Parents Who Let "Free-Range" Kids Walk Home Alone Under Investigation Again

[c.d.]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/md-parents-kids-walk-investigated-article-1.2183161

[Rosella]

Good grief! Here in my town near Melbourne you see kids walking to and from without parents all the time on schooldays. Admittedly, small kids are accompanied by older siblings, sometimes in a group of other children, but the idea that parents would be prosecuted for allowing such a thing is bizarre to me.

I have a park reserve at the end of my street, surrounded by houses. In the summer holidays it's full of youngsters playing, with nary a parent in sight.

[GUT]

Good grief! Here in my town near Melbourne you see kids walking to and from without parents all the time on schooldays. Admittedly, small kids are accompanied by older siblings, sometimes in a group of other children, but the idea that parents would be prosecuted for allowing such a thing is bizarre to me.

I have a park reserve at the end of my street, surrounded by houses. In the summer holidays it's full of youngsters playing, with nary a parent in sight.

OMG

Kids walking alone, what next.

[drstrange169]

Much better to make the parents drive them to school in a big 4WD, park illegally and run over a few kids, darting between the cars.

[GUT]

They were even talking about it on the radio in Sydney today.

[Steadmund Brand]

This is insane...my brothers and I walked to and from school alone every day, walked to and from the baseball fields or hockey pond alone (depending on the season) everyday...as did all the other kids...now you are telling me my mother was a bad parent, and one who should have been put in jail....this is just mind blowing..

Steadmund Brand

[sdreid]

Even though I wasn't supposed to, when I was 6 years old, I walked 1.5 miles home from school one time when I missed the bus. That said, it seems to me that a lot of these "free rangers" enjoy the attention they get through their children's "lack of freedom" which, in my view, is a version of Munchausen's by proxy.

[GUT]

Is it OK to let a 6 year old walk alone.

t will depend, I think, on the area and on the 6 year old.

Some areas I'd do it without a worry, others I might hesitate to let my 16 year old. But some 6 years olds can be more responsible than other 16 year olds.

[Ausgirl]

No way in hades I'd let a let a 6yo walk anywhere on her own, out of my direct view.

My daughter was 9 or 10 before I let her walk home in a group of kids without me there, or walking behind to keep an eye on her. And even then, she had to be home on the dot of her expected walk-home time, or she got to walk with mum instead for a couple of weeks for dawdling.

Maybe I just read too many crime stories. But kids ARE vulnerable, walking alone. They are. That's how they go missing, and end up pedo fodder and/or dead.

I'm seriously not a helicopter mum.. I feel it's fine to let your kids have parent-free time, just if they're wandering around outside the home, they need to be in a group, and made aware of what behaviours are red flags from adults and how to respond to them.

A lot of schools now run an informal "kid train" or "walking bus" - parents take it turns to walk kids to school, stopping by houses on their 'route' to pick them up.

I loved this, it meant some mornings I could relax at home, lol. The kids found it really fun too, was great for the littlies. Why every school doesn't do this, particularly for working parents, I don't know.

[GUT]

But the 6YO wasn't alone there was a 6 and 10 yr old.

[Ausgirl]

But the 6YO wasn't alone there was a 6 and 10 yr old.

A mile away. In a major city? Yeah... I wouldn't be doing that. Even in a backwater country town with a population of 200, I'd probably not be doing that, unless there were a few more 10 year olds who lived close to the park, or an older child was present.

I think these parents need a big fat and very explicit reality check on how pedos operate, and just how easily and frequently kids are harmed/stolen by them.

Let alone the question of what the hell happens if one of the kids falls and breaks their arm a mile from home.

But talking of pedos.. I wish fervently that they were removed from society altogether and permanently on their first crime. Why they're let out after a few months or years to rape more kiddies, when abundant studies shows that the risk of reoffending is sky high, I do not know. It's like kids matter less than these filthy, perverted criminals.

.. rant of the day, complete.