Originally Posted by Bostonian
Originally Posted by squishys
How ridiculous that there is a site dedicated to encouraging parents to let their children roam free.
A 40-ish co-worker recounted that when he was a kid growing up in the Midwest, he would play in the neighborhood, unsupervised, after getting home from school. At about 6pm his mother would go to the front door and yell "Jim, time for dinner!", and he would come. He does not consider his parents neglectful, and he has turned out fine.

For much of the 20th century in the U.S., and to this day in other countries, school children walked home and back for lunch. I think it is worth reconsidering how much supervision children need.

Sounds like my childhood. I'm in my 40s and grew up in the Midwest. Pretty much all of my friend's parents had the same philosophy. Some of us turned out "fine," others most definitely did NOT. My parents' parenting method was something I like to call "benign neglect." I'm fine now, but for a very long time in my 20's I really wasn't. I wouldn't personally recommend it as a parenting style.
With my own kids I'm not willing to leave it up to chance, not to mention I no longer live in the Midwest and it's no longer the 80s.