Free range kids: Children can now play outside without adult supervision in Utah

[longknife]

Horror of horrors. They might get lost. Or scrape their knees. Or other terrible results. How can those uncaring Utahans allow such a thing?

Play at a park, bike to the store, walk to school — all activities children in Utah can now legally perform alone, without parental supervision.

I cannot even begin to remember all those hours I spent riding my bicycle all over the Los Angeles area. Or playing with my friends without adults hovering over me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm totally for parental vigilance at a reasonable rate. I don't think kindergartners or kids the same age should walk many blocks without an older child or a parent looking out for them. I think it's a sign of parental responsibility.


And I have a gut feeling the new law in Utah agrees with that.

More @ Free range kids: Children can now play outside without adult supervision in Utah

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Horror of horrors. They might get lost. Or scrape their knees. Or other terrible results. How can those uncaring Utahans allow such a thing?

Play at a park, bike to the store, walk to school — all activities children in Utah can now legally perform alone, without parental supervision.

I cannot even begin to remember all those hours I spent riding my bicycle all over the Los Angeles area. Or playing with my friends without adults hovering over me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm totally for parental vigilance at a reasonable rate. I don't think kindergartners or kids the same age should walk many blocks without an older child or a parent looking out for them. I think it's a sign of parental responsibility.


And I have a gut feeling the new law in Utah agrees with that.

More @ Free range kids: Children can now play outside without adult supervision in Utah

I seen this on GMA this morning and one of the women newscasters said she has either a 12 or 14 year old daughter and wasn't sure if she should walk 4 blocks.


I grew up similar to you.....I rode my bike all over town.....but my parents had also taught me basic common sense rules. I also had to check in at certain times and had to stay close to home after supper, but during the day I had more freedom.

Then again I had to give a full report before I could go anywhere........where ya goin, who ya goin with, when/how long you goin to be gone, whatcha gonna do,

 

[MarathonMike]

I didn't even give reports. Me and my buds would take off for the ball fields to play sports or the woods and climb trees, build forts, play army, hunt, fish, catch frogs. You know, just be a kid. That's great to see at least some kids experiencing that.

 

[waltky]

Back in the 50's...

... we were all free range kids...

... before the world got weird.

 

[toobfreak]

Horror of horrors. They might get lost. Or scrape their knees. Or other terrible results. How can those uncaring Utahans allow such a thing?

Play at a park, bike to the store, walk to school — all activities children in Utah can now legally perform alone, without parental supervision.

I cannot even begin to remember all those hours I spent riding my bicycle all over the Los Angeles area. Or playing with my friends without adults hovering over me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm totally for parental vigilance at a reasonable rate. I don't think kindergartners or kids the same age should walk many blocks without an older child or a parent looking out for them. I think it's a sign of parental responsibility.


And I have a gut feeling the new law in Utah agrees with that.

More @ Free range kids: Children can now play outside without adult supervision in Utah

WAIT. You need a LAW for this? I would have thought it would be the other way around, that you needed a law to NOT be able to go out and just play. When I was growing up, I was never home, I traveled miles on my bike with my friends. We explored woods, built stuff. Made trips to stores, we were self-sufficient. The only time I saw my parents was when it got late and I knew they'd be calling for me to come home to eat.

 

[Lastamender]

Until dinner you were on your own, after dinner they had to know where you were going.

 

[tyroneweaver]

Horror of horrors. They might get lost. Or scrape their knees. Or other terrible results. How can those uncaring Utahans allow such a thing?

Play at a park, bike to the store, walk to school — all activities children in Utah can now legally perform alone, without parental supervision.

I cannot even begin to remember all those hours I spent riding my bicycle all over the Los Angeles area. Or playing with my friends without adults hovering over me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm totally for parental vigilance at a reasonable rate. I don't think kindergartners or kids the same age should walk many blocks without an older child or a parent looking out for them. I think it's a sign of parental responsibility.


And I have a gut feeling the new law in Utah agrees with that.

More @ Free range kids: Children can now play outside without adult supervision in Utah

I grew up in utah

 

[toobfreak]

one of the women newscasters said she has either a 12 or 14 year old daughter and wasn't sure if she should walk 4 blocks.

I have neighbors with kids. You wouldn't know it. I NEVER see them outside. I never see them playing. Not with other kids, not in the street, not even in their own yards. I think once I caught a glimpse of the kids across the street out in their back yard. Briefly. I think they had helmets on. These are not babies. These are kids approaching high school. How the fuck are these people supposed to run the world after I am gone?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sad world we live in...

Maryland couple investigated for letting children, 6 and 10, walk neighborhood alone

Parents in trouble again for letting kids walk alone

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Sad world we live in...

Maryland couple investigated for letting children, 6 and 10, walk neighborhood alone

Parents in trouble again for letting kids walk alone

Where those people live I wouldn’t allow that. Not as a legal matter but as a pragmatic matter. Two young daughters of a well-known Washington DJ were abducted from that area in March of 1975 and were never heard from again. Very sad.
Plus, that area is overwhelmed by highspanic immigrants, legal and otherwise, so there’s too little accountability for the neighborhood.

 

[Lysistrata]

Sad world we live in...

