State lawmakers are mulling a law that would establish commonsense protections for families that give their children a reasonable amount of independence.
When I first read about some parents allowing their kids to be “free range”, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the amount of harassment they were getting, because being “free range” in the mid-00s sounded like what nearly all prior generations (older Gen Y and older) operated under as kids, but just now some kind of anomaly instead of the bog-standard norm.
As someone that is Gen X and grew up in a very rural area, and who spent most of their free (summer/weekend) days almost completely unsupervised, starting somewhere around 8 years old, I find it wild that the cops are now called on seeing such things…I realize things change - I’d say it’s generally for the better these days, TBH. The views on safety back then for everyone, including children, were pretty much shit.
But still, you think there should be some kind of balance…
I think the balance is instead of being a fucking busybody calling the cops, just keep an eye on them and make sure they’re okay and not causing trouble. If they’re good it’s all good and they gain valuable life experience being independent. If not then there’s an adult on hand to assist. Kids can’t learn to handle themselves if there’s always an adult hanging over their shoulder to step in over every little thing.
When I first read about some parents allowing their kids to be “free range”, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the amount of harassment they were getting, because being “free range” in the mid-00s sounded like what nearly all prior generations (older Gen Y and older) operated under as kids, but just now some kind of anomaly instead of the bog-standard norm.
As someone that is Gen X and grew up in a very rural area, and who spent most of their free (summer/weekend) days almost completely unsupervised, starting somewhere around 8 years old, I find it wild that the cops are now called on seeing such things…I realize things change - I’d say it’s generally for the better these days, TBH. The views on safety back then for everyone, including children, were pretty much shit.
But still, you think there should be some kind of balance…
I think the balance is instead of being a fucking busybody calling the cops, just keep an eye on them and make sure they’re okay and not causing trouble. If they’re good it’s all good and they gain valuable life experience being independent. If not then there’s an adult on hand to assist. Kids can’t learn to handle themselves if there’s always an adult hanging over their shoulder to step in over every little thing.