My kids free-range, but we live in a suburban neighborhood where houses are spread out, not in a housing complex. The larger difference between the OP's situation and ours is that there all the kids in our neighborhood free-range and they all play together. My kids don't typically ever *want* to play alone outside - if they don't have sibs or friends to play with they usually hang out with me or inside reading or doing homework or something. I'm not sure what I would do if I had one child and the neighbor parents were telling me they thought I was being an unsafe parent by letting my child play alone outside when I was comfortable with it. The neighborhood dynamics sound very different than where we are - so I'm not sure what I'd do or feel, or how I'd handle it.
polarbear
