Can someone pls. tell me when it became illegal to let kids play outside with no parent watching?

[dixiegrrrrl]

Utah becomes first state to pass 'free-range parenting' law codifying that kids can participate in unsupervised activities without their parents facing neglect charges.

The new law prevents parents from being considered negligent by state authorities for letting their child walk outside alone, play without supervision or wait alone in a car.

"If your 12-year-old is capable of walking home from the bus stop by themselves, that's something that you might make a decision about where another 12-year-old may be too impulsive,"

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/380485-utah-becomes-first-state-to-pass-free-range-parenting-law


When did it become ILLEGAL to let a kid walk outside alone, play without supervision or wait alone in a car.??????????
( Yes, I am talking about age appropriate situations)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. It's not illegal, but neglect laws are definitely applied in inequitable ways and as a weapon

against certain people or populations and in certain areas. Some states also have strong recommendations that can be criminalized for how old a child has to be to be left at home alone.

[exboyfil]

4. I was a latch key in 1st grade

When my mom and dad worked 2nd shift, I got my own food and went to bed before they got home. It wasn't all the time - just when my dad was on 2nd shift. My mom always worked 2nd (4 -12 pm) - she was a waitress. She was probably off one or two nights during the week.

[meadowlander]

10. So was I.

My brother and I were home alone for a few hours every day when we were 6 and 7. We also walk home together about ten blocks from school. Daycare was just too expensive.

We actually started the year in daycare which was on the other side of our block with a big wood lot in the middle. The daycare let us play in the wood lot and my brother and I would sneak home to watch TV and then go back to the daycare just before pick up time. Then we messed up and left some evidence that we'd been home one day and our parents decided it was stupid to pay the daycare to ignore us when we were obviously fine just watching TV on our own.

[tazkcmo]

52. Me too.

I walked several blocks home. Alone.

[exboyfil]

2. Buddy system

I think my kids were out on their own starting about 8 to 10. I think they had a little more free range at my mother in law. Farm fields and creeks in our suburb. Houses went in most of the farm fields over time.

They usually also had a husky-lab mix along with them (my in law's dog). I would pity anybody who would have screwed with those kids. She was a fantastic dog, and I miss her.

[kysrsoze]

3. My wife and I worry about this from a safety and legality perspective.

We really don’t know the answer. I have a much older daughter, and the rules have changed since she was that age. Not only have the rules changed, but we’re we are more worried safety-wise these days than before, sometimes for very good reason. Our kids will have to ride the city bus home from Jr. High and we are aware of numerous attempted abductions over the past couple years.

It’s a shame, b/c we were all over the place as kids. Maybe we were just naive back then.

[Nevernose]

11. Back then

“Back then” it was a major plot point of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Tom Sawyer was always breaking the rules by straying too far and staying out too late, while his best friend Huck had so few rules that everyone knew he was essentially neglected, and other kids in town had the 1880s version of helicopter parents.

People and societies really don’t change all that much, or at least not very quickly.

[Lee-Lee]

5. When many child protective agencies started going overboard

Certainly not all, or probably most have done this.

But many have.

When much is left to judgement and arbitrary decisions of what constitutes “neglect” you get cases where these agencies go after parents in cases that end up being extreme overreach.

[Snackshack]

53. Agreed.

But in fairness I cannot totally say it is self motivation by CPS for this. Any time something happens with a child, where was CPS is many times the first question that gets asked. Sometimes even before the parents of the child. I know people who work at a CPS and it is not a job I could do. Because of budget cuts one person can have a case load of 40-50 individuals. CPS is not perfect by any means but it’s not completely their fault.

[spinbaby]

6. This seems to be an American thing

My mother told me that when she came here from Europe in 1953, the idea that young children needed to be supervised at all times was a new concept for her. She and her siblings had routinely been left at home unattended while her parents went out for the evening even at a very young age. This seemed to be very normal.

Also, when I’ve been in Japan, I often saw young children traveling alone on public transportation wearing school uniforms and backpacks.

[BannonsLiver]

8. Its a recent American thing

I was a latch key kid at 6 years old (the school bus dropped me off at our driveway and my dad was a teacher so he came home earlier than most parents). I can remember being dropped off at the theater multiplex with a friend or friends to see Meatballs and Empire Strikes back at 7 and 9 years old. This was in the late 70s and early 80s. Nowadays that would be unthinkable for parents.

