Give Your Kids the Freedom to Roam

Free-range parenting is back in the news, after Utah’s new law allowing parents the freedom to let their kids walk home alone from school or play by themselves at the neighborhood park. While it does seem rather silly to have a law that says “you know your kids best and what they’re capable of doing by themselves,” it’s refreshing that a state is supporting parental rights. But this law also recognizes that our children are so fragile they require 24 hour close supervision–that a 9 year old can walk to a friend’s house down the street, while an 11 year old can bike to school without an adult following behind in her car.

With Memorial Day heralding the unofficial start of summer, let’s all make a pact to give our kids more, not less, freedom during the lazy, hazy days of summer. It’s time we allowed our kids the freedom to figure out just what they are capable of accomplishing when left to their own devices and allowed to roam and make the kinds of discoveries only children can make. In this week’s video blog, I talk about ways to become a free-range parent.