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A product of helicopter parenting in many respects. New parents don't tend to like the idea of letting their kids running around the neighborhood. The way those

A product of helicopter parenting in many respects. New parents don't tend to like the idea of letting their kids running around the neighborhood. The way those well off enough like to reconcile this with balanced lifestyle is overschedule activities for their kids. They get ze dezignated social time at hockey, soccer, karate every other night. Busy-ing a kid's life has its own pitfalls.

crooked-v 8y ago
Treating it as an intentional choice is ignoring all the cases of "parent gets investigated or arrested for allowing child outside". https://people.com/parents/mom-investigated-dcfs-letting-daughter-walk-dog-alone-wilmette/ https://people.com/parents/mom-investigated-dcfs-letting-dau... https://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/hayley-parenting/tennessee-mom-arrested-after-letting-kids-play-outside-unsuperv https://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/hayley-parenti... https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arrested-for-letting-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arreste...
- andersonvom 8y ago
  That's "inside-out" helicopter parenting, where someone else is being the helicopter, not the parent. Kudos to Utah and their "free-range parenting" laws: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/well/family/utah-passes-free-range-parenting-law.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/well/family/utah-passes-f...
  - lowercased 8y ago
    Local business owner was telling me that police showed up at her business with her 9 year old because the 9 year old was "out on her own". He was walking from the local business to their house, about ... 8 blocks from the business. It's a smallish town (40,000 population, but in this 'old town district', maybe 2-3000?). Police brought the kid back to the business and chastised the business owner, intimating that letting her kid walk home unattended was in violation of some law. She asked for the specific law, which pissed off the officer to no end (because there isn't one here).
    - Zak 8y ago
      What's bizarre is that the cop was probably allowed to do the same as a child.
      - lowercased 8y ago
        Yeah! Certainly in my day (which wasn't that long ago!) we ... walked everywhere (or rode a bike) as a kid.
wvenable 8y ago
There is safety in numbers; parents will let their kids go out to play when there are other kids around. And depending on where you go in the country, you'll see groups of kids playing or you won't. But it's self feeding, as fewer kids play outside, fewer parents let their kids play outside. My kid has no reason to go outside if there is nobody out there.
- slothtrop 8y ago
  True enough, I imagine it would help for kids in the neighborhood to be introduced to each other first.

crooked-v 8y ago

Treating it as an intentional choice is ignoring all the cases of "parent gets investigated or arrested for allowing child outside". https://people.com/parents/mom-investigated-dcfs-letting-daughter-walk-dog-alone-wilmette/ https://people.com/parents/mom-investigated-dcfs-letting-dau... https://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/hayley-parenting/tennessee-mom-arrested-after-letting-kids-play-outside-unsuperv https://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/hayley-parenti... https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arrested-for-letting-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arreste...

andersonvom 8y ago
That's "inside-out" helicopter parenting, where someone else is being the helicopter, not the parent. Kudos to Utah and their "free-range parenting" laws: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/well/family/utah-passes-free-range-parenting-law.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/well/family/utah-passes-f...
- lowercased 8y ago
  Local business owner was telling me that police showed up at her business with her 9 year old because the 9 year old was "out on her own". He was walking from the local business to their house, about ... 8 blocks from the business. It's a smallish town (40,000 population, but in this 'old town district', maybe 2-3000?). Police brought the kid back to the business and chastised the business owner, intimating that letting her kid walk home unattended was in violation of some law. She asked for the specific law, which pissed off the officer to no end (because there isn't one here).
  - Zak 8y ago
    What's bizarre is that the cop was probably allowed to do the same as a child.
    - lowercased 8y ago
      Yeah! Certainly in my day (which wasn't that long ago!) we ... walked everywhere (or rode a bike) as a kid.

wvenable 8y ago

There is safety in numbers; parents will let their kids go out to play when there are other kids around. And depending on where you go in the country, you'll see groups of kids playing or you won't. But it's self feeding, as fewer kids play outside, fewer parents let their kids play outside. My kid has no reason to go outside if there is nobody out there.

slothtrop 8y ago
True enough, I imagine it would help for kids in the neighborhood to be introduced to each other first.