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The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

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Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#261

Post by NordStreamYacht »

watwut wrote: post #241
insensible wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good morning from Russia, where I moved my large free-range family (from the US) with the topic of free-ranging children very high on the list of reasons why. My children cross town by themselves to attend classes, it’s normal to see children walking or riding public transport by themselves once they turn about age 7. There’s crime and bullying — we have always homeschooled successfully and have had negative experien…

Russia has higher incarceration rates and higher criminality then EU and USA. Also, French, German, Swesish, you name it do all the stuff alone. And third, they have less bullying in schools.

The US is 5th, Russia is 33rd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#262

Post by renewiltord »

spicyusername wrote: post #4

I don't know. Maybe this is going away in some places, maybe I just have my own anecdata, but my kids play outside unsupervised all the time, as do all the kids in my neighborhood. I live in just a regular suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of small Metro. Nothing special about it at all. Every time I see one of these articles I always wonder who they're talking about. I always feel like this is just one of those…

This is a bit of a shift of the Overton Window surely. Because that doesn’t sound free-range: which involves perhaps miles of travel unsupervised.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#263

Post by arjie »

We recently lived in Taiwan for a month and I was struck by the fact that from 2022-2024 Taipei had zero pre-teen traffic fatalities. My own San Francisco neighborhood has had more within the last two months!

The only thing that presents a persistent risk to children, I think, is motor vehicles and the way they’re driven. Children make mistakes and San Francisco’s tolerance for traffic fatalities is very high.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#264

Post by pandaman »

SapporoChris wrote: post #248
pandaman wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are abduction rates extremely low? Where did you get the rates? I could only find FBI NCIC reports, which do not differentiate the reason, but it shows 300K+ missing children in 2025. That's quite a lot. It does not say what fraction of those are abductions, but I doubt it makes a big difference for the parents looking for the missing child if the reason for the child missing is an abduction or something else. Al…

Certainly the differences matter. If the vast majority of the abductions are 'Parental child abduction' and very few children are abducted by strangers. "On average, fewer than 350 people under the age of 21 have been abducted by strangers in the United States per year since 2010, the FBI says. From 2010 through 2017, the most recent data available, the number has ranged from a low of 303 in 2016 to a high of 384 in…

It's bizarre, I have people responding with outdated or anachronistic statistics again on HN. Is this because LLMs get trained to a certain date? 2017 was almost 10 years ago.

Also, for some reason "abducted by strangers" is not the only alternative to "parental abductions", this document, for example [1], differentiate "non-family" and "strangers" for whatever reason. And "non-family" abductions were ~60K in 1999! Pay for a better LLM, don't use the free stuff for your botting.

1. https://childfindofamerica.org/resources/facts-and-stats-mis...

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#265

Post by renewiltord »

mynegation wrote: post #43
delichon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you have an emergency backup child for redundancy in case of failure of the main child.

The only people who find this joke funny don’t have any children.

I think I’m between the comments here. I think it’s funny to say we have a spare but I also think it’s not as funny to say “oh you have a spare”. It’s like a fat guy can joke about his fatness but you can’t.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#266

Post by NicuCalcea »

Jensson wrote: post #226
NicuCalcea wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I and my friends and colleagues live on family money.

Could be a husband that pays for the home etc as well, that is also living on family money. Regardless since journalists aren't well paid but a lot of them live in expensive areas the money has to come from somewhere.

So your argument is that journalists must be wealthy because otherwise they'd be poor? Have you considered the alternative, that we just live modest lifestyles, like most other working class people?

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#267

Post by watwut »

NordStreamYacht wrote: post #261
watwut wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia has higher incarceration rates and higher criminality then EU and USA. Also, French, German, Swesish, you name it do all the stuff alone. And third, they have less bullying in schools.

The US is 5th, Russia is 33rd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...

Seems like they dropped after they startes Ukrainian war. They used to be higher then USA in those rates.

Not sure "sending them to be killed by Ukrainians" is better then incarceration. But, probably costs less money.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#268

Post by effisfor »

For another perspective, see Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff. She looked at indigenous cultures alive today and makes the compelling argument that the Western boomers were the outlier - not their kids. 'Free range' meant having no meaningful responsibilities or expectations within the tribe, other than 'do what you like all day'.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#270

Post by xyzelement »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #254
xyzelement wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the many reasons you should have more kids.

Easier said than done when you don’t have to suffer the physical consequences of having them.

I am not sure what you mean. Most people in the world including every single one of your ancestors has managed to have kids - including the physical aspects.
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