Free-Range Parenting Typically, the childhood an American kid goes through can be compared to the movie Boyhood, where the boy hangs out with his friends all day and heads home before sundown for dinner. This can be considered a form of “free-range” parenting, which refers to parents that allow their children to do many activities unsupervised, such as going to the park, riding the subway, or going to school by themselves. While this doesn’t mean that parents let their child do everything on their own, the criticism of this style of parenting is that something could happen at any moment without adult supervision, and for that reason it seems to be irresponsible to allow children to walk to school or the park alone. Those opposed to free-range parenting cite child abduction or abuse as reasons to not allow children to be out on their own (Zamosky). From the point of view of Anna Freud and Jean Piaget, I will argue that free-range parenting is the better alternative to allow children to
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The term “free-range” parent comes from a specific case in Silver Spring, Maryland, where parents “…allowed their two children—6 and 10 years old—to walk home from a park about a while away. Someone reported seeing unsupervised kids, the police picked them up and then the parents found themselves under investigation for neglect by their local Child Protective Services agency (CPS)” (“What Kind of Parent Are You? The Debate Over ‘Free-Range’ Parenting”). The Meitiv parents explain that “they believe in ‘free range’ parenting. They want to instill self-reliance and independence in their children,” which demonstrates how they don’t truly believe they are putting their children in danger (“What Kind of Parent Are You?”). People growing up in the 1970’s
The term “free-range” parent comes from a specific case in Silver Spring, Maryland, where parents “…allowed their two children—6 and 10 years old—to walk home from a park about a while away. Someone reported seeing unsupervised kids, the police picked them up and then the parents found themselves under investigation for neglect by their local Child Protective Services agency (CPS)” (“What Kind of Parent Are You? The Debate Over ‘Free-Range’ Parenting”). The Meitiv parents explain that “they believe in ‘free range’ parenting. They want to instill self-reliance and independence in their children,” which demonstrates how they don’t truly believe they are putting their children in danger (“What Kind of Parent Are You?”). People growing up in the 1970’s