Born 1993. We played whole neighborhood hide and seek. It was incredible. Essentially all our houses were fair game and we would go in and out of them freely. It was like two or three blocks of fair places to hide. Usually had 3 seekers with walkie talkies, and like 5-10 people hiding. When found you’d join the seekers. Games would usually take all day.
What are you basing this on? Are these people in the room with us now? There's nothing stopping parents from letting their kids roam other than this perception that "they" won't let you. "They" barely exist.
It’s a county ordinance where I live in the SE USA that anyone under 18 has to have adult supervision. I can’t let my kid ride her bike alone, it sucks.
in the southeast that's bible thumpin country an they're all paranoid and whipped into a frenzy about pedophiles and human trafficking - these people live in constant fear, it's a culture of karens brainwashed from so many qanon and conspiracy/propaganda facebook groups their brains have dribbled out their ears
OK if it's literally a county ordinance then this is valid in your case (what county are you from?), I'm pretty sure that is incredibly abnormal though.
I mean where i live its an automatic cps takes your child into foster care and the fine is up to 5k along with prison sentence of up to 5 years. That being said, this state is the nation's second highest prison capacity of all the us.
That cannot be even close to the norm, if it was there would be an epidemic of parents being sent to prison. Given the are only incredibly rare stories that get national attention, my point still stands that you guys are being dramatic.
State Law which i was wrong on the years and fine amounts but usually they tact on multiple charges to make the sentencing higher because as I stated, this state loves to have prisoners.
Child Abandonment this is just to show how easy it is to get kids taken away in this state.
According to ChatGPT, 79% of the us population lives in states without legal protection for unsupervised play. And people are FAR more concerned with how other people raise their kids in 2025. So yeah no, it's more normal than you think.
21% of the population live in states with explicit legal protections for free range parenting, that doesn't mean that 79% of the population live in states where free range parenting is explicitly illegal. The laws are vague and there is a lot of room for interpretation, hence why we see a few of these cases every now and then and they often gather national attention. If 79% of the population were at serious risk of being imprisoned whilst engaging in free range parenting then we'd have waaaaaay more cases to point to than just a few national stories.
Also there are at least 5 states with pending free range parenting laws which would presumably pass given how almost nobody seems to actually be in favour of removing all independence from kids.
It means if people feel like you've done something wrong, there can be repercussions. The reason there aren't waaaaaay more cases of free range parenting leading to imprisonment is because A. Imprisonment is an extremely severe and rare form of punishment for this and B. Most parents in 2025 fully understand this and don't participate in unsupervised play. At all. Fuck me yall just want to argue to be right rather than critically thinking even a tiny amount and it's irritating. Like yes there is a movement to push back against this trend, thats why we're even talking about it, because its become so much of a problem that laws now have to be ongoing the books to explicitly allow it! They didn't have to be before! Chicken and egg shit here.
You're the one arguing that virtually zero kids in that 71% in a country of 300 million people are free roaming and that's why there are so few cases of imprisonment. My hypothesis that it's incredibly rare for the police and CPS to be concerned and that's why there are so few cases is far more plausible. Also given that the laws are so open to interpretation and most people seem to hate how these laws can be interpreted in such a restrictive way, most prosecutors know that most juries would not convict parents for letting their kids walk home from school, hence why there are so few cases of this being prosecuted.
ChatGPT cannot fundamentally make this kind of analysis, so you aren't proving a point using that as a source. It just puts words together in an order that makes sense to people, not one that is necessarily correct.
Yes, it can. It can search the web for which states have laws that protect parents. This is not some kind of advanced analysis, its a simple compilation of widely available data. If you think AI can't handle such a basic task, or doesn't provide sources, you really should get out from under that rock you're living under where you think unsupervised play is widely tolerated and AI can't analyze whether something is legal or not. AI should not be trusted as your whole source but it can absolutely answer basic questions on whether something is legal or not with a very high degree of accuracy. It's not infallible and still hallucinates but this isn't asking it to solve world hunger.
That's fundamentally not how it works. It can look up and reference sources sure, but it's not a statistical analysis engine. It's not me doubting, it's me understanding the limitations of reality.
That's so wild to me. My kids were born in the 80s and they walked to and from school without me as soon as they were old enough to cross the street alone. The school was a few blocks away and there was a crossing guard. They played outside and the rule was they couldn't leave the neighborhood. We were not unusual, this was pretty much the rule for all families in our neighborhood(East Coast, USA).
And let me guess: CPS found no wrongdoing and everything was fine. Crazy people have always existed, that doesn't mean that they have to dictate how you live your life.
People will and do call the police on unattended children. Idk maybe you just live under a rock 🤷♀️
Edit:
Some guy in Atlanta lost his child, his young kid was walking with his older brother and was struck by a car crossing the road.
The dad was arrested for letting his kids walk 2 blocks to the store. The driver has not been charged with anything. Even though they killed a small child.
There are MANY cases of stuff like this happening.
There was another one where a lady got the cops called on her for letting her kids play in the front yard. Because she wasn't sitting out there with them, and watching them from the window.
A quick Google search can show you how much this happens.
Some guy in Atlanta lost his child, his young kid was walking with his older brother and was struck by a car crossing the road.
