Flickr photo by DuchampFree-Range Kids author Lenore Skenazy has done it again. She's thrown out the gauntlet for sane parents to pretend that life in 2010 is like those halcyon days of our childhoods.
And if we don't, we're bad, overbearing, rotors a-whirring helicopter parents.
So what do we have to do to prove we're really lucy goosey hipsters in mom jeans with a penchant for Skynyrd tunes?
Take our children to the park on May 22 and leave them there.
For a day, a morning, an hour, a half hour.
Says Skenazy on her blog, also named Free-Range Kids, "Most of us used to play outside in the park, without our parents, without cell phones, without Purell or bottled water and we survived! Thrived! We cherish the memories! And if you believe the million studies that I’m always publishing here, kids are healthier, happier, and better-adjusted if they get to spend some time each day in 'free play,' without adults hovering."
Not quite, Lenore.
We didn't all go out to the park. Many of us just played in the backyard. So when we fell off our bikes, we could go running inside to have Mom treat our fat lip.
And those yards didn't have ginormous slides and seven-foot-tall jungle gyms that we could climb to the top of, bounce on, and promptly fall off of.
My biggest problem with this concept isn't what Skenazy assures us all will be the biggest outcry from parents -- the predators.
It's a warning bandied about so much that she's right -- it's a cliche.
But crime doesn't turn my neighborhood park into a menace. General safety concerns do.
My almost-5-year-old (Skenazy says this should apply to school-aged kids, and legally in my state, you can enroll your kid in kindergarten if they'll be 5 by December 1) doesn't have the means to take care of herself. Plain and simple.
If she falls off that giant jungle gym (and she's come very, very close because of her affinity for bouncing on the top rung), who's going to run out and call 911? Who's going to ensure that she doesn't move until there's a backboard on hand? For that matter, who's going to tell her to stop her bouncing before she falls seven feet?
In a more general sense, I'm on Skenazy's side. I agree we're much too involved with kids' play. Perhaps I'm simply looking at her concept through the eyes of country life rather than city -- our parks are secluded; there are no adults walking by on a regular basis to notice the kid lying bloodied on the ground, to break up the kids hatching devious plots together.
We also have the advantage of backyards in the country, a place where I'm very much a fan of kids playing ... without a hovering adult. Let them climb trees. Let them play in the sandbox. Let them taste a dandelion just to see how disgusting it is. My daughter has and does, and I remain inside the house, where she can head if something bad happens or scream loud enough for me to come running.
But leaving them at the park at 5, 6, even 7 or 8? I won't do it. And I don't think that makes me a helicopter parent; it makes me a sensible one.
Will you be celebrating this holiday?
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 38
No I will not be leaving my kids to get kidnapped or hurt in the park by themselvs and neither did my mother in the 70s and 80s with me.
5 or 6 is too young, but I was walking home from school at 7 years old, stopping at the playground on my way. By 8 I was gone all day in the summer, I just had to be home for supper. I wasn't alone, I was with 3 to 6 other kids my age but still there was limited if any parental supervision.
I will definitely be celebrating may 22nd as a holiday, my birthday, but I would never let my children run free like the other hooligans I see at the park terrorizing smaller kids and discussing equipment like I see some other parents do. That is just a lawsuit waiting to happen if "little Timmy" pushes "James" off the slide and he breaks his arm or leg.
discussing was suppose to be misusing. Baby clicked the wrong word on spell check.
My kids are too young (5 months old), but I do not agree with Skenazy's blanket statement. A lot depends on where you live. And for some, what she is asking is nothing new, people let their kids go to the park alone all the time.
My first reaction and thought about this idea or parenting style is.....Stupid...stupid....neglecting....neglecting....stupid. Times are very different. I reemeber too going with my friend to the park two block away by myself. But never alone. Back then we didn't have predators lerking around the corner waiting unexpectedly to snatch up our children. Heck our 17 yr old daughters can't even go running around a well known and populated trail without something terrible happening. Our children are not safe anymore. Children are coming up missing every day. So many that there isn't enough time on the news channels to cover them all. On another note what parent leaves there children at a park and drives off. What do the children eat? What happens when they get hurt? In the state of California, parents would be arrested for that. That is illegal! I don't think it's legal in any state. I am appalled that someone would publish something like that. I am open to new ideas but not stupid ones.
If you leave a child under a certain age at a park I think that is called neglect. Now yes parents need to let their children run free and wild. My girls often run around at the house and when we move the back yard (with the dog) with out me right there. But today a trusted adult needs to be present at all times when out of the security of you home. To many predators, bully and other dangers lurking. And I don't think my 5 year old would feel comfortable at the park by herself, but is happy as a clam to run wild with me on the bench.
im only 21 and we lived 4 blocks from the park.and i do remember going to the park without my parents as a 12 year old,but even then i had my little brother and sister who were 9 and my older brother who was 16 and our dog.but as young as five is crazy.i've seen my 5 yr old do stuff that makes me afraid to send him to school,lol!
Granted my son isn't even 2 yet, but even if he were older, I wouldn't be celebrating this "holiday". I do remember playing at the park across the street, down the block, etc and I do miss those carefree days. But times have changed. And I was extremely mature for my age, parents trusted me as the "babysitter" of whatever group of friends I was out with. Not allowing your kid to play at the park by himself, where any number of predators can walk by or any number of things could go wrong, doesn't make you a helicopter parent. Shadowing your 7 year old's every footstep does. BIG difference.
I think it is flat out irresponsible and bordering on neglect. so, no thanks. Pass.