Mother charged after 5-year-old walks to pond alone, stirring parenting debate

The summer day started normally for Karyann Parkinson. As the mother tells it, she was weeks away from giving birth to her fifth child when she took a walk with her son Sam through their gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia. They passed by a couple of ponds and crossed the street about six times, she said. Sam, 5, zoomed ahead of her and back on his bike, with the goose feathers he likes to collect from the ponds’ edges sticking out of his backpack.