Protecting the Free-Range Kid

[de officiis]

Protecting the Free-Range Kid: Recalibrating Parents’ Rights and the Best Interest of the Child

David Pimentel - 38 Cardozo L. Rev. 1 (Oct. 2016)

The legal system has been drawn into the ongoing debate about what constitutes responsible parenting in a world increasingly obsessed with child safety. While statistics show that children are dramatically safer today than ever before, media and popular paranoia about child safety is prompting parents to err on the side of overprotection. The “Free Range Kids” movement has pushed back against the new intensive parenting, arguing that it stifles kids’ development, and that the precautions taken against exaggerated and even illusory dangers is doing more harm than good. . . .
...

The alternative, more consistent with American constitutional values, is to strengthen and safeguard the family from external second-guessing. Enforcement of Fourteenth Amendment protections should be sufficient to do this, as any action by the state in derogation of a parent’s rights should be subjected to strict scrutiny, and struck down unless it is the “least restrictive means” of protecting that child from genuine harm. But it may also be helpful to think in terms of a “parental judgment rule,” modeled on the law of fiduciaries, to safeguard parental discretion. . . .

https://works.bepress.com/david_pimentel/23/

Nice to see that someone has seen fit to tackle this ridiculous trend from a juristic perspective.

[Fife]

It is nice to see that. It is a bummer that we are going as deep as the 14th A to have to make a case.

Sad.

[MilSpecs]

It is a ridiculous trend, and parents should have the presumption of competence to make the judgment call about their children's level of competence. That said, I can't help but cringe when I read about the 9 year old riding the NYC subway alone. There's a difference between free range and courting danger. Rather than drawing parents into the legal system, it would make more sense to simply draw the line where everyone agrees (such as children alone in a park at night, in a bar, supervising siblings when they're legally too young). If there are basic ground rules laid out without ambiguity then anything outside those rules belongs in the parents' purview. Allowing social workers to second-guess parents when there is no clear and present danger does more harm than good. Lowest bar laws would prevent that.

On the other hand, there's also the question of the privilege involved in free-range parenting and the law. If you live in a dangerous neighborhood, you're poor and you're likely to work long or late hours, and you don't have a choice about your kids being independent when it's clearly dangerous for them to be so. Those are the parents who get caught in the system, moreso than the affluent folks whose children walk home from the park. And yet their kids are the ones who are clearly in danger.

[nickle7]

I'm not a parent but as I understand it, there are two types of pressure on the parent of the free-range kid. One, obviously is the safety of the child. The other pressure, which is saddening to me because of what it says about our society, is the social pressure of allowing your kid to be free-range. "What will other parents think if I let my kids walk to school by themselves?" In a lot of cases, I think this worries parents more so than the actually issue of safety. It's too bad because it shows how many of values we enact seem to come from the perception of what other people think.

[Ex-California]

Due to my schedule, I get to spend a lot of time at the parks with my kids when the vast majority of the rest of the people there are SAHMs

I usually let my 6 yo boy and 2 yo girl just go, and they'll yell if they need me. These moms are absolutely ridiculous, they are hovering, henpecking, and facilitating EVERYTHING the whole time, it is super easy to see where the term "helicopter parent" comes from. Most are even doing this with kids my son's age

It is a cultural problem; these same moms who can't even let their kindergarten age kids just play at the park are obviously going to freak out if they see other people's kids out on their own. I know by the time I was by boy's age I was going 3 or 4 blocks away to 711 with my 10 year old neighbor.

[MilSpecs]

Due to my schedule, I get to spend a lot of time at the parks with my kids when the vast majority of the rest of the people there are SAHMs

I usually let my 6 yo boy and 2 yo girl just go, and they'll yell if they need me. These moms are absolutely ridiculous, they are hovering, henpecking, and facilitating EVERYTHING the whole time, it is super easy to see where the term "helicopter parent" comes from. Most are even doing this with kids my son's age

It happens with physical activity as well. I had a younger mom snip at me because I was letting my daughter climb and she was afraid her sons would try to climb too. In a playground on equipment meant for physical activity.

[Okeefenokee]

It's funny to see the shift in games kids play on the playground. We played cops and robbers, our parents played cowboys and indians. Kids today play zombies. It's pretty funny to see it start. One kid will get the itch, and will start mumbling, "braaaains," and all the other kids will hear their cue to start running wildly. Eventually the zombie will have to go home, and the other kids will have a pow wow to pick the next zombie. It's always the smallest kid that gets volunteered as the second zombie.

[Ex-California]

Ha that's a nationwide phenomenon then!

I was pretty happy the other day when one kid showed up with like 10 Nerf guns. My son and all the other boys started playing guns right away. Just proves its ingrained in us. Now I have to buy some Nerf guns though

[Montegriffo]

Due to my schedule, I get to spend a lot of time at the parks with my kids when the vast majority of the rest of the people there are SAHMs

I usually let my 6 yo boy and 2 yo girl just go, and they'll yell if they need me. These moms are absolutely ridiculous, they are hovering, henpecking, and facilitating EVERYTHING the whole time, it is super easy to see where the term "helicopter parent" comes from. Most are even doing this with kids my son's age

It happens with physical activity as well. I had a younger mom snip at me because I was letting my daughter climb and she was afraid her sons would try to climb too. In a playground on equipment meant for physical activity.

How polite did you manage to be when you told her to sod off?

[MilSpecs]

It happens with physical activity as well. I had a younger mom snip at me because I was letting my daughter climb and she was afraid her sons would try to climb too. In a playground on equipment meant for physical activity.

How polite did you manage to be when you told her to sod off?

I told her I understood her concern that her sons would try to imitate my little girl, and by the way I didn't recognize her - was she new to the area or does she work near here? - And then told her to enjoy our beautiful little town. She'd come at the perfect time; not so many tourists during the week at dinnertime.