A Virginia mom let her 5-year-old walk alone. A debate over modern parenting ensued.
How old is old enough to walk alone?
For Virginia mother Karyann Parkinson, the answer was 5.
On June 5, she let her 5-year-old son, Samuel, walk half a mile to a pond in their gated community to collect goose feathers, a route she says he knows well and that they had just done together. The outing ultimately led to a criminal conviction and her placement on the state’s child-abuse and neglect registry.
Parkinson has become the latest inadvertent symbol of a growing movement that believes children need more independence. Her conviction has reignited a debate over how much freedom kids should have and how much government oversight is appropriate in parenting. It’s also placed a spotlight on free range parenting, a philosophy that emphasizes free play, increased independence and limited parental intervention.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/09/09/virginia-mom-abuse-charge-5-year-old-walked-alone-parenting-debate/91670047007/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
4 replies
I remember my mother sending me to buy milk back when i was in kindergarden. And yes, this involved crossing a road.
Those overprotective parents raise kids that are not used to do something on their own.
We had to put our kids in a different school district because we were not allowed to let them walk home 1/2 a mile. This also meant we had to pay for afterschool child care.
I was staying home alone for multiple hours starting at 6ish. I also used to cook dinner for the family at about 10.
I think there's been some good progress on some fronts - I dislike kids being hit/spanked, and that seems to have largely become a think of the past. But we sure have gotten stupid about kids in many ways these days.
I really wonder how the youngest generations who don't leave their house except to go to school or maybe shopping will make it in the real world when they grow up.
Although some of the generations after mine seem to be largely okay, and some of their changes seem nice. Society evolves anyway, whether we like it or not. heh
When I was five or six and in kindergarten, I walked with my best friend who as in first grade around two miles to school. And although part of it was in a quiet neighborhood, we first had to cross a four lane road (with a median), and than nearly a mile of it was walking along the access road of the freeway, then on a bridge across the freeway.
I walked in first grade also a couple of miles to school along a four lane road.
In second grade, back to the same school as kindergarten. (with the same walk)