of boxes all padded and temperature controlled where people can leave babies. This is the type of good thing I could see today republicans rallying to stop.
Before fire stations, churches and monasteries did the same thing. And like how some fire stations have a dedicated baby drop box, the churches and monasteries sometimes did, too.
now that is wild.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pqHcEbm4MbI
There is something similar called "baby hatch" in Germany, but those are usually located at hospitals. Why the fire station? It makes no sense to me.
Fire stations are everywhere, staffed by trustworthy people, who inevitably also have medical training. Additionally they aren't scary like the police are.
They're the people you call if you need help.
You can surrender an infant at a hospital too, as well as a police station, but fire stations are just more frequent.
Hospitals in the US are kind of scattered, largely as a result of private equity tomfoolery. A lot of communities don't have one nearby. But pretty much every community has at least a volunteer fire station, and I believe all firefighters are required to be trained in at least first aid, if not be fully-qualified EMTs.
ALso they are in places that arnt easily reached too, and in busy traffic area, so not safe.
They are local to every town and always have people there
Fire stations are more anonymous, however you can give up rights to your child at Fire Stations, Police Stations, and Hospitals (far as we know) there are even some numbers and child protection will pick them up. Reason is because they rather take the child safely than deal with well.. yk
they're staffed 24/7
Hospitals close for the night?
whic do you think there are more of, hospitals or fire stations?
In many states fire service is also emergency medical service.
Fire stations are public utilities owned by local governments. Also, hospitals are regularly visited by people, whereas fire stations are more private as they mainly send out and return from dispatches.
It doesn't have to be fire stations. But they are commonly used for a few good reasons.
They're relatively ubiquitous. It shouldn't be hard for someone to locate a fire station. They're almost always staffed 24/7. They're trained on basic first aid. Quite often, they'll even have medics on staff.
Very importantly, though, they don't have a lot of people coming in and out of them. One of the big benefits of this program is that there are zero questions asked and it's as anonymous as you wish. The people who use these are often afraid they'll be judged as a failure. The lockboxes have a built-in time delay so you can leave before the station is alerted.
Firemen are the only honorable public emergency service left in this country. all the rest are just out to murder people (source: am an american.)
It's better than leaving them in some men's room baby changing station with the sign "Place sacrifice here" sign taped to it.
Better for most, but the rest area demon who is sustained on changing station sacrifices really hates this law.
*US states
You understood it anyway
Why was that clarification necessary? In what context does "all 50 states" not apply to only the US?
Because there are other countries with states, like Mexico, Brazil, and India. Do you know how many states are in each country? Neither did I, until I looked some up. Mexico has 31 states, btw, and it's causing my brain to itch with its odd number instead of even. There are no other countries with 50 states, but I didn't know prior and now I have useless trivia folded into my melon.
Exactly. So, what was the point of the USA clarification?
Because there are other countries with states, like Mexico, Brazil, and India. Do you know how many states are in each country? Neither did I, until I looked some up. Mexico has 31 states, btw, and it's causing my brain to itch with its odd number instead of even. There are no other countries with 50 states, but I didn't know prior and now I have useless trivia folded into my melon.
What other country has 50 states?
I don't know
none, but people don't tend to know that
So why did the poster I responded to specify US states? They obviously already knew which country the 50 referred to.
So if an article refered to 'in the 36 states' would you what country theyre talking about off the top of your head?
::: spoiler answer Nigeria is the only country with exactly 36 states :::
There are plenty of complains of the web being US-centric, that i think its perfectly fair to state, and not expect everyone from every country to know how many states, just because its America.
I know! Nigeria!
Nigeria, obviously
Okay, but if your country doesn't have 50 states exactly, then you know it doesn't apply to your country and can skip this.
You know, a flight from overseas is expensive to do this, but you got to look at the long term savings...
Until ICE deports the baby right back to you, defeating the whole purpose. What a cruel joke.
Were fire stations included in the places they raid?
Who knows where it would be deported. Would they get to you, in time to make sure its going to the right place? Give clothing branding the wrong country. Hell, ice may deport you before they know.anything about a baby
If the kids dropped at the firehouse they would automatically be considered a U.S. citizen unless they had paperwork proving otherwise
Uh, ice doesn't really care about citizenship.
Lol, they'd just ship it to an El Salvadorian torture prison.
Is there an age limit? Cause I know a 15 year old the can have…..the little shit.
That's how rhey recruit new firefighters!
https://lemmy.wtf/comment/20106282
But, but I don't even have a baby.
Drop by a fire station, you might be able to pick one up!
But aren't fire stations kind of heavy?
Ah, the ol' lemmy switcheroo!
why can't you drop it off if it's older than a month? what if I want to drop off my 4-year-old
Yeah, and what's the latest I can pick them up? 11:00?
Nebraska had no age limit, and people were driving tens of hours to drop 15/16 year olds off. Which the state didn't have enough resources to handle.
that's completely fucked actually
*You don't get it back
now you tell me?
But I just wanted to go shopping for a couple of hours!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_hatch
This article is just wow!
Do they put holes in the drawers for air?
Imagine trying to drop off your baby but the fucking drawer is full.
I feel like this woold lead to confusion amongst firemen. Like they go to pull out of the firehouse to respond to a fire, but they have to stop before they start because a random baby is just there for no reason.
I could be wrong, but I doubt most firefighters even know the proceedure for "Baby randomly dropped off without a name".
My first instinct would be to call child services. Like what else would you do?
