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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

You really do have to be careful what you educate your child about in the US it seems. If they know too much about sex ed' or drugs, you might get social services call on you (or worse they might make baseless accusations of sexual abuse or drug use).

But then again this is a country where letting your kids walk to the local park is grounds for social services and children being removed from their household. So the bar is obviously set extremely low and common sense plays little to no part.

PS - I wonder how long until letting your children play outside (rather than them watching TV/playing video games) is grounds for social services? A lot of people cite "kidnapping" as a justification for the park thing, so by that logic letting them outside out of sight is equally as dangerous...

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I've had my kid brought home by the cops twice. Both times he was playing on the sidewalk less than 50 feet from our front door. What do you even say to a cop that thinks allowing your child to play in their own front yard unsupervised is dangerous? It's insane. You risk getting a visit from CPS if your child goes unsupervised at any point in time. In practice, it's rare, but not so rare that parent's like me and my wife don't worry about every time our kids run outside to play.

Things appear to have become so weird that letting your kids out to play has now gained its own label - "Free range parenting".

Which is really sad. I grew up outdoors, climbing trees, riding my bike wherever I wanted, going to the local park or woods with other kids, etc. I would really hate to see kids being denied the same opportunities due to unwarranted fear being driven into their parents or their communities.

It's not something I've encountered in Europe, where I spent most of my life, kids seem to be living pretty much the same as ever there, but reading about this stuff happening in the US is very sad.

It seems you guys forgot about "home of the brave" part.

It looks like the US nation is out of tune with its foundations.

It went missing right along with "Land of the Free".

I grew up only having to be home by dark, too, but putting a label on what used to be normal but is being lost is actually a GOOD thing! It's not sad. It lets you track the concept's popularity, and makes for catchy slogans like "Free range parenting is not a crime".

Without a catchy label, even those who believe in it (like me) have a hard time finding words to speak up whenever a helicopter parent is around.

Because it was so natural in my own childhood, it seems self-evident that children don't need constant 24/7 supervision (and it may actually be harmful) and so I find myself grasping when I encounter someone who believes the opposite (and there are plenty). A nice sound bite like "free range parenting" just might be the tool needed to combat this trend.

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