“Free-Range Trouble”

This comic came from our shock at reading the news story about the parents in Maryland who got busted by the police and almost had their children taken away from them… for letting their children walk home from the park by themselves. As a parent who tries to be as free-range with my kids as possible, this news both saddened and scared me. I remember my own childhood spent wandering my neighborhood, playing in the park, getting to school and back--all on my own and from a very young age. I know those experiences helped prepare me for life in college and beyond, away from my parents. We live in a much safer world today than the one I grew up in, and yet we are so much more protective of our children, to the point that many of them rarely leave the house or backyard unless it’s for scheduled activities. If we don’t give our kids the chance to be independent, how will they survive when they are out of the nest?

--Michelle McCann