600

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.

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[-] YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf 166 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] Asetru@feddit.org 137 points 1 month ago

"I think there's a misperception that we just inadvertently left an age cap out. But the reality was we wanted to save lives of older kids who might be at risk," said Amanda McGill Johnson, a Nebraska state senator at the time.

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.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago

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?

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[-] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago

10 kids jfc

[-] Carighan@piefed.world 41 points 1 month ago

I'm more concerned how he had ten kids and then felt overwhelmed when his wife left him. Like what the fuck?!

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

Grieving for a partner definitely doesn't make it easier to raise your children?!

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago

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.

[-] Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 month ago

Because he didn't do Jack raising them probably

[-] snooggums@piefed.world 36 points 4 weeks ago

Or doubling the responsibilities was too much.

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[-] HobbitFoot 20 points 4 weeks ago

Died, not left.

And likely yeah, someone would get overwhelmed doing two peoples' jobs.

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 17 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 62 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 45 points 1 month ago

What about a 956 month old toddler?

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[-] Darnton@piefed.zip 41 points 1 month ago
[-] Tuxman@sh.itjust.works 21 points 4 weeks ago

It starts solid, but then there liquid, gaseous…. Scientists will need to help me with the 47 others here…

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[-] lauha@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago
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[-] chunes@lemmy.world 36 points 4 weeks ago

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

[-] so_pitted_wabam@lemmy.zip 30 points 4 weeks ago

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.”

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[-] abbiistabbii@piefed.blahaj.zone 33 points 4 weeks ago

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?"

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[-] Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone 32 points 1 month ago

Can you pick them up again at the end of the day? Free daycare would be nice.

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[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 28 points 4 weeks ago

TIL the US has free child care.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 20 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Where did you think firemen come from?

[-] droans@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago

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

[-] so_pitted_wabam@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 month ago

Have you tried screaming “back back no trade back no trade back” when you drop them?

Sorry you missed the easy return window!

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[-] Abundance114@lemmy.world 24 points 4 weeks ago

From what height am I allowed to drop off my child?

/s

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[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Can I legally drop someone else's baby off at the fire station? 🤣

[-] HowAbt2day@futurology.today 14 points 1 month ago
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[-] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 month ago

Yeah my mom always brought that up when I got in trouble

[-] julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 4 weeks ago

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.

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 23 points 4 weeks ago

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.

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[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 19 points 4 weeks ago

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.

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[-] mvilain@infosec.pub 16 points 4 weeks ago

It's better than leaving them in some men's room baby changing station with the sign "Place sacrifice here" sign taped to it.

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[-] M137@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago
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[-] hexdream@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

You know, a flight from overseas is expensive to do this, but you got to look at the long term savings...

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this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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