I was allowed to run the neighborhood as a kid. Stayed out all day except for meals, weather permitting - just as long as I let my parents know where I was.

 

But I was a kid when history class was called current events. 4th graders riding subways alone seems a bit extreme to me.

 

But to be fair, I cringe every time I see a parent with a child on a leash in the mall.

I rode the TANK bus downtown and to Florence all the time when I was a kid. My mom used to let us walk around the Newport Shopping Center while she went into JC Penny's when I was still in grade school. We never thought anything of it.

 

I hear you LA and I used to walk about a mile and a half to Moyer Elementary when I was in the 3rd thru 6th grade. I have terrific parents who treated me great and none of us thought anything of it...but I would NEVER let my kids do that now (if my kids were that young). I could not live with myself if something happened...

When I was in the 6th grade at Sacred Heart in Bellevue a group of us (4) would walk to the Cincinnati Natural History Museum on Gilbert Ave in Cincinnati to attend classes on Minerals and Fossils . Then we would stop at the White Castle on Broadway afterwards for lunch . We also would ride our bikes out Ky 8 from Dayton to Silver Grove in the summer to visit a farm owned by one of my friends relatives :scared: . Played in the woods around my house in Dayton and once discovered a man who committed suicide near Belmont lake . Good Times ,and believe me my parents were not in the least bit negligent toward our upbringing .

Technology and mobility have combined to make more cautions parents these days. My parents were certainly not helicopter parents and neither were my wife and I. I certainly cannot question parents who are more cautious, it just wasn't my style, although we were not consistent. The daughter we used to sometimes put in a harness when in crowded public places was allowed to ride the bus from school to dance class at 9 years old. We handled our kids differently as they did not develop maturity and responsibility the same.

Technology and mobility have combined to make more cautions parents these days. My parents were certainly not helicopter parents and neither were my wife and I. I certainly cannot question parents who are more cautious, it just wasn't my style, although we were not consistent. The daughter we used to sometimes put in a harness when in crowded public places was allowed to ride the bus from school to dance class at 9 years old. We handled our kids differently as they did not develop maturity and responsibility the same.

Well said.

It depends so much on the child and the environment. I do not believe in "free range" but I do believe in giving them more freedom than many parents allow.

 

Agreed! It depends on the child, and at least some of that depends on the parents, such as teaching them to always be cautious. As Lipton Bash mentioned, it's no more dangerous now, it's just in this age we are able to hear about every single event. There is so much technology these days that you can let your child run as free and any child out there, and still be able to keep track of their location and every move.

Apparently it's making a comeback. Many parents are very adament about "letting kids be kids, allowing them freedom to roam and not succumbing to the fear of something dastardly happening to them. One women even let her nine-year old son take the subway in NYC by himself. I know when my sister and I were young, mom allowed us to roam and play all over the neighborhood without much supervision. In fact, most parents did so back then.

 

This has become a hot button issue. Those who practice it are passionate about letting their kids roam free. Detractors feel it is pure neglect on the part of parents who practice this kind parenting.

 

What do you think? I saw a little girl (maybe 7 or 8 yo) awhile back riding her bike without any obvious supervision. It made me cringe. If I had a young one, I don't think I could let him/her stray far from my sight and be comfortable. My mom and many others did when we were young and no one thought anything about it. Are times that different now?

 

I won't even get into creeps and perverts, but there is much more availability of all kinds of trouble..everything is faster these days. I could practically write a book of experiences with our kids and friends of theirs who had parents who allowed "free-ranging". The bottom line for us is that it is an unacceptable risk with what reward? I feel absolutely certain we made the right choice in keeping some hold on the reins.

I won't even get into creeps and perverts, but there is much more availability of all kinds of trouble..everything is faster these days. I could practically write a book of experiences with our kids and friends of theirs who had parents who allowed "free-ranging". The bottom line for us is that it is an unacceptable risk with what reward? I feel absolutely certain we made the right choice in keeping some hold on the reins.

Agreed on everything is faster. There are more cars on the roads. More roads. Distracted drivers with cell phones. Distracted kids with cell phones and earbuds. Children and adults just not as in tune with surroundings.

I have always thought that you taught responsibility before you gave freedom. I was raised on a farm and raised my own kids on a farm. Outside, but not out of mind was the word of the day.

Free range parents. Free range spouses. Free range government officials. Free range politicians.

 

Home, home on the free range, where the kids get abducted when they play....

Depends on the children, the parents, and the neighborhood/areas that they are given "free range".

 

Some parents are "free range" out of necessity. They are usually single parents who work hard to make ends meet and they kind of have to let their kids stay at home alone out of lack of viable alternatives.

 

I do think there's a difference if kids who are from the same family and/or are really close friends travel together. At least then they have some type of back-up and someone looking out for them, though I do know how kids, even siblings, fight and would worry about them splitting up.

 

I can see lots of "free range" parents like are being mentioned in these articles being people who have white collar jobs and live in really safe neighborhoods, so maybe it's not as big of a deal as we're thinking. Not really as many dangers in a gated community and/or some of the neighborhoods that are nicer which have lots of cul-de-sacs, only one way in and out of the neighborhood, etc. Not really the same game when someone who doesn't live there has to drop off an ID at the guard shack to enter and exit, everything coming and going in and out of the gates is being filmed, etc.

 

Can also see lots of "free range" parents being people who live in communities much like the one I grew up in. Extremely small (maybe 100 kids at the elementary school, grades K-6), rural, and you know your neighbors and everyone else pretty well. I'm probably younger than most of you all, but had quite a bit of freedom at 12-13 years old in terms of where I could take a bike/four-wheeler, etc. Still kind of a different situation just because it was so small and rural.

 

Regardless, I think most, if not all 6-7 year olds should probably avoid things like taking the subway (at least most lines) or things like that, but for a reason that probably hasn't been brought up here yet.

 

More than a few of the subways I've taken have homeless/vagrants outside the entrances, things like that. Not trying to knock the homeless or anything (because I worked with lots of homeless people during law school doing pro bono work), but I can also say that lots (though certainly not all) of them are people who have some legit medical issues going on and children just aren't really physically capable of fighting them off. I know I live in a bigger city than lots of people too (SA is the 7th largest in the US), and know that in lots of communities, things like a bus stop or even a downtown area like a library, which really can't deny most anyone entrance, don't have the same issues. As far as working with the homeless personally, I've never had any physical encounters or anything worse than being called a few names, even working with them for two years, but at the same time, I'm a 6'2 redneck who could look them in the eye and tell them to think about what they thought laying a hand on me would get them, and being able to do so in a firm way which didn't wouldn't really escalate anything. I also was working with people who were at least in the shelter at the time, which meant that there was a better chance that they were getting needed medication and were less likely to be under the influence of things that would only intensify their illnesses, which I'll guess didn't hurt either. At the same time, I don't think that there's any way that I'd want my child (if I had one) to be put in a situation where they'd have to face something like that.