[pnwmom]

27. Yeah but there it could even be babies left home in their cribs.

My husband once had to tell an American man in Seattle, married to a European woman, that they needed to find a babysitter. They couldn't leave their 4 month old baby in the crib by himself while they went out to do errands -- no matter what they could do in her country.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. In Japan, there is a right of passage where parents send VERY young kids to the store alone.

I saw a memorable documentary about it. One kids was 5-ish, the sibling was maybe a year younger. It took place in a village, as opposed to a city.
The kids were given grocery list of 2-3 small items, and sent off, holding each other's hand.
Because this was (is?) an old custom, the adults encountered along the way would make supportive comments, and of course the store clerks knew ahead of time they were coming.
So in truth the kids were not really alone, but they did not know that.

Some adorable scenes of the youngest child having a meltdown, crying, fearful, and the older sibling providing structure and comfort. ( I forget if the oldest was a boy or girl)

anyhow, it was a long walk,given the children's propensity to get distracted. but successful in the end.

[bettyellen]

18. For city kids it was going off the block, and/or crossing the street that were mile stones.

I remember this vividly because the better candy stores required a crossing.

[miyazaki]

24. That would be the tv show "Hajimete no Otsukai".

http://www.ntv.co.jp/otsukai/

I think it's mostly shown as a yearly special now or something like that.
It's fun to watch. And of course the children are closely guarded in secret.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Oh thank you!!!

I know I watched on You Tube, totally forgot what the name of it was.
It was adorable.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Sure Didn't Go That Far Back For Me

We lived near a big park with baseball fields, tennis courts, basketball hoops and an area with swings and slides, etc.

We would go there are 8 in the morning, come home to have a sandwich and back to the park. We were playing baseball or basketball (at say 8 or 10 or 12) but before that, we'd ride bikes over there and play on the swings, even when i was 6 or so.

This was every day in the summer.

To be fair, the park district did have supervised, semi-organized baseball going on 2 days a week (teachers off for the summer took this is a summer gig.) But, the other days, we were on our own, and i'm talking early to mid-60's.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

43. same time frame for me (more or less) and

same experience. Out of the house and gone ALL day!

[OriginalGeek]

7. my gut isntinct is

this is conservatives trying to imply that liberals are trying to tell them how to parent so they pass meaningless legislation to say "See how we stick it to them damn librulz!"

No different than complaining that lefties have taken god and prayer out of schools or christ out of christmas.

For the most part, useless fucking morons.

[Laffy Kat]

16. There's an element of misogyny about it, too.

It's the mothers who are blamed the most: "How dare they work outside the home!"

[Ms. Toad]

38. All the free-range parents I know are liberals.

The last I encountered thought it was entirely appropriate to leave a 2-year old in a dorm room to wake himself up and walk himself to child care when the time came. Since I was in charge of child care, I had to inform them that - although I couldn't dictate how they raised their child anywhere else, while they were in our community they were obligated to supervise him (or make arrangements to have him supervised by someone else)

I was actually surprised to see it was passed in Utah, because the concept is a throw-back to the era of hippies.

[zipplewrath]

9. Neglect

You can get hit with a neglect charge under just about any circumstance. It does get harder as the kids grow older.

But, yeah, I walked to school starting in kindergarten and the whole neighborhood did. Crossed a 5 lane road at a crosswalk with a crossing guard. It was about 5 blocks to get there.

The hard part really is that you'll probably win in court, but the process to GET to court may involve child services pulling your kids from your home and then having to fight in court to get them back.

[Laffy Kat]

14. Back in my day.....

When we weren't in school we'd take off early, come home only when we were hungry or thirsty, and stayed out until the mosquitoes ate us up. There were no yard fences, dogs roamed free. I can remember being around five when my older sister (eight) took me about a half mile from home to play in the spillway system. We were gone all day and lost most of the time. I do remember my sister telling me not to tell our mom where we were, so it must have been a no-no. Not sure how we survived our childhood, LOL.

[LakeArenal]

15. My mom said go outside and come in when the street light comes on...

Don't remember any supervision. We lived by a woods with a creek that ran through. It got very deep at times. No one worried about it. I ask my husband often how we lived to get old. In college, I used to hitchhike with short shorts on.
Never one problem. But that seems a way along time ago. Before color or remote control TV.. Is there a dinosaur smilie?

[In_The_Wind]

17. As long as I was home before dark everything ok.

I was born in 1948 so things really were different back then. I loved wandering alone in any wooded area.

[Thunderbeast]

19. When I was 14, I spent a week in the woods.

I know 14 is a bit out of range here, but I was a "city kid" who announced to my parents that I was going with a friend into the Mt. Hood Wilderness for a week.