Maryland couple investigated for letting children, 6 and 10, walk neighborhood alone

Parents in trouble again for letting kids walk alone

Where those people live I wouldn’t allow that. Not as a legal matter but as a pragmatic matter. Two young daughters of a well-known Washington DJ were abducted from that area in March of 1975 and were never heard from again. Very sad.
Plus, that area is overwhelmed by highspanic immigrants, legal and otherwise, so there’s too little accountability for the neighborhood.

I don't know what you are trying to say, but I lived for years in that area, within walking distance of Wheaton Plaza. This sad case had nothing to do with anyone of hispanic background such that any issue of "accountability" would be implicated. The neighborhood also has a considerable population of Southeast Asian background (count the Thai restaurants!). Moreover, it is not far from a neighborhood with a large Jewish population that walks to Saturday services. A sex offender named Lloyd Lee Welsh was finally determined decades later to be their killer, and I think that their bodies were then discovered on a rural farm down in Virginia.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Sad world we live in...

Maryland couple investigated for letting children, 6 and 10, walk neighborhood alone

Parents in trouble again for letting kids walk alone

Where those people live I wouldn’t allow that. Not as a legal matter but as a pragmatic matter. Two young daughters of a well-known Washington DJ were abducted from that area in March of 1975 and were never heard from again. Very sad.
Plus, that area is overwhelmed by highspanic immigrants, legal and otherwise, so there’s too little accountability for the neighborhood.

I don't know what you are trying to say, but I lived for years in that area, within walking distance of Wheaton Plaza. This sad case had nothing to do with anyone of hispanic background such that any issue of "accountability" would be implicated. The neighborhood also has a considerable population of Southeast Asian background (count the Thai restaurants!). Moreover, it is not far from a neighborhood with a large Jewish population that walks to Saturday services. A sex offender named Lloyd Lee Welsh was finally determined decades later to be their killer, and I think that their bodies were then discovered on a rural farm down in Virginia.

The bodies weren’t discovered. It was a dead end lead.
The highspanic thing is a reflection of the unpredictability of the citizenry. Not a safe thing when you don’t know anything about your neighbors.
Much of that Jewish population has since fled.

 

[AvgGuyIA]

I was a free range kid in the 50s although we called it living.

 

[Two Thumbs]

My family went bike riding with me one day to see where I went.

The last to fall was my sister, about 3 hours in she made me take her home b/c she was lost.

I, of course, went right back out.

 

[Snouter]

Okay we are going to do flashbacks. So I was maybe 8 years old? A bunch of us were messing around on the ice. There were a number of skatable ponds back then. The houses were zoned for over an acre so it was pretty free and open. I slipped and fell into a hole in the ice and was wearing gloves and could not grab the ice. A high school broad comes up grabs me, pulls me out and brings me back to my Mom who tossed me into the bath tub and said I was late for dinner.

 

[koshergrl]

Yeah that was before we did things like acquit murdering illegals, before we invited gangs and human traffickers into our country, and before we decided the criminally insane should go to school with our children.

 

[JoeB131]

Back in the 50's...

... we were all free range kids...

... before the world got weird.

Or it got more vigilant.

Here's the thing, in 1950, they'd have probably left a kid alone with a Catholic Priest, because, hey, nothing bad would happen, right?

Today. Not so much.

Now, here's the thing. My generation, where we had big catholic families with no rhythm, our parents couldn't possibly watch us all the time. So we were expected to watch each other, and the other kids were expected to watch us.

But back then, we didn't have NAMBLA and creeps on the internet and stuff like that. And when John Gacy was found with 33 dead kids under his house, everyone was shocked.

so, yeah, when a family is no down to one of two kids with no one to watch them, they get a bit more vigilant.

 

[Coyote]

Horror of horrors. They might get lost. Or scrape their knees. Or other terrible results. How can those uncaring Utahans allow such a thing?

Play at a park, bike to the store, walk to school — all activities children in Utah can now legally perform alone, without parental supervision.

I cannot even begin to remember all those hours I spent riding my bicycle all over the Los Angeles area. Or playing with my friends without adults hovering over me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm totally for parental vigilance at a reasonable rate. I don't think kindergartners or kids the same age should walk many blocks without an older child or a parent looking out for them. I think it's a sign of parental responsibility.


And I have a gut feeling the new law in Utah agrees with that.

More @ Free range kids: Children can now play outside without adult supervision in Utah

It’s how I grew up...

 

[Coyote]

Back in the 50's...

... we were all free range kids...

... before the world got weird.

Or it got more vigilant.

Here's the thing, in 1950, they'd have probably left a kid alone with a Catholic Priest, because, hey, nothing bad would happen, right?

Today. Not so much.

Now, here's the thing. My generation, where we had big catholic families with no rhythm, our parents couldn't possibly watch us all the time. So we were expected to watch each other, and the other kids were expected to watch us.

But back then, we didn't have NAMBLA and creeps on the internet and stuff like that. And when John Gacy was found with 33 dead kids under his house, everyone was shocked.

so, yeah, when a family is no down to one of two kids with no one to watch them, they get a bit more vigilant.

It was just more hidden then, it hasn’t increased, just awareness. Kids are overprotected these days.

 

[blastoff]

If not free range how's a kid ever gonna sneak his first smoke, learn the basics of sex education from his uneducated peers, learn valuable social protocol such as the double-dog dare, and all sorts of other complicated Holden Caufield type stuff?