Child Independence Debate

I live in fairly typical wealthy US suburb, my kid is 7 (1st grade) and goes to school on her own - school is around 0.5 miles away. I have to pick her up from school (parents are required until 3rd grade to check out kid) but often just leave her on playground to play with other kids (unless she has activities that day - which frankly she has more and more of - chess, math, soccer, gymnastics and ballet right now). She walks back home whenever she is done playing. I see kids 10-12 years old bik

Parents and society can be unreasonably restrictive in any environment. People call social services on parents for letting kids walk around alone in suburbs. The freedom you can get as a young teen without a car is however vastly higher in cities due to public transportation.Social norms also vary widely, first graders in Tokyo take public transportation to school alone. This isn’t inherently unsafe or unreasonable.

It's not just helicopter parents. I'd love to let my kids have more freedom. But there are roadblocks at every turn:- There aren't as many kids, and other parents don't let their kids out these days, so your kids are often the only ones out there.- Without other kids being out there, it's much harder to estimate what is safe. There is just no data.- Because there are no other kids out there, things that used to be safe no longer are. Our roads don't have si

I grew up in them Scandinavian countries, and my brother and I often spent the entire weekend outside out of sight from my parents. My earliest memory of that is when I was 7 years old.I now live in the US and have kids about the same age.The issue is not homogeneous culture or any other thing people with no brains come up with, but traffic density, at least in my case.Where I used to live we could roam without having to cross dangerous streets. Where I live now, there's traffic ev

Anecdotally I was born in 1990, I spent the first 10 years of my life in Tacoma WA, USA where during summers I would leave in the morning and be gone all day, all of the neighborhood kids would do the same.When I was 10 we moved to San Diego, CA USA, where I lived until adulthood. During the summers had the same freedom, I would roam free with the neighborhood kids all day long.Now I'm married with children of my own (3 and 0) and think about the scariness of letting them roam free, b

Yes. When was growing up from a relatively young age I could be gone half the day on my bike, traveling to friends' houses or nearby parks. I'm not sure I will let my children do that today because of the traffic through our current neighborhood.

Thats a problem with messed up North American culture. Kids should be able to go outside by themselves in cities. They do exactly that all over the world. In places much more dangerous then normal city in US. I commuted to school at age of 9, having to switch streetcars and walk for 15 mins. Total time of about 40 mins one way. Often I would walk back through the city instead, this would take about 2 hours of wondering through city of more then 2 million. I love cities, but I also love countrysi

Huh?Where and when don't we allow children to wander around the city by themselves?In many large cities, kids are expected to use public transit to get to/from school. It's not unknown for parents to send kids on errands. And, how does the kid get to the park?This "kids can't go anywhere alone" idea is very new.My Mom complained that the one route that I never used to go to/from school is the one that she showed me.

"too many cars and it was unusual to see anyone walking" means that he is in one of the developed world part, may be suburban partsAs a parent, he may be scared of letting kids out on their own because of all the abuses/crimes/accidents against kids - exaggerated by the media.And then kids do not have enough reasons to move out and play in the neighborhood in a world full of social media, gaming consoles, and the electronics around them to keep them occupied.Other pa

Hmm, I don't think that's right. I'm just anecdata, but I currently live in the suburbs with a very young child. The nice places to hang out and play either require driving or, at a minimum, walking on sidewalks directly next to fast traffic and crosswalks at very busy intersections. As an adult, I find it uneasy to walk, even when it is possible. I don't think I'd be okay letting, say, a 10 year old run around here without supervision, mostly because about vehicl