We had a great time and developed a lasting love for wild places.

Parents need to let go. The world is NOT more dangerous that it was for kids. In the early sixties, TV news, local and national, was on the air for a half hour.

National news on all three networks was a 15 minute program until 1963.

We now have 24/7 coverage on a dozen networks, with stories of child-crime being the most-likely lead to glue eyeballs to your program (and prescription drug ads).

[janterry]

34. It might not be more dangerous, but other parents will report you

I left my daughter home alone at a young age, but it was a BIG secret. I knew she was okay (safe neighborhood, big dog). We also had neighbors that she could go to - if she needed help.

But if some nosy neighbor reported me? I'd be in big trouble. I knew it, and it scared me.

Even letting her walk around the neighborhood - I'd be very cautious -not because I was scared for her safety, but I was scared someone would call the cops.

[Binkie The Clown]

20. When I was seven years old, I wandered the neighborhood freely.

My parents would see me at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The rest of the time I was on my own, hanging with friends, riding our bikes to the dump or to the railroad yard to watch freight trains switching cars. We hiked in the woods, swam in the lake that was three blocks away, went fishing from an old boat we found, and generally do whatever we felt like doing.

On occasion my dad would blast out a quick Morse code "CQ" on the car horn and I'd come running home. If I was going someplace further away like the library (2 miles) or the movie theater (3 miles) I'd pop my head in the door and tell my mom where I was going. From the youngest age I remember I never recall asking for permission to go someplace, I'd just let my folks know where I was going.

This was not unusual. Every kid in the neighborhood did the same thing. It was completely normal. It was also 1952.

[WillowTree]

21. About the same time a kid couldn't set up a lemonade stand in the front yard without a license.

[X_Digger]

22. I wonder how much of this is urban vs rural, too.

We lived in the country. On the weekends, my mom would kick me out the door after breakfast and not expect me back till dinner.

It wasn't unusual for us to bike 20-30 miles a day on the weekends. (It was the country, NOTHING was close, lol.) Forts, swimming holes, mountains, creeks, abandoned logging roads- we knew every crack and crevice for 30 square miles.

During fishing season, or squirrel season, I might take off Friday after school and not show up again until Sunday afternoon. (This would have been when I was umm.. 14+?) Sleeping bag, fishing pole / 22 rifle, a couple of cans of food, a flashlight, a knife, and a lighter.

I see some of my friends ferrying their kids to every little thing, and the kids unable or unwilling to do something on their own, and I wonder.. chicken, or egg?

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. My family moved. A lot.

We would sometimes live in town, sometimes lived in an old house in the forests, or near enough to the forests it made no difference. Family did independent logging stuff.
I clearly remember being 7-8-9 and disappearing all day into the woods, somehow making it back by dusk.
If we lived in a town, we had bikes, Mom always saw to that, so my brother and I would explore all over town within days of moving there.
The houses were quite small mostly, so if it wasn't raining, we kids would be outside. Double points if there was a barn handy.

My parents, and their parents, had and valued common sense, but also were competent at making, using, and even fixing most tools of living.
They had been thru a Depression and a World War, where using your head and having a lot of skills was normal..and required.

My experience is that it makes you feel confident on a day to day basis.
I was very lucky to be raised where, and when, I was.

It has helped me understand that the growing reliance upon, and acceptance of, so many external dictates,
has become a totally normal way of living now.
and there always will be people who enjoy having that much control over someone else.

[X_Digger]

49. I hate to sound like, "Old man yells at cloud", but..

it seems like fewer and fewer kids know how to take care of themselves, the places they live, and the things they have.

I recently had to teach my neighbor's mid-teen son how to patch the tube on his bicycle. I've also had to teach his dad (early 30's) how to replace the flush valve in his toilet.

[dixiegrrrrl]

55. When my kid was 10 or so

back in ....'78....I was making waffles for him and his sleep over pal, said pal was totally stunned to see a real waffle iron.

'1978! Kid had no clue.

I regret I did not talk them in to becoming plumbers or electricians. They could make a killing out here.

[Blue_true]

37. Urban streets are loaded with auto traffic today.

I was allowed to wonder as a kid and almost got killed on a highway that is less busy than today's urban streets. A guy trying to enter the highway was not looking as my bike came by and bumped me in the highway, only one car was there and the driver veered away to avoid me. If the guy entering had been going a bit faster, he would have knocked me far enough in front of the fast moving car that I would have been killed because there would have been no way for the driver to veer away more. I was around 9. Sorry, I am one of those that feel parents should monitor kids that are under 11 closely, in cities. At 12 and above, most kids have a fairly good radar for danger. On the day that I got bumped into a highway, I saw the entering driver edging forward, but assumed he saw me, I never make that mistake as a adult and have actually had to pull one relative kid back from him lunging into traffic because he had just saw a place that we were looking for.

