Posted on 05/23/2018 5:28:06 AM PDT by caww
A new Utah law protects parents who allow their children to play outside unsupervised, sparking similar efforts from lawmakers in New York and Arkansas.
The Utah "free-range parenting" law, which went into effect this month, states that it doesn’t constitute neglect if a parent allows their children to do activities such as walking to school, riding their bikes or playing on a playground without adult supervision, provided that the children are “of sufficient age and maturity to avoid harm or unreasonable risk of harm.” It also says leaving a child 6 years old or older alone in a car temporarily does not constitute neglect.
Support cuts across party lines. New York Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Schenectady, is pushing similar legislation. “When I was a child, you let your dogs and your children out after breakfast and … they had to be home for dinner. I felt I gained a lot more from just playing on the street than my children did from being in organized sports activities,” he told the Associated Press last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Ha! After dinner, which we ALWAYS had to be home for as mom was a stickler about us sitting down ‘together’...we had to be back by dark, however then we had all the neighbor kids get together for kick the can! Until bed time!
Our summers were just chucked full of fun and ‘adventure’....I’m so glad I was raised then!
LOL! That’s the way things used to be.
The only wild time we had was climbing up to the hill summit just outside of town.. because we had to pass thru mrs Glickio’s property. An old run down house with weeds for grass. We’d stay next to the thicket and creep along but she’d come out yelling with her shotgun and threaten us to get off her property! So it was always planned on how we could out fox her...lolol..more times than not we got stuck with barberry thistles trying to run through that hedge to get away from her.
Oh those were wonderful years I’m very greatfull to have such good memories of! I truly feel bad for kids to miss such times today..
Oh moms! They ruled the roost in those days. Wonderfully so! And dad gave her full reign to watch over the house while he was gone. And she did an impressive job of it!
Twice a week my Brother walked to School carrying his .22 Rifle when he was 12 years old.
He was in the School Gun Club and this was on Long Island, NY in the late 50’s.
Not sure what Laws were broken.
That’s right..they did use to have gun clubs in school!
Well my mom raised us herself till out of the home as father died when I was just 4 yr old...with all considered she did an amazing job with so little. We never knew we were poor and that takes a remarkable person to pull that off!
I’ve told this before. We had our nephew’s tween aged boys a few summer back. What total wusses. I had planned a hundred outdoorsy activities for them - geocaching, camping, s’mores, bbq, swimming in the river, fishing, shooting, yard games, flint napping, RC cars, hiking, etc. We bought new tires for the bikes but they didn’t know how to ride and refused to learn. They wouldn’t even go out to the attached garage to see the new kittens because the garage door was opened to the great outside. Wouldn’t go pick a tomato for dinner from the garden. Wouldn’t help me with an errand that involved walking down the street to an elderly relative. Nearly in tears going geocaching because they might get stickers. Wouldn’t even help Mr. b grilling supper. After a few days of their whining, we packed them off to their aunt’s. Of course, we’re now the mean relatives. Oh, well.
That’s really sad...I would have sent them home or shipped them out as well. I have family members all wrapped up in technology as well as their parents. There’s little you can do or say to change that. I just leave when they can’t get their noses of the screens.
But for you to have prepared so much fun things to do and they had no interest just shows that even when these kids are offered they simply don’t want to....
I for one am done trying ....you can’t make people do what they don’t want to ...
If anyone had told me sixty years ago that someday you’d have to pass a special law so kids could play outdoors, I’d have said they were crazy.
Strange world, and getting stranger all the time.
My Mom’s voice would carry several miles. When it was time for supper, she just opened the door and yelled. We would jump on our bikes and be home in a jiffy. Food!!!
May God bless you!
My mom had a bell which she rang, which was the same, God bless you!
I walked to school, and brought the cows home out of the east pasture after school to milk. Carried a weapon to school so could hunt for meat on the way home. That was grade school.
Moved to the city and in High School we shouldered our weapons and walked out of town to hunt in the milo fields. Now days someone would call SWAT.
Oh what has become of our great land! May God bless you!
Unfortunately this law is needed. The culture around child supervision has changed over the last 30 years or so.
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