Mother Words blogger Jenny Raphael considers the oh-so-current issue of what it means to “free range” parent and how she handles it with her own sons, come what may.
Since the weather broke, we’ve been allowing Maxon, who is 11, and Ezra, who is 8, to ride their bikes and scooters around our neighborhood just south of Center City. I set boundaries, which includes the playground up the street. In the afternoons I can see them see them whiz past the kitchen windows as I’m cooking dinner, a blur of hoodies and hair, and I remember what it was like to speed through my mother’s suburban neighborhood unsupervised, as I often did because helicopter parents didn’t yet exist.
Now, do I worry about them out in the neighborhood parentless? Yes. But one of my biggest fears is that someone might call the cops on me, like the concerned Maryland resident who called 911 when she spotted a 6- and 10-year-old walking home alone. A few months later, the same children were picked up by police at their local park when another person called 911 because the kids were there without parents. This family and their story made headlines and introduced more people to the term “free range parenting.”
You may be familiar with this type of parenting, because you most likely had it as a child. When I was in elementary school, I’d play unsupervised in those orange hours after school, usually along the creek behind my friend Jenny S.’ house. We were often on a Charlie’s Angels mission and avoiding quicksand. We rode our bikes to playgrounds and spun around on equipment that inspired 1,000 lawsuits. Even in the city, from the time I was 11, I ambled around with my sister or my girlfriends — to the arcade behind the Burger King, to the Deluxe Diner for a Bagel Deluxe, to the movies, to Urban Outfitters, to The Goat in Rittenhouse Square to eat a Froz Fruit…
So I wonder why there isn’t more acceptance of this today. Because when someone calls 911 on kids walking home instead of asking the kids themselves if they’re lost or need help, the community isn’t working the way it should.
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Jennifer Raphael is writer of as-yet-unpublished fiction, a freelance marketing writer and a blogging balabusta for the Jewish Exponent. Jennifer started her career in journalism, writing for TV news and a suburban newspaper before joining the staff at Philadelphia Magazine. As a freelancer, she has written articles for Glamour, Mademoiselle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health, to name a few. You can see more of her work on her website: www.jenniferraphael.com, and join her intimate band of Twitter followers @jenniferaphael. Check out more of her writing and subscribe to her newsletter at her website. She describes her parenting style as Method.