Utah passes 'free-range parenting' law, allowing kids to do some things without parental supervision

[Amused]

Any attempt to end helicopter parenting seems like a good one to me.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/ut...parenting-law-allowing-kids/story?id=54020213

A new law legalizing free-range parenting will soon take effect in Utah allowing children to do things alone like travelling to school.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed the bill on March 15, which takes effect in May.

The bill redefines "neglect" in Utah law so that kids can participate in some unsupervised activities without their parents being charged, a representative from the state confirmed to ABC News Monday.

“Kids need to wonder about the world, explore and play in it, and by doing so learn the skills of self-reliance and problem-solving they’ll need as adults," Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, a sponsor of the bill, said in a statement to ABC News. "As a society, we’ve become too hyper about ‘protecting’ kids and then end up sheltering them from the experiences that we took for granted as we were kids. I sponsored SB65 so that parents wouldn’t be punished for letting their kids experience childhood.”

Fillmore added that there were no organized groups against the bill, and it passed unanimously out of both houses of the state's legislature.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Its gotten a bit out of hand. Parents being reported to and having to deal with Child Protective Services for their kids playing out in the backyard or going to the park down the street. These aren't groups you ever want in your life no matter how innocent you are.

Shit when i was a kid we disappeared all day in the summer. Came home to eat and when the lights came on. I'd be in foster care now if that happened.

 

[HomerJS]

ok with it

 

[IronWing]

Good law, sad that it was considered needed, but good law.

 

[vi edit]

It's a sad day when parents need legal protection to let their kids be kids. I'm glad this is a conversation and it's something that needs to be had on a national level. But being a parent sucks now. You can't do anything right without pissing off some group.

 

[zinfamous]

I like the free-range labeling, lol. I'm rather glad that I don't have to deal with the nonsense insanity that has led to the need for such a law.

 

[Blackjack200]

I look at how managed my niece's life is and it really bothers me. I hope if I have kids someday I can let their childhood be really unstructured and free.

 

[Paratus]

There’s a sidewalk behind our house which goes to park about 20 yards past my fence. It’s in plain view from my backyard or several rear facing windows.

When my kids were younger and playing at that park I must have seen a dozens times from our house other parents trying to figure out where we were.

 

[vi edit]

I look at how managed my niece's life is and it really bothers me. I hope if I have kids someday I can let their childhood be really unstructured and free.

Literally this morning I had a conversation with my wife. My son is in kindergarten. Kindergarten. He brings home 2-3 packets of homework a week. It's 2-3 hours worth of work. For Kindergarten. I get home from work around 5:00-5:30 most nights. 2 nights a week he has swim lessons. So those are no goes for homework. The other nights it's usually 6:30 or later before we are done with dinner. They have to get to bed around 7:30 since the bus picks them up at 6:50am (yes, elementary school pickup is that early) and I have to get them up by 6am each day.

Most nights I've got maybe 45 minutes of time to sit down and work with a 6 year old on homework. The discussion I had with my wife is that my 6 year old can't even tie a shoe but they are counting by 10's and doing analyzing and data interpretation (for reals...look at this image. It's homework my son brought home).

We spend so much time on homework and busywork that we are struggling to find time to apply practical knowledge (tying shoes and cooking).

 

[Kaido]

Its gotten a bit out of hand. Parents being reported to and having to deal with Child Protective Services for their kids playing out in the backyard or going to the park down the street. These aren't groups you ever want in your life no matter how innocent you are.

when i was a kid we disappeared all day in the summer. Came home to eat and when the lights came on. I'd be in foster care now if that happened.

We would literally bike to other towns when I was a kid in the 80's. As long as we were home by dark, everything was good. These days you'd probably get CPS called on you for doing that.

 

[Kaido]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/ut...parenting-law-allowing-kids/story?id=54020213

Uhhhh...

Skenazy wrote in her book about allowing her 9-year-old to ride the New York City subway alone.

Yeah I'm all for unsupervised play time, but I don't even like riding the NYC subway by MYSELF lol.

 

[Kaido]

See, this makes sense:

"I would definitely not let a 3-year-old play in the park alone, but I definitely would let their 10-year-old sister play in the park for an hour and come home," she said. "I definitely would let my 7-year-old walk to school, but maybe you won't let your 7-year-old walk to school."

There's a lot of personal judgement involved, like if you live in a dangerous neighborhood, how responsible your kid is, how old they are, etc. On the flip side, I do know a number of legitimately negligent parents who would abuse this, so I can understand why it's been a difficult thing for lawmakers to deal with.

 

[pauldun170]

The rest of the country is weird.

I'm guessing they got a little crazy with child protection laws and after a healthy dose of Foxnews thy rolled it back? Now they are patting themselves on the back for it?

As mentioned in the article, in my state kids take subways to get to school. They can go play parent free if they want to.

 

[Kaido]

My son is in kindergarten. Kindergarten. He brings home 2-3 packets of homework a week. It's 2-3 hours worth of work.

Whaaaaaaaat the heck. I don't even think I did 3 hours worth of homework in college (for IT no less!) on a regular basis!

 

[Brainonska511]

Uhhhh...


Yeah I'm all for unsupervised play time, but I don't even like riding the NYC subway by MYSELF lol.

What's wrong with the subway? Crime is at historic lows, especially in NYC.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

What's wrong with the subway? Crime is at historic lows, especially in NYC.

All fun and games until a poop-soaked homeless guy decides he wants your kid's lunchbox.

