Govermentt Gary Herbert signed a bill earlier this month that makes it okay for parents to let their children "free range."
It is the first state in the nation that passed the law. Parents will not be prosecuted for letting their children do some things like walk to school by themselves, go to the store alone, play outside, sit in a car alone or stay at home by themselves. The lawmaker who sponsored the legislation, Republican state Senator Lincoln Fillmore, said he wanted to prevent police from arresting parents for things like leaving their children walking to school unaccompanied. "It is not negligence if you allow your child experience childhood "," The message is that you must protect your children, but we are not doing the children any favors if we protect them to the point where they are not learning to function, "Fillmore said.Tere is no specific age for a child to take care of himself KUTV said.
(CNN has contacted Fillmore for comments but has not received a response).
Free-range parenting gained steam about a decade ago with the publication of a book, "Free-Range Kids" by Lenore Skenazy, who is a New York mom, television host and author.
Skenazy was called the worst mother after she wrote a book in 2008 on why she let her 9 year old son take the subway by himself.
Q:
1) In this case, what would you do? watch your son all the time while he is outside?
Depending the age of my son, and being the father I would take care of him with my life, and I would not leave him alone, otherwise I would be arrested, it is not because of being arrested that I do this, but because of the love I would have for him
2)Do you think Fillmore is doing the right thing? Or you are agree with the government?
I feel that both are doing the right thing, but in my opinion I would agree with the governor, for the reason that many parents neglect their children. on the other side being arrested for not taking care of the child could be complicated, because parents need to work and having to take care of the children all the time can be a problem, and sometimes parents are unfairly arrested.
Replies
Good topic choice and well done Luis!
It would have to depend on his age weather or not I watch them ort go outside myself with them. I do think they are doing the right thing to an extent. Like they should put an age to were you can leave them in a car alone or outside and walking to school.
I think this wouldnt be a terrible thing as it helps them learn to take care of themsleves although if I lived somewhere where I knew it could possibly be dangerous for ym child then I wouldnt let them wlk alone to places. I beleive he is doing the right thing allowing parents to do it because the people who want to will and the people who dont wont.
depending on the age of my children I would let them have some independence. part of growth is learning independence and if you take that away and always hover over them they will never learn to be independent
I think it would depend on the age of the kid, but kids need to learn how to be on their own sometime. I think that both sides made an attempt to do the right thing to accomplish a certain goal.
1. I would move to a diferent state because you can't always watch your child 24/7 just make sure they are safe.
2. I think it ok but I don't agree that the goverment are agreeing to this to have to keep an eye on kids the whole time.
There's some points where watching your child is necessary and sometimes not but with this it could end up letting parents become a bit careless like letting kids walk to school alone or go to the store alone because kids tend to get into dangerous situations easily.
I think that it really depends on the kid and their age. If they were still very young and couldn't be alone, I would walk them to places and wouldn't let them out of my sight alone while outside. If they were a little older, I think walking with them everywhere isn't as neccessary, I know i wouldn't want my parents walking me everywhere I walked to.
I would not leave my son alone until I think he is old enough to be outside alone and is responsible. I think they are both doing good but I do not think that people should be getting arrested for not taking care of there son or daughter.
If I had a child that was over 7 years old outside I would be fine and check in occasionally as long as they stayed in the yard, but letting them be more free range and letting them explore even further the yard is too much because they could get hurt or lost or they could get kidnapped. I think letting children stay in the car and play outside without the parents getting arrested is fine as long as it's not for an extended period of time but letting a small child go to the store by themself seems not quite right to me.
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