re: OT parents. Thoughts on free range parenting?

What is "free range parenting?" Is this where a every second of every minute of every child's day is not scheduled in some way or another? Is it allowing kids to be kids, and to get outside and play w/o an adult hovering over them at all times? Hmmm...sounds like the way I was raised in the '60's and '70's. I even used to go outside and shoot my BB gun unsupervised when was around eight. The horror!

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A rural village in the German wine valley. Kids walk, take bikes, the bus to school.

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Nice.

That's even true in smaller German cities.

In the Summer, it stays light until late-thirty, kids are playing in playgrounds unsupervised past ten in the evening.

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There are places in the U.S where you can raise kids that way still. Just not around a major city.

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This.

And people wave when you drive down the road.

If I had to choose between free range parenting and the people that call CPS because you leave your sleeping kids buckled up in their seats with the car running while you go in to pay for gas, I'll take the former.

My oldest is extremely responsible and conscientious. We've been letting him ride his bike around the 'hood to go to specific destinations (lots of friends in the neighborhood) for years--he is in 5th grade now. He's probably been doing that since 2nd. Most of his friends were doing the same around the same time.

My younger two are girls and closer in age to one another so even though they are a little less mature than the boy was at that age, it is fairly easy to let them do some things because they are together. For instance--probably starting when they were in K and 1st, I gave them kitchen timers on a rope to hang around their neck. When we were at my son's baseball games I would let them go to the playground out of my eyesight and come back and check in when the timer went off (usually 10 minutes). My own mother flips out about these things, but such is the nature of life with multiple children--you literally cannot be everywhere at once. I was an only child and she hovered over me quite a bit.

I also try to encourage them to be independent in other ways--I never "speak for them," for instance. If we are at a restaurant, they order their own food and if they need a refill, they have to ask themselves. I have them approach adults to ask questions whenever I can when we are out and about (librarians, store employees, etc.) Any issues at school I have them deal with themselves--I almost always follow up separately to make sure things do get handled and that everything is ok, but I don't let them know that (asking to be moved closer to the board or away from a friend they keep getting distracted by, for instance.)

It helps that all of my kids are very tall and look older than they are by several years...keeps the side-eye from other people to a minimum. And it seems to be working. Just tonight we went to a store to purchase a specific item that was very large and located outside of the store. There was no tag on the item to bring inside and my youngest (just turned 7) said "I'll go ask a manager" and just marched on inside without any hesitation.