Parenting Today: Legality of Mall Curfews

The legality of banning kids from malls at certain times on certain days is pretty clear. Enforcement of any law is tricky. But the more interesting part of the law is the relationship the city is having with the youth in it’s community. By setting up curfews, the mall is telling parents (who will most likely be held liable, legally, for their minor children’s actions), that the malls no longer want to babysit. The malls and the mall managers no longer want to parent the children of the community, and legalizing curfews is a way for society to put the responsibility of raising minor children back on the parents.

Too often in recent years and currently, parents abdicate responsibility for raising their children and allow caregivers, educators and community venues like malls, parks and restaurants to be the ones to spend most of a minor’s hours in a day with the minors. In fact, the parents often spend fewer hours in a child’s life with their child, as a minor, than others do. This law is a way of telling parents that the malls don’t want to parent the community’s children. And rightly so.