Free-Range Parenting: Does it teach independence, or is it child neglect?

12 Comments

  • MrEddd - 9 years ago

    My brothers and I travelled in a five mile range on our bikes. We hustled empty soda bottles from construction sites, shined shoes in the bars, delivered newspapers, washed cars, cut grass and shoveled snow during the winter. We lived in a very blue collar neighborhood in Baltimore. We all came out of it unscathed and two of us are now millionaires. (I'm not one of the two.) We did learn to think for ourselves and knew how to talk to people. Many of the young people I work with can do neither.

  • kitty honaker - 9 years ago

    I give this Mom a hands up it showed she cared for her son. Where the other parents hope not caring this mom A number one in my book. If we have more beaten of the ass like we did when we were young this kids will not be like this....

  • Bob D. - 9 years ago

    The people whining her don't even have a clue. Do you idiots actually think free range parenting means a parent doesn't do anything with their child and let them grow up on their own? That's ridiculous.

    It is a parenting style that was NORMAL only 30-40 years ago. Now helicopter parenting is normal and a bunch of whiners think letting kids have a bit of freedom to do things on their own is horrible? What kind of idiots are you?

  • Bob - 9 years ago

    Prov 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. That means there's some action involved. You've got to teach them, not just turn them lose to learn on their own. The wolves are at the doorstep.

  • Patti - 9 years ago

    Children should not be sent out alone to walk the streets . Thier are too many crazy people out there, and when out of range of adult supervision, the child could be taken away and never seen again. No one would know where it happened or any of the details, including a description of an abductor . I think it is very neglectful to place children in that position. I grew up in the 50's, and I can tell you that there were different circumstances back then. Drugs were not freely taken like they are today, and police actually walked the streets on patrol. I think it is totally neglectful to put a child out there w/o adult or another person of legal age to accompany them.

  • DeeDee - 9 years ago

    If those parents do not agree with the laws they need to work to change them or move where the laws will allow them to raise their children as they see fit, but breaking the laws they do not like is neither a good example nor fit parenting. People also need to realize today's world is not the one many of us grew up in- I grew up in Baltimore but I never saw anything like I did last night. Times change places change and kids are increasingly the victim of crimes. It really isn't about philosophies it is just about common sense and keeping kids safe from people who would rather victimize your child than look out for it. There are a lot more of them nowadays. There are safer ways to teach children to be responsible and learn skills. Children are children they need proper supervision and they need to be taught to obey the laws.

  • You cant Be Serious - 9 years ago

    Not talking to your kid is not a parenting style. Whether they are sitting in your car or walking miles away from you. If you aren't teaching your kid to be responsible, regularly placing them in controlled situations where they can develop and learn to trust their instincts you are doing your kid a disservice. YOU have to teach your kid, not "life" or "experiences", this is how humanity has progressed to the extent that it has. Each person doesn't "learn" physics for themselves. Someone (teacher) blatantly, flat-out gives you the information you need to know about the world you live in.

    It's amazing, the harder it becomes to be a parent, the lazier the "pop-parenting" "ideas" become. smh.

  • Kristen Hruby - 9 years ago

    When I was young back in the 50s and 60s my parents and most of the parents in our neighborhood were free range parents. It was the norm back then because there was a lot less crime against children- and crime in general. I had a wonderful and adventurous childhood from a very young age-walking to and from school, riding horses with my sisters, riding bikes with my friends and building forts in the hills. While raising my own children in the city I was much more watchful of them than my parents were of us because I was afraid for their safety. When we moved to the country they had a lot more freedom and I think they benefited from it.

  • Pat - 9 years ago

    I realize times are different but I thank my parents for allowing me to walk to school 1 mile, home for lunch 1 mile back to school 1 mile and home after school 1 mile. I walked 4 miles a day. If the weather was bad I took public transportation. I started walking alone to school at age 9. I took public transportation to high school ( two busses each day). I became much more independent than if my parents had driven me to school every day!

  • Barry Wendell Jackson, Esq. - 9 years ago

    In 1936, in Bridgehampton, Long Island, my fighter pilot father gave me a single shot .22 Cal. rifle, with a child's stock. I had continuous control and possession of it and ammo, until I went to college. That Winter, in Lakeland, Florida, with another first grader, I went hunting in the woods adjoining our house. We saw no varmints, and came home without firing a shot. Can you imagine that today?
    Back then, high school rifle team members carried their target rifles openly on the subways!
    Well, we do know now that children to not have brains fully mature until about age 28. I suggest that the age of consent (in Arkansas still 14) be raised to age 25, and marriages of persons over 21 (the earliest allowable age) require parental consent, unless the woman is pregnant or has been emancipated by court order. We must protect our innocent children!

  • Free Range Kid - 9 years ago

    Even from an early age my cousins and I roamed the neighborhood, hiked through the local forests, climbed rocks and fell off of them, chased each other and crossed busy streets. We're all alive and well and turned out pretty independent, sane and stable. More so, at least, than some of the kids I know who were buffered and babied into their 20s. And I'm only 29, I'm not that old. Parents need to get a grip and empower their children for the world waiting for them, not continuously try to protect them from it only to leave them defenseless when reality hits. It's tough out here, we need to raise tough kids to handle it.

  • Mom - 9 years ago

    The issue is not their theory of parenting it is that what they are doing breaks the law. You do not need to neglect and endanger children to teach them to be responsible. It is not right to let a 6 year old walk city streets like that especially now that every sick person who wants a little girl knows about that one. I pray they take those children away from those nut jobs who are clueless how to raise kids. I was not allowed to leave the yard alone and walk wherever when I was 6 thank God I had decent parents.

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