 

[Kaido]

The rest of the country is weird.

I'm guessing they got a little crazy with child protection laws and after a healthy dose of Foxnews thy rolled it back? Now they are patting themselves on the back for it?

As mentioned in the article, in my state kids take subways to get to school. They can go play parent free if they want to.

When I moved to CT, we were not allowed to walk or bike to school. I lived less than a mile from my school. It was literally a straight shot on the sidewalk from where I lived at the time. Kinda crazy.

 

[Blackjack200]

What's wrong with the subway? Crime is at historic lows, especially in NYC.

Welcome to the US where we're terrified of everything.

 

[Kaido]

What's wrong with the subway? Crime is at historic lows, especially in NYC.

All fun and games until a poop-soaked homeless guy decides he wants your kid's lunchbox.

I mean I guess it depends on the city, and even the area in the city, but big cities have some real characters on the public transportation system. I don't mean that in a mean way, but in a realistic way - there are people with mental health problems & other issues there. With a school bus, you can call up the school and have them page the bus to see where your kid is. If your 9-year-old kid disappears on a NYC subway going to school by themselves one day, how do you deal with that?

 

[Noah Abrams]

Literally this morning I had a conversation with my wife. My son is in kindergarten. Kindergarten. He brings home 2-3 packets of homework a week. It's 2-3 hours worth of work. For Kindergarten. I get home from work around 5:00-5:30 most nights. 2 nights a week he has swim lessons. So those are no goes for homework. The other nights it's usually 6:30 or later before we are done with dinner. They have to get to bed around 7:30 since the bus picks them up at 6:50am (yes, elementary school pickup is that early) and I have to get them up by 6am each day.

Most nights I've got maybe 45 minutes of time to sit down and work with a 6 year old on homework. The discussion I had with my wife is that my 6 year old can't even tie a shoe but they are counting by 10's and doing analyzing and data interpretation (for reals...look at this image. It's homework my son brought home).

We spend so much time on homework and busywork that we are struggling to find time to apply practical knowledge (tying shoes and cooking).

This is what the hyper competitive American society is doing to its children - robbing them of their childhood. That precious, irreplaceable time of a person's life which is where all the fond memories are supposed to be. How can we expect these kids to be grow up as normal, socially adjusted adults (we are seeing it already with the young adults of today). It would only lead to more dysfunction in the society, more family break ups........is that 3 car garage really that important?

 

[snoopy7548]

Literally this morning I had a conversation with my wife. My son is in kindergarten. Kindergarten. He brings home 2-3 packets of homework a week. It's 2-3 hours worth of work. For Kindergarten. I get home from work around 5:00-5:30 most nights. 2 nights a week he has swim lessons. So those are no goes for homework. The other nights it's usually 6:30 or later before we are done with dinner. They have to get to bed around 7:30 since the bus picks them up at 6:50am (yes, elementary school pickup is that early) and I have to get them up by 6am each day.

Most nights I've got maybe 45 minutes of time to sit down and work with a 6 year old on homework. The discussion I had with my wife is that my 6 year old can't even tie a shoe but they are counting by 10's and doing analyzing and data interpretation (for reals...look at this image. It's homework my son brought home).

We spend so much time on homework and busywork that we are struggling to find time to apply practical knowledge (tying shoes and cooking).

It takes your kid two hours to do that? I could finish that in like two minutes!

But I'm glad I don't have kids. I remember being in kindergarten and the only homework we had was to bring dumb stuff in for show and tell.

 

[IronWing]

"Half: one whole partitioned into 2 equal shares."
"I can partition and describe fractions."
"I can organize & interpret data."
In kindergarten?

New instruction: circle all the words you don't understand.

 

[vi edit]

Yep that's kindergarten work. In addition to that, there are other sheets with bubbles that you fill in for every 15 minutes a day spent reading. Between life, work, obnoxious amounts of work sent home for kids to complete, a 6:00AM wakeup and activities that promote important life skills like swimming...I rarely get time to do the reading. My kid is DONE by 7:30 and he's not reading shit.

So we send the packets to school unmarked and the teacher sends them back circled essentially shaming us. Uhg.

That's not even including my 10 year old that is required to do 6 week long science project documenting things in excel and creating charts for them. That's stuff I didn't do until high school. It's just bonkers the work being tossed at kids now.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I like the free-range labeling, lol. I'm rather glad that I don't have to deal with the nonsense insanity that has led to the need for such a law.

You can even put it on your resume.

 

[OutHouse]

Literally this morning I had a conversation with my wife. My son is in kindergarten. Kindergarten. He brings home 2-3 packets of homework a week. It's 2-3 hours worth of work. For Kindergarten. I get home from work around 5:00-5:30 most nights. 2 nights a week he has swim lessons. So those are no goes for homework. The other nights it's usually 6:30 or later before we are done with dinner. They have to get to bed around 7:30 since the bus picks them up at 6:50am (yes, elementary school pickup is that early) and I have to get them up by 6am each day.

Most nights I've got maybe 45 minutes of time to sit down and work with a 6 year old on homework. The discussion I had with my wife is that my 6 year old can't even tie a shoe but they are counting by 10's and doing analyzing and data interpretation (for reals...look at this image. It's homework my son brought home).

We spend so much time on homework and busywork that we are struggling to find time to apply practical knowledge (tying shoes and cooking).

Dude the amount of homework the schools put on elementary school kids is obscene.