The Rundown - Free Range Kids and the Gov't Fear of a Healthy Childhood

My brothers and I were Free Range Children. Most kids in the 70's were. It was nothing for me to walk from my parents house all the way out to Lambert Airport, 4 miles away, to go play pinball machines and video games, then to walk home. There were many times I would walk to my dad's office in Clayton, 6 miles away from our house. Or I would walk home FROM my dad's office. It was not a big deal. I would spend hours walking the golf course at the end of our street, or at the park, or at the library, or at UMSL across the road from our neighborhood. And I wasn't the only kid who was out and about.

Almost every house in the small municipality where I lived KNEW almost EVERY kid in the neighborhood. Our Police Department knew almost every kid by sight, knew where we lived, knew who are parents were and knew our home phone numbers and in many cases they knew where our parents worked as well. I fell at the park once and hurt my leg, so I was having a hard time getting home before the streetlights came on, which was the RULE, be home before the street lights came on full, it would take them 20 minutes to come to full brightness and every kid could be home before they were fully on, but I had hurt my leg and couldn't run. One of our muni's officers saw I was having a problem and he gave me a ride home and helped me get in the house, BEFORE the lights were full on so I wouldn't get in trouble.

If that were to happen today, the officer would call for an ambulance, I would have been taken to the hospital and then CPS would be visiting my parents.

What Happened?

Like they say in the video, Helicopter Parents, and over officious Government Busybodies.