"Free Range Parenting"

TreeFrogTrader · Mar 26, 2018

They refer to a 10 year old in this article.

When I was ten, there was nothing better than to get out of school and come home and head out into the woods.

No need to worry about me. I almost always had my shotgun or .22 with me to get a couple partridge for suppah.

Awesome.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/utah-free-range-parenting-law_us_5ab8b3dce4b0decad04b91c7

CaptainObvious · Mar 26, 2018

I didn't know it was against the law for kids to walk home from school without an adult present. I suppose this is prudent on Chicago's southside, or westside, or damn near anywhere in that crime invested city. I grew up in Gary, IN., one time murder capital of the country. Of course every neighborhood was not a danger zone, but I still remember going downtown by bus on Saturdays to watch some Godzilla movie and never had an issue on the bus or downtown. I walked to and from elementary school alone, except for maybe day one, and so did every other kid. It was about 1/2 mile. The only threat was getting chased by loose dogs and older kids stealing your lunch money, which is why we walked in groups, and fought when necessary. This was the 50's so a fight was a couple punches, one or the other got a bloody nose and that was that. An hour later we were playing sandlot baseball together. Things did get a bit more heated as I entered High School in the mid sixties. Had a couple full fledged race riots going on then, but still in was generally safe during the day where I grew up. You knew the borders of your respective hood and so did "they". Daytime was cool to be somewhere not safe at night, mostly because we played sports, and that was like a neutral peace keeping element. Once night fell, everyone knew where to go and not go, and the only reason to go elsewhere was to look for trouble.

TreeFrogTrader · Mar 26, 2018

CaptainObvious said:
I didn't know it was against the law for kids to walk home from school without an adult present. I suppose this is prudent on Chicago's southside, or westside, or damn near anywhere in that crime invested city. I grew up in Gary, IN., one time murder capital of the country. Of course every neighborhood was not a danger zone, but I still remember going downtown by bus on Saturdays to watch some Godzilla movie and never had an issue on the bus or downtown. I walked to and from elementary school alone, except for maybe day one, and so did every other kid. It was about 1/2 mile. The only threat was getting chased by loose dogs and older kids stealing your lunch money, which is why we walked in groups, and fought when necessary. This was the 50's so a fight was a couple punches, one or the other got a bloody nose and that was that. An hour later we were playing sandlot baseball together. Things did get a bit more heated as I entered High School in the mid sixties. Had a couple full fledged race riots going on then, but still in was generally safe during the day where I grew up. You knew the borders of your respective hood and so did "they". Daytime was cool to be somewhere not safe at night, mostly because we played sports, and that was like a neutral peace keeping element. Once night fell, everyone knew where to go and not go, and the only reason to go elsewhere was to look for trouble.

Heck, a half mile was not even long enough to finish your cigarette if you are a kid walking home.

CaptainObvious · Mar 26, 2018

TreeFrogTrader said:
Heck, a half mile was not even long enough to finish your cigarette if you are a kid walking home.

Sheeet, we could hot box that cig down to the butt in a blink.

vanzandt · Mar 26, 2018

TreeFrogTrader said:
Heck, a half mile was not even long enough to finish your cigarette if you are a kid walking home.

That was a f'n good one. And true.

Tsing Tao · Mar 27, 2018

WTF...it's against the law now to let your kid go outside alone? When did that happen?

JSOP · Mar 28, 2018

The only thing that should be "Free Range" are farm animals raised to be slaughtered one day like "free range chicken" or "free range cows". Children should NOT be one of them. There is a reason WHY parents exist.

Tsing Tao · Mar 28, 2018

JSOP said:
The only thing that should be "Free Range" are farm animals raised to be slaughtered one day like "free range chicken" or "free range cows". Children should NOT be one of them. There is a reason WHY parents exist.

So you think letting kids go out to play on their own only happens with bad parents?

JSOP · Mar 28, 2018

Tsing Tao said:
So you think letting kids go out to play on their own only happens with bad parents?

Letting kids go out to play on their own unsupervised is actually dangerous and is high risk for child abduction but it is actually NOT "Free Range Parenting". You have NO IDEA what is "Free Range Parenting". LOL

Tsing Tao · Mar 28, 2018

JSOP said:
Letting kids go out to play on their own unsupervised is actually dangerous and is high risk for child abduction but it is actually NOT "Free Range Parenting". You have NO IDEA what is "Free Range Parenting". LOL

Forget the stupid label in the article calling things "free range", I'm not concerned with that.

It is, however, rather insane of you to suggest letting kids play on their own outside is dangerous without even qualifying what age the children are or where they are allowed to go, etc. You just simply make a generality that letting all kids go out on their own is a bad thing and risks abduction.

Since your moniker is not commonly involved in discussions in the politics forum, I didn't know where to group you on the political spectrum. I do appreciate you allowing me to classify you as a mental case with this. Thank you.