Free-range parents may remember 2025 as the year that proved just how hard it still is to give kids any independence. There were arrests, investigations, panics, and new rules that seemed designed to keep childhood on permanent lockdown. But mixed in with the overreactions and worst-case-scenario thinking were a few welcome reminders that common sense can still prevail. Here's the year in review.
Most Kids Are Living Very Boring Lives
A March Harris Poll surveyed more than 500 kids ages 8 to 12 and found that most have never walked or biked somewhere without an adult. At least 45 percent said they "have not walked in a different aisle than their parents at a store," and 71 percent have never used a sharp knife. Gee, I wonder why they're online all the time? At least there, they can cut their own (virtual) food.
Parents Still Vastly Overestimate the Risk of Stranger Danger
When asking about 1,000 parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-old children were playing at a park without adult supervision, another Harris Poll found that 50 percent thought it was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that the children would be abducted. As I explain in my TED Talk, that calculation is off by about 99.99 percent.
About 57 percent also said it was likely that the parents in that scenario would be shamed for being neglectful. That, unfortunately, is much more likely to be true.
Not Even Vacation Provides Teens With Unsupervised Time
Vacation is a time when everyone is supposed to have fun and make new memories. A University of Michigan/ CS Mott Children's Hospital poll asked parents how much freedom they give their teens on vacation. Results show that 1 in 5 parents have never allowed their teen to be away from them during a vacation or trip. Only 31 percent said they would "let their teen walk a short distance to a coffee shop," and only 21 percent would let their teen go to a different exhibit at a museum from the rest of the group. (Do they know the dinosaurs are dead?) Less than half of parents say they would be very likely to let their teen stay in the hotel room while they go to breakfast in the same hotel.
School District Won't Let 7-Year-Old Walk Home Alone
Sometimes it's not the parents who are insisting on constant supervision. Tali Smith's son was allowed to walk home from the bus stop last year when he was a kindergartener. But this year, he's not allowed to take the same 3-minute walk home because Michigan's Saline Area Schools is enforcing a new rule requiring an adult to wait at the bus stop to escort home any kindergarten or first-grade student—no matter how close their house is.
The school says the rule is due to the "significant liability the district assumes" when transporting students. Smith offered to sign a waiver, but the district was unmoved. Her son is now forced to be less independent than he was a year ago, and Mom has to wait in the cold every day to walk her son four houses away from the bus stop.
Mom Placed on Child Abuse Registry for Letting 13-Year-Old Babysit
Testifying on behalf of Pennsylvania's "Reasonable Childhood Independence" bill, attorney Mariel Mussack told the tale of a health care aide who needed to run an errand. She had her 13-year-old brother babysit her nearly 1-year-old. For this, she was placed on the state's child abuse registry. Try getting a home health care job with that on your record.
Aspen Police Department Criminalizes Fun
If kids ride their bikes on the sidewalk, or if two kids ride on a bike together, they could end up with "a ticket or a trip to the emergency room," warned a Facebook post by Colorado's Aspen Police Department. As one quipster commented underneath: "Tell me you don't have real crimes in Aspen without telling me you don't have real crimes."
Parents Jailed Because a Driver Hit Their Child
The most heartbreaking story of this year took place in Gastonia, North Carolina, where parents Sameule and Jessica Jenkins let their 10- and 7-year-old sons walk to the grocery store. Legend, the 7-year-old, darted into the street, was hit by a car, and tragically died. The parents were jailed on $1.5 million bail each. They are grateful to a city councilwoman who managed to get them furloughed just in time to kiss their son goodbye before his casket was closed. Then they were returned to jail.
They are both now out on parole, but are not allowed to live with their other children, and Legend's dad is forced to wear an ankle monitor and take regular drug tests—adding so much insult to injury over an accident that was no one's fault.
Airport Human-Trafficking Posters Hint at Preppy Slavery
Posters at U.S. airports featuring what look like L.L.Bean models are telling travelers that human trafficking is "happening in our community." And yet, says sex worker rights advocate Kaytlin Bailey, "We're not having a problem with white middle-class kids disappearing from soccer games. That's just not a thing that is happening."
What is happening, Bailey says, is something akin to the white slavery panic at the turn of the 20th century, with the authorities again "stoking these middle-class fears that a savage is coming to take your kid."
Cops Are Called on Dad Who Played Catch With His 14-Year-Old Son at the Park
Adam Washington was tossing a football with his 14-year-old at a park in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, while his wife pushed their toddler on the swings. Lower Merion Township Police cars pulled up, and officers said they had received a report of "two men" playing catch. "Eventually they told me that it's not the ball that's the problem," Washington told Philadelphia magazine. "It's that only kids up to age five are supposed to play in the park. "In other words," Washington said, "I'm supposedly not allowed to hang out in the park with my family, since one of my kids is past the age limit."
GOOD NEWS (Mostly): A 5-Year-Old Walked to Chick-fil-A