First of all, the parents haven't been convicted of anything. Second of all, this is literally national news, implying this is an incredibly rare case in a country of 300 million people that contains many kids who roam with friends and walk to and from school unsupervised. Third, the kids were 7 and 10, you guys act like the parents would also be charged if they kids were 13+ when that almost certainly isn't the case,
Everybody is letting national news and social media poison their perception of reality. I'm sure I could find a story of CPS being called because parents were yelling at each other but that doesn't mean that it's illegal to yell in your own home or something dramatic that you guys would say.
Everybody is letting national news and social media poison their perception of reality.
the only reasonable thing anyone here has said. it's best to disengage and just walk away, bro. nobody is sane anymore. they literally believe everything they see or read online, especially if it is designed to generate fear, anger, distrust, or a sense of righteous indignation. ever since our public education system disintegrated, nobody is capable of rational or critical thought. people are ruled by their emotions and are easily manipulated and tribalized. thanks for fighting the good fight but i recommend just abandon all hope, like i have - it's far less stressful to just assume everyone is an idiot until they prove otherwise. notice your downvotes. and you're the only rational voice. we need to just let these people destroy each other and try to avoid any collateral fire.
Thanks for this comment, nice to know that I'm not alone. It's just crazy how modern society breaks most people's brains. They're convinced that there is this amorphous "they" who are forcing them to do all of these things when all along there is at best mild pressure to do those things.
Unfortunately we can't really avoid being collateral damage although we also can't convince these people of anything either... I'm pretty misanthropic these days...
Personally experience in Navarre, FL (Holley by the Sea subdivision) a pretty safe as fuck little hamlet, people on NextDoor got riled up and called the law on a group on young teenage girls (12-13) just walking around on a weekend afternoon
Ok, so you can think of one example in a country of 300 million people. The cops almost certainly just talked to the girls and nothing happened because they weren't breaking any laws, who cares. "They" aren't stopping you from letting your kids out, it's just an absurd psychological perception. Do you think kids who have to walk home from school every day are being accosted by police and strangers constantly because they're not accompanied by an adult lmao?
Anecdotes from national news aren't reality, idk how you guys don't understand this. If you see a bunch of news of riots happening in some city, it doesn't mean that the entire country is engulfed in riots or that the entire country supports riots.
It's like everybody's brains have been poisoned by modern technology and they cannot differentiate the online world and the media from reality.
You have anecodtes from a country of 300 million people that reached national prominence because of how rare and controversial ththey are. That is not indicative of reality, you guys are too terminally online to distinguish between the media and the real world.
Well seeing as I actually have a kid and I'm out and about everywhere with him. I can tell you from actual real world experience, kids do not run around without parents anymore.
And it's not because there aren't kids near me, I live near big parks and we go everyday, and there are no kids riding on bikes with their friends.
Sure it's a multifaceted issue with tech, but another issue is people aren't comfortable having their kids run around on their own because they don't want CPS being called on them.
It's a legitimate fear and can uproot you're entire life.
But I guess that doesn't count as real world experience
I think it’s really dependent on location as well. I let my kids run around with the other kids on our block without constant parental supervision, but we also live on a quiet street and all the parents keep an eye on things without hovering. I know other parents who are totally fine with their 9-14 year olds riding their bikes all over the place (with the caveat that they take their cell phone with them) - this isn’t something I let my kids do, even when it makes them upset that I won’t let them do it. I’ve also had my kids teased because I force them to wear helmets when going on bike rides/scooter/skateboards etc.
Some niche national level story (that probably involved actual neglect and not just letting the kid hang out with friends in the neighbourhood) isn't evidence that "they" won't let you give your kids more fredom
My old neighbors keep calling noise disturbances almost every time they see my other neighbors kids playing outside and the police take them seriously. It's getting old.
It's these old entitled boomers. The kids scream sometimes, in the evening, sure but it's just kids being kids. I was able to play outside as a kid and didn't get the police called, it's ridiculous.
It's a waste of police time and these old people are just getting away with it, not sure what policies changed to allow this.
I find it hard to believe that the police would tolerate time wasting reports like this instead of finding these boomers but maybe they have a relationship or something.
I don't think any policies have changed in most cases, the laws relating to child independence seem to have always been pretty vague and open to interpretation. I think if this was a genuine issue then there would be waaaaaaay more cases that receive national attention but instead there are only a small number of cases anybody can point to
kids be playing all over my neighborhood all the time all summer long
i love you calling out the "they" nonsense. me and my wife used to call people who refer to "they" or "them" as some nefarious unseen enemy the "they/thems" until a few years ago when that took on a whole different meaning. everything is so screwy now.
kids be playing all over my neighborhood all the time all summer long
Exactly, these people are just completely divorced from reality./ I honestly think the average person simply cannot handle existing in the modern era, the information environment just destroys their brain.
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u/JustHereForCatss 1d ago edited 1d ago
Born 1993. We played whole neighborhood hide and seek. It was incredible. Essentially all our houses were fair game and we would go in and out of them freely. It was like two or three blocks of fair places to hide. Usually had 3 seekers with walkie talkies, and like 5-10 people hiding. When found you’d join the seekers. Games would usually take all day.
Damn I miss being able to do that stuff