I'd wager most of them know the first steps of the procedure. It's likely a story that gets passed around a lot, even if it's a rare occurrence. Also, every firefighter I've known is borderline OCD with keeping the station clean. I doubt that baby would be outside for long before they noticed.
Nah they're made aware.
I mean, I guess a state could've passed the law, saying "hey, leave newborns at fire stations" and not informed the fire house, but it seems far more likely that they are informed.
But States either have designated boxes, or you hand the child over to them directly. You don't just leave it in front of the firehouse door.
Yeah, I think my state of NC requires there to be a designated baby receiver on call at all times just in case someone pulls up with one that they need to get rid of.
FYI when firefighters leave on call it's not like ALL of them leave. a team leaves.
there's still people and trainees left behind that can handle things back at the station.
I think most fire departments are volunteer meaning that the stations are vacant unless there's an active call.
SO in fire/EMS.
That's a good point that they exist, but a better way to quantify their prevalence is probably by population served. Even if the majority of fire departments are like that (if...) they would be in the most rural areas with little population. I would think most people live in areas densely populated enough to have an always-staffed fire station.
You would be correct per capita but not geographically! Volunteer/neighborhood fire departments are pretty common outside of major cities, and sometimes supplement professional services within them. They give people a direct way to serve their community and often serve double duty as event centers for birthdays, wedding receptions, potlatch, etc. Huge fan, consider volunteering :)
Departments vary. The ones near me are full time paid if you have to be at the station on shift. But there are only a handful of those.
I feel like if we know about this, they would too. Or at least a supervisor.
Yeah it's not an unknown thing in the states, there are companies centered around preparing for such https://www.shbb.org/
I think you have to be trained to become a fireman.
Dropping babies at fire stations is a trend way older than any firefighter currently alive. They all know what the intent is if they find an unattended baby.
Some of them might take a bit before they realize it's actually serious though.
What about Puerto Rico?
read the page
it says that all states, dc, and puerto rico
Yeah, I didn't read the page, just the title.
pro life truly is wonderful!
what
I assume they're referring to the pro-life movement being responsible for creating a whole bunch of unwanted pregnancies/children because of their opposition to birth control measures and abortion. I also assume they are being sarcastic.
I guess the person is referring to the "Pro Life" movement (in a sarcastic way, I hope).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_anti-abortion_movement
yeah. in short: make more unwanted babies, drop off more babies. im glad to live somewhere abortions are legal. pro life is a nightmare.
You can drop your baby off a fire station if you've got the time.
I thought you had to fill out a form or identify yourself or they'd do DNA on the baby to identify you. But this says parents can remain nameless. I'm not sure what that entails.
Yeah from what I understand you can pull up, say the magic words, give no documentation of any type, then leave without the baby
this is important to prevent the issue of mothers leaving their babies in the dumpster instead. it’s sad they grow up an orphan, but better then the alternative by a mile.
Really? I mean, I wouldn't just leave a baby in a dumpster. I'd wang it against the side a dozen times first. That's 10+2 for the metrics out there!
That's why you can drop them at the FD, so nobody does that.
What the fuck bro
Bong! Bong! Bong!
Sometimes not even say words. This is truly basket-on-the-doorstep rules.
That seems like it would open up a whole can of worms when, a decade later, your kid should be starting school. They ask you where he is and you have no documentation of what happened to him. Don't they start asking serious legal questions about your "missing" kid, and accusing you of foul play?
Literally no questions asked. A lot of fire stations even have special temperature-controlled compartments with alarms connected so that people can drop their baby off without even being seen.
As a person who was dropped off somewhere as a baby, I completely love this, this can help many babies live a full filling life tbh.
Most based source in the thread 💯
Thank you for sharing you’re experience 🙏
What about your teenager …asking for a friend
You didn't scroll down enough.
prom babies.
TIL people in USA still use insular leading language ignorant to the >200 states in the world. ;D
I suppose adding “US” before “states” would have been a more inclusive language choice, but I was going for conciseness over inclusivity I guess. Using context, I feel that the meaning of my title is still clear.
I do however apologize to anyone that may be offended by my language choice!
just having some light hearted satirical goading funs.
Just wait till you hear about how they call cities and towns in other countries "settlements" to make you care less about them being destroyed. Even when those places are older than the USA.
Where are you even seeing this?
For example: Ukraine touts recapture of eight settlements in rare battlefield success
The region has a population density of 97 people per square kilometer.
400 sq kilometers would make ~38,000 people.
So you are saying that makes 8 cities that are unspecified in any reports of which cities they might be and they are somehow slighting those 8 cities by not getting a response from the general.
"Syrskyi's statement did not make clear how much of the newly secured territory had previously been under Russian control and how much lay in "grey zone" areas not firmly held by either side. Ukraine's General Staff did not immediately respond to a request for clarification."
Sounds like they don't know anything but reported what the general told them.
All over every piece of corporate owned media, lately especially re: Gaza and especially from NYT/BBC? Same deal as calling the kids in the Epstein files "underage women" and raping them sex. Doesn't "clearing a settlement" sound better than "destroying a city"? It's kinda disappointing you haven't developed at least this much awareness of media biases by now, hate to imagine what the LLMs are imprinting on that preciously smooth brain :(
So you haven't seen it and you immediately redirect to other topics and then turn to name calling. Hope you have a good life
Brother I gave you two specific examples and a more general overview, if you need more "here comes the airplane" than that I suggest seeing if your mother has enough patience left to deal with you