Which American city is best for raising free children?
With 90s-and-earlier style independence. Could it be Salt Lake City? Inspired by this:
“Utah Free Range Parenting Law […] says that letting your kids play outside, walk to school, wait briefly in the car (under some circumstances) or come home with a latchkey is not neglect unless something else seriously bad is going on.”
https://letgrow.org/state/utah/
#urbanism #WalkableCities #SaltLakeCity #SLC #Utah #parenting #childhood
I’m sorry, I can’t help as I don’t live in America, but why would those things constitute neglect in the first place? If it’s talking about very young children, yeah, I can understand, but otherwise, I don’t.
@Stoneblackdog overpolicing is a huge problem here, CPS (child protective services) and the police have taken children and put them in foster care for things like this. They target Native, Black and poor families. It didn’t used to be like this. 9/11 made some people extremely paranoid and the culture has never recovered unfortunately. Canada has some of these issues too now.
It sucks that my government thinks “ipad kids” locked inside all day are better off than kids who play outside.
This was a problem long before 9/11. I remember stranger danger being a huge thing throughout the 90s and I know the 80s had that ridiculous satanic panic thing where pedophile satanists were lurking around every corner waiting to do some hoodoo.
@lemillionsocks true. but I think 9/11 really exacerbated the problem. It seems like kids began staying indoors and at home way more in the 2000s than the 90s… of course some of that is due to video games.
@Stoneblackdog The cynic in me also believes the daycare industry may be responsible for this. Some people spend thousands of dollars per month on daycare. That’s crazy to me. When I was a kid and my parents were working I just stayed with other family members. But many people are isolated without extended family and the daycare industry exploits that.
The term free range parenting was coined in response to some parents letting their 6 year old walk home from the park in 2015. And not a park right across the street. So yeah I think that qualifies as really young. And also not even something that was acceptable in the 90’s