https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 05 May 2026 07:06:42 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone/page/2#post-2593993 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 20:20:08 +0000 JenGirl 2593993@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I shudder to think what those people would think of me. I purposefully made our back deck babyproof so that I could leave my 10 month old out there for a minute while I run to the bathroom or take the pizza out of the over or whatever. I'm never gone long, but he's perfectly fine. </p> <p>I'm not there yet, but I'd say I'd probably let him play in the fenced backyard alone (checking in) by age 4ish, play out front around 5-6 and around the neighborhood by 7ish? </p> <p>Hell, when I was 7-9 my best friend and I would spend time at her family farm. We'd pack a backpack with Capri Sun, Captn Crunch, Pringles and some apples and head out into the woods around the farm for hours. We played in the creek, made forts, brushed the horses, threw rocks, climbed hay bales. We just had to be home by sundown. And by 11, I was babysitting a 4 year old with ADHD and a 2 year old with autism! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2592859 Tue, 26 Jul 2016 11:22:23 +0000 jedeve 2592859@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was just thinking about this this morning. I'm sitting outside with my kids (2 &amp; 3). I think by next summer I would let them play in the backyard for a bit by themselves. Definitely by age 5! I think kids need independence and autonomy to develop important skills. I'm not sure when I would let them have free reign of the neighborhood. Our neighbors' kids are outside all the time at age 10. </p> <p>I'm reading How to Raise a Wild Child right now. It's a great book. The author (Dr. Scott from Dinosaur Train!) talks about how we have effectively put kids under house arrest. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591738 Mon, 25 Jul 2016 07:54:06 +0000 Corduroy 2591738@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: "Everytime something happens to a kid the first question people ask is where were the parents and what were they doing." Yes, and isn't that terrible? On the rare occasion that a predator attacks the predator is the person to blame. Not the parent. We shouldn't be so quick to blame parents. We also shouldn't be parenting out of fear that we'll be blamed if something that tragic and rare happens. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591713 Mon, 25 Jul 2016 07:07:28 +0000 Adira 2591713@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This might be helpful - list of laws by state:</p> <p><a href="http://www.freerangekids.com/laws/" rel="nofollow">http://www.freerangekids.com/laws/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591709 Mon, 25 Jul 2016 06:48:05 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2591709@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This came up on my facebook feed today and it seems about right to me. These guidelines are for being home alone (not playing outside alone) but it seems reasonable to me based on this that letting a 4-5 year old play outside while you go in/out to check and then letting a 6-7 year old play outside alone would be appropriate, obviously dependibg on the maturity and responsibility level of the individual child and safety of the area. Thought I would share! <a href="http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2015/02/guidelines-for-leaving-kids-home-alone-with-printable/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2015/02/guidelines-for-leaving-kids-home-alone-with-printable/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591372 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 10:43:26 +0000 Mrsbells 2591372@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@hitchhiker: you cant just look at overall crime rate as an idicator for safety for children. Back then everyone was outside playing. and more people were outdoors. Now hardly any kids are outdoors so theres less peer supervision happening. It takes second for a predator to grab a kid, theres no way I would be inside and my kids would be outside by themselves. Everytime something happens to a kid the first question people ask is where were the parents and what were they doing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591365 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 10:08:00 +0000 periwinklebee 2591365@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@tlcbaby: Completely agreed - very well put! At some point we want our kids to lead independent lives, and having them going anywhere they want at 18 when they're at college on the other side of the country is probably way more nerve wracking than letting them wander around the neighborhood at eleven. So it's not like you can get around worrying. I think it's good to teach them how to be responsibly independent when you still have some modicum of control! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591355 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 09:49:20 +0000 tlcbaby 2591355@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is derailing a bit from the actually legality of leaving children alone, but the statistics in the article @honeybear: mentioned from WaPo has a lot of good statistics that show deaths, missing children reports and pedestrian accidents involving children are all on the decline (as of 2013-2014).