[Blue_true]

25. Societal norm, maybe not illegal but will draw flack.

I don't see young kids walking alone here in Florida, just does not happen today. I am actually in favor of parents being held accountable for young kids walking around freely, young kids are very impulsive and roads are really crowded with stressed out people who are not watching what is near their cars or trucks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. Too damn hot, mostly.

At least in ala.
Which means that I have not seen kids running around in years because of the heat.

[Blue_true]

41. Maybe.

But I remember days that the dry sand was so hot that we avoided stepping on it, but we still ranged well away from home, sometimes into woods that were known to to be home to rattlers. One difference today is kids simply find more to do inside, when I was young, the only good daytime fun was to wonder off with either older kids or a pack of kids my age. One time a group of us found some hidden illegal moonshine, and being kids, we drank some of the stuff, of course that was a majorly bad idea.

[pnwmom]

26. I don't know, but I remember police arresting some Maryland woman because she let her

10 year old take her 6 year old to a park. And some busybody at the park reported the children.

The stupidity is that the school district there required 6 year olds to walk farther than that every day (no bus service unless a mile away).

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. I remember that story!

Don't know how it turned out, tho. I sure did silently cheer her on.

[MicaelS]

28. When some CPS overreached their authority. n/t

[Freethinker65]

29. I got a phone call from a neighbor about my first grader walking to and from school one block away

She offered to have her 5th grader walk with him. I explained the school was a block away with crossing guards on the corners and that he would be just fine. He had been walking himself there on and off since kindergarten.
I still laugh when I see parents and care givers lined up in mini-vans or crowded by the school doors waiting for the dismissal bell when I know many live mere blocks away.

[Doremus]

31. Here are the readiness rules for a kindergartner in the 1950s:

Parent handbook from the 1950s:

"Your child should know ...

... how to go home by himself after the first few days of school
... how to cross the streets safely ..."


This was the era I grew up in and can remember walking by myself several blocks to school and back when I was 5. Of course today it looks strange to even read about how it was back then, let alone allow a child to do it. It's crazy how much our values have changed.

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. "It's crazy how much our values have changed."

That's what my Grandparents used to ........and now I understand them!

[MicaelS]

36. I started walking to school ALONE in 2nd grade.

I was 7. I walked, then later bicycled, 1 mile down a busy street, with no sidewalks. At no point did my mother ever drive me to school, no matter how bad the weather. This was 1964.

[dixiegrrrrl]

50. I just a flash of me doing the same.

Except it was kindergarten.

Have no clue how far it was, do know I was alone, and I have always had a "knowing" that I had done so...
was reading your post and got a memory flash..where you kind of pop into the movie image..ya know?

Maybe we should be wondering how the hell we DID survive our childhood.

Maybe that was a parent's form of retroactive birth control......

[csziggy]

39. I don't know the answer to your question, but growing up 1950s - 1960s we were feral children

In the summer we'd leave the house as soon as we had breakfast and play outside all day. We lived in a subdivision with a mix of old, new, and relocated houses. Across a right of way (street that still has not been paved) was a swamp that had been dredged in the '30s, silted up, and re-dredged in the '60s. When I was small we knew there were alligators (that ate some of the neighborhood pets) and water moccasins (one killed my dog), but we still played there almost daily. My parents never worried about us since we generally came home in one piece with few injuries, even if we were muddy, sweaty, and worn out. During the school year, the same ruled after school hours.

My Mom had grown up on Alabama farms. Her story about starting school was that the first day she went to school her mother lead her down the hill, across the creek, and flagged down the freight train. The crew knew were to drop Mom off near the school and Mom had to handle getting back on the train in the afternoon and the whole routine for the rest of the school year. Another year or so later Mom had to shepherd her brother, then both brothers. It wasn't until Granddad got a different job (building farm buildings) that the route to school changed.

Dad grew up in a mining company town in the middle of Florida scub land. The town was fenced to keep the scrub cattle out but the kids went everywhere. His school life was a little more regimented - the company shopped around for the best schools near by and paid the school board for the kids' education. Bussing was part of the deal and the kids were checked off as they got on the buses every day.

