Lenore Skenazy's site promotes letting children be independent, collecting news stories on overprotective rules and arguments for unsupervised play.
Commenters bring it up as the movement behind free-range parenting, with one finding the site's design weak though the ideas are good.
The CPS boogeyman was hyperbole, yes. Few freerange parents get charged with anything, but a few do still have to deal with investigations or charges by local police. Is it isolated? Yes. But it happens. Even if police don't get involved, you get flak/judgement from neighbors and nosy busy bodies butting into your business and trying to parent your kid(s). That happens a lot more and is something most any free range parent in a suburb knows the feeling of.
The fear is there and my father had plenty of issues with busy body neighbors and the police being called because of an "unattended child" (me). The shit happens and my own mother is one of the judgmental busy bodies herself; looking down on her neighbor for letting their 11 year old child to play jump rope with her friend in the front yard of their house. Has my mother called CPS on the neighbor? No. But she treats them like shit and refuses to let my sisters' visit their house in fear they'll do something "unattended".
Yes - those two examples were very personal anecdotes. But it's not like I'm the only person to ever deal with this stuff. A great thing about the internet is you get to meet countless other people who have the same issues you have:
http://www.freerangekids.com/why-do-i-keep-scaring-people-with-stories-of-good-parents-hounded-by-the-authorities/
If the US didn't have a culture of fear and nosy busy-bodies butting into other peoples' business at every turn, this wouldn't even be a discussion and "free…
hy·per·bo·le: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
My example is not in any way exaggerated and it is meant to be taken literary.
>The reason you know about the one or two instances of cops being called because a ten year old is walking on their own is because it is rare and hence newsworthy.
People have been convicted of crimes for leaving their 8 year olds "unsupervised" because of busy bodies with cell phones. Not charged, convicted! The reason its rare to hear about a case is because its a socially unacceptable for children to be left alone now. [1] Its a rare thing to do so its a rare thing to get in trouble for doing.
>a child of seven or eight is quite capable of navigating city streets to walk to school, and has been for a very long time.
Absolutely! I sure did when I was a kid! I couldn't imagine being so suffocated by my parents that I wasn't allowed to be away from them to walk to the corner store by myself or ride my bike to the park. My dad sent me to the hardware store on my bike to buy propane, nobody batted an eye. Now if an unaccompanied 10 year old showed up trying to buy propane the parents would be arrested. This is madness, I agree, but the "protect the kids" mantra is terrible, but it is also the reality.
[1] http://www.freerangekids.com/eureka-breakthrough-study-explains-why-we-arrest-parents-for-putting-kids-in-nearly-non-existent-danger/
Hi - glad you're interested! My email's in my bio if you want to drop me a line.
Yes, kids are effectively prisoners until they can drive.
Can I ask where you grew up (what country, or region, etc)?
That's really cool re: forest. We're near a nature preserve but I don't yet feel comfortable with my kids going on their own. When the 6 year old is 8 or 9 I might though. I see kids around 9 years old biking to school on their own here, but I live in Hilversum, which is on the crappier end of bike infra for the Netherlands.
And yes, it's an exhausting, soul destroying full time job (on top of your other full time job). It can be mom or dad playing taxi but usually it's mom. I've known wealthier parents who just got their kids Ubers too.
Stranger things is great, and one of the things that is remarked upon is how different the 80's were from now. This is discussed at https://www.freerangekids.com/why-its-hard-to-raise-your-kids-like-the-ones-on-stranger-things/ for instance.
Single parents (ones without a coparent, specifically) have it really, really, really hard.
Anyway you basically just described why having kids is so hard.
According to free-range child advocate Lenore Skenazy, there are a little over 100 stranger abductions per year in the US. [1]. Therefore, abductions are a not a big deal.
According to Wikipedia, 100 years ago, there were about 100 lynchings per year in the US. [2] Therefore, lynching is a big deal.
I love this meme about the media. Quick question: for you, personally, when was the last time you saw a media story about an abducted child? When was the last time you saw a media story about paranoid helicopter parents, etc, repeating the ideas you see above? In my experience, the ratio is 1:10 if not 1:20.
There's a very straightforward reason why parents keep their kids indoors: the same parents, while outdoors, regularly encounter human beings that they wouldn't trust their kids around. Deinstitutionalization anyone? Free-range mental patients or free-range children: pick one. [3]
[1] http://www.freerangekids.com/over-700-children-are-abducted-a-day-says-viral-video/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatric_institutions#Deinstitutionalization
Schools would impose severe punishments on a child that took that gun to the school. (http://www.freerangekids.com/suspended-for-a-keychain/) (http://www.clickorlando.com/news/boy-suspended-after-using-finger-as-pretend-gun/-/1637132/22204876/-/hfv59e/-/index.html) etc etc.
There are real guns around that size, firing 2.34 mm rimfire cartriges. (apologies if I get any of this terminology wrong.) They do have the potential to be lethal weapons. But then so does the pencil I'm allowed to take on, and the glass and cutlery they give me when I'm on the plane.
But they confiscate airline cutlery from people going through security. Even if that cutlery was presented to the person flying. Even if that person is a pilot. The pilot, for the plane that they're boarding, and they're in full uniform, trying to get on the plane to fly it but being delayed while their airline issued cutlery is removed. http://www.cracked.com/article_16849_the-7-dumbest-things-ever-done-by-airport-security_p2.html?wa_user1=3&wa_user2=Weird+World&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=companion
> This is a news story and a controversy because it's a weird thing that happened.
This kind of thing has been going on for decades now, e.g.
Florida mom arrested after allowing 7-year-old son to walk to park alone (2014): https://fox4kc.com/news/florida-mom-arrested-after-allowing-7-year-old-son-to-walk-to-park-alone/
Maryland family under investigation for letting their kids walk home alone (2015): https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/contests/maryland-family-under-investigation-for-letting-their-kids-walk-home-alone/521-86c3f998-c540-442c-b08e-806c7b8100af
11-Year-Old Boy Played in His Yard. CPS Took Him, Felony Charge for Parents (2015): https://reason.com/2015/06/11/11-year-old-boy-played-in-his-yard-cps-t/
Mom Arrested for Letting Child, 10, Shop Alone at Lego Store (2017): https://www.freerangekids.com/mom-arrested-for-letting-child-10-shop-alone-at-lego-store/