</p> <p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/14/theres-never-been-a-safer-time-to-be-a-kid-in-america/" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/14/theres-never-been-a-safer-time-to-be-a-kid-in-america/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591354 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 09:46:21 +0000 tlcbaby 2591354@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: That is an interesting theory. I am definitely a "middle of the road" person. I don't plan on locking my kids out of the house and telling them not to come back until dinner, but I can totally see at the ages in question in the article (7 and 9), letting them walk a few blocks to the park or a neighbor's house. There is never a time when I'm not going to worry about my kids, but I know they need their independence a freedom, too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591351 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 09:42:48 +0000 periwinklebee 2591351@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was reading an interesting book lately, All Joy and No Fun, that hypothesized that really protective attitudes towards children today - relative to in the 80s when crime rates were much higher - is in part a result of ongoing cultural ambivalence about the role of women in the workforce. Do our children, even the somewhat older ones, need us to be their supervising them instead of working? It's human nature to worry and fear we're missing out, and it's natural when women are working at historically unprecedented rates over the past 25 years to worry, "hey, maybe they should be doing something else instead, like closely supervising the kids." In the 60s and 70s when women were by and large at home, most kids were running around free range while their mothers socialized or tended to housework, and nobody seemed to think much of it. </p> <p>I don't know if it's true, but I thought the idea was intriguing. </p> <p>My attitude towards this is moderation. I don't want to be either free-range or really protective, just somewhere in between... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591348 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 09:19:37 +0000 tlcbaby 2591348@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: That is the first article that came up in my search. I'm going to check it out today. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591342 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 09:00:30 +0000 caterw 2591342@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@hitchhiker: @mrsbells: I was going to mention that same study- we are actually safer than we have ever been!! It's just that you are able to see so much media/ social media coverage of bad things that happen to make it appear as if the world is less safe. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591334 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 08:45:40 +0000 hitchhiker 2591334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: don't know when you were a kid, but almost all crime is way down since I was a kid in the 80s/90s. The US hasn't been safer in a long time. </p> <p><a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/1tabledatadecoverviewpdf/table_1_crime_in_the_united_states_by_volume_and_rate_per_100000_inhabitants_1993-2012.xls" rel="nofollow">https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/1tabledatadecoverviewpdf/table_1_crime_in_the_united_states_by_volume_and_rate_per_100000_inhabitants_1993-2012.xls</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591317 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 07:25:33 +0000 honeybear 2591317@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: @tlcbaby: Look up the WaPo Wonkblog story on 'There's never been a safer time to be a kid in America' (2015). </p> <p>I wasn't free range, but by age 12, I came home alone on the school bus and did my homework for a bit until my mom got back. And I definitely got to walk a few blocks to my friends' homes in elementary without Mom watching me. I didn't check in when I got there, either. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591314 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 06:52:53 +0000 tlcbaby 2591314@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: I've been wanting to look into this, too. I don't know if the world is actually a different place now or if we just see more media coverage of the bad things that do happen to children that make us think we can't let them be alone. I'm not saying you're wrong, it's just something I've been wanting to check into statistics on. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591310 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 06:43:00 +0000 looch 2591310@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I will be honest, I was absolutely not allowed to free range all over town when I was a kid. I wasn't even allowed to ride my bike around the block. I think it's because we lived on a busy-ish road, but I think my parents just thought I had no business being unsupervised. We were never left alone, either. </p> <p>Granted I am 40 years old, but I don't think a lot has changed in the world, I think there were always creeps around, but we didn't have social media the way we do now, we didn't have the sex offender registry, so there was just a lot less information out there. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591266 Sun, 24 Jul 2016 00:12:38 +0000 Mrsbells 2591266@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think a lot has changed since we were kids though. My siblings and I had lots of freedom to run around and play unsupervised, but I wouldnt let my child be outside in the same way as I was. The world isnt the same anymore. Taking your eyes of your child when they are outside your home is a recipe for all sorts of preventable things happening </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591259 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 23:28:19 +0000 periwinklebee 2591259@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@macintosh: yeah, it seems almost like a law they wrote to never be enforced, except when they wanted to get someone on some other charges of neglect that they couldn't prove and needed something more general... or maybe I just have a poor understanding of it based on the article's description! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591252 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 22:14:49 +0000 macintosh 2591252@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: I saw this article on my local Facebook group. I don't like the way it's worded -an "unreasonable" amount of time could be interpreted as a few hours or a couple of days. I was left home alone with my younger brother after school when we were 10 and 7. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591212 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 20:45:58 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2591212@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Kemma: I read that more like you shouldnt leave a 14 year old to go on vacation for a week...not to go to dinner or to the grocery store. interesting. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591185 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 19:47:33 +0000 Kemma 2591185@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The law in New Zealand is as follows...</p> <p>"Every person is liable to a fine not exceeding $2,000 who, being a parent or guardian or a person for the time being having the care of a child under the age of 14 years, leaves that child, without making reasonable provision for the supervision and care of the child, for a time that is unreasonable or under conditions that are unreasonable having regard to all the circumstances" </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591134 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 17:20:56 +0000 periwinklebee 2591134@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@tlcbaby: Yeah, I can see 10, but 14 seems pretty extreme to me. It must especially stink for low income families, to the extent that it's enforced, as after school care can be expensive. </p> <p>I read more about it here: the law is super, super vague: <a href="https://www.illinoispolicy.org/leave-your-13-year-old-home-alone-police-can-take-her-into-custody-under-illinois-law/" rel="nofollow">https://www.illinoispolicy.org/leave-your-13-year-old-home-alone-police-can-take-her-into-custody-under-illinois-law/</a></p> <p>Apparently Kansas has a law that a child must be at least 6 to be left alone, which is going quite a lot in the other direction... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591133 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 17:11:35 +0000 tlcbaby 2591133@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: Yeah it's weird to me that the few states that do have laws are so wildly different. 14 seems pretty old. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591132 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 16:54:09 +0000 periwinklebee 2591132@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Illinois law requires children to be 14 (14!) before being left home alone. Sheesh, I must be really old, because times have definitely changed! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591120 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 15:58:37 +0000 caterw 2591120@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@pastemoo: I WAS the babysitter at 12- the most I had at a time was 4 kids ages 1.5-7 (one of whom had a learning disability). I was totally fine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591119 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 15:57:09 +0000 caterw 2591119@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lion: Your mom sounds like my mom!!! When I was little (like 8-9), my mom would make me breakfast and tell me to go away. I could come back for lunch and dinner, but I was otherwise expected to entertain myself outside or at the local library for the entire day unsupervised. This new paranoia is so stressful for moms- we should not need to be worried that CPS is going to take our kids away if they play soccer in the yard after dinner. Children NEED to have alone time to develop their imagination, deepen their friendships, and get free play time. I would have been so annoyed at 12 years old if my mom was staring at me all day long. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591110 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 15:14:31 +0000 pastemoo 2591110@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@tlcbaby: Interesting. I remember being 12 and having a babysitter and being totally insulted by it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591103 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 14:53:59 +0000 honeybear 2591103@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>One other thought: The recipient of this letter could go to the police station with the letter and make a report of harassment. </p> <p>This is unfortunately the only real option for doing anything about it because the letter is anonymous. If it had been signed, I would recommend going to the neighbor and asking them what concern they have about the way the kids are being cared for. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591096 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 14:23:31 +0000 honeybear 2591096@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think that the busybody letter writer is probably trying to refer to child neglect, which can be a matter of criminal law. But she's definitely wrong that letting children play outside while a parent is inside constitutes a neglect on its own. There would have to be a lot of other things going on (like, stuff that is actually neglect...). </p> <p>I guess it's possible that some arcane law is on the books somewhere prohibiting 7 year-olds from being outside without an adult, but if it exists, it's almost certainly not a criminal statute, and I'm willing to bet that it never gets enforced. Let your kids outside and don't worry about violating a criminal law...worrying about the busybodies and all the harm that they might cause is another matter! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/at-what-age-can-children-legally-play-outside-alone#post-2591079 Sat, 23 Jul 2016 13:17:19 +0000 youboots 2591079@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@tlcbaby: I knew the law in Oregon was 10. I had no idea it was not a standard rule. I wonder if there is an age for watching a younger sibling or babysitting? </p>