Both my parents would have been pissed if someone criticized our ability to go out and amuse ourselves on our own for hours every day!

[LAS14]

42. That's the story of my childhood too. No shoes in the summer, of course. nt

[csziggy]

44. Oh, of course! We got three pairs of shoes each a year

Just before school, one good pair of school shoes and in high school a pair of sneakers for gym. Then a fancy pair for Easter.

If we outgrew or wore out our shoes, it was a major budget crunch to replace them. So summers, we were barefoot most of the time. Every one of us girls (four in the family) had wide feet from going barefoot so much. We joked that my little sister's feet were square - she wore a size 5WWW!

[LAS14]

40. When I became aware that someone walked my 5 and 6 year old...

... grandsons to school every day I asked when this would stop. I think my son asked me when he first walked to school alone. I said "The second day of kindergarten." A family chant for years was "Look 3 ways at Weston!!!" He (a teacher the Boston schools) said today I would be charged under <some letters and numbers>. I was sort of teasing... But.... Cheeze!!!!!

[cally]

45. Many neighborhoods have few kids and few adults at home

I know growing up that I wandered all over but many parents were home and we knew many homes to run to for help if needed. I also had many kids out on the streets that I knew so I rarely did my adventures alone. I know a few times I did not come home on time and my parents figured out where I was by asking neighbor kids where they had seen me. Nowadays, most parents work so few are home and many kids are in daycare. So, a child going to the park would often be alone which is much different.

I encouraged my kids to go to the store alone or a creek but other parents usually would not let their kids do this alone. It is very different now.

[beachbum bob]

46. there has been an age limit, but the "test" is when harm is done to a child and a parent is not

present. Those laws been around a long time

[LiberalFighter]

47. There needs to be some protection from some crazy child protection people.

Some of them will use it as a weapon.

In first grade I walked across the road in a village and up the hill to school.

We moved that same year before the January startup to a city and I walked a couple of blocks to school for 1st and 2nd grade. From about 3rd to 4th grade walked about 4 blocks to the same school. The first time I walked home from this 2nd school I got lost.

Moved to a larger city and walked about 5 blocks from 5th thru 8th grade.

[Wednesdays]

48. The busting up of the neighborhoods.

The examples above, of the children in Europe, Japan, etc. and "the Good Ol' Days" had a common element: everybody knew each other and knew the children.

Nowadays, way too many in the USA are transient (who works the same job in the same place for forty years anymore?), neighborhood markets have given way to Wal-Marts, and people are more inclined to just shut themselves in their air conditioned houses and apartments. And as was touched on in one of the above comments, teevee newz has conditioned us to become suspicious of nearly everyone and everything.

[dixiegrrrrl]

54. I am living in one of those original neighborhoods.

The neighborhood was built 1958-59-very early 60's.
I've talked to the women who moved here back then, raised their kids, retired, still in the same house.
They tell me of neighborhood bar-b-cues, pool parties, always one or more adult would car pool the kids to school, to events in town.
Now half the houses are rentals. There are 3 remaining original people left of the 10 on this street.

Yes, you have an important point.

It is also true that we tend to stay indoors, because of the heat and humidity most of the year.

Wonder what Tom Sawyer would have turned out like if he had air conditioning?

[demigoddess]

56. Good grief! I babysat at age 12!! We walked to school in first and second grade. Maybe

even kindergarten. My kids walked alone to kindergarten and first grade, but I would go with them the first days. then I would turn to go home earlier and earlier in the walk. At age 12 we had just moved into town, my mother said go to the jr high and enroll. I didn't even know where the jr high was located!!! Somehow I found it. There are more guns on the street now.

[pnwmom]

57. This appears to be the last report about the Maryland family.

They were two blocks away. This is maddening.

[LSFL]

58. Thank America's Most Wanted.

I know Walsh suffered a hellish loss but he was very remiss in focusing on stranger danger when friends and family commit most crimes against children.

[SoCalDem]

59. My boys were lucky enough to apparently be

among the last of the free rangers...

They wolfed down breakfast, grabbed their bikes and off they went......showed up for lunch and then again when the street lights came on

This was in KS. NM, CO, CA from 1977-1996

Oldest born in 73, then 77, then 78..They were usually with a "herd" of other neighborhood kids..
They came in ..had dinner, a bath and then straight to bed.. They had bumps, bruises & dirt in their hair & every orifice..

Of course during school they all walked to school too..

They all grew up to be great husbands,have life-long friends, are financially secure & well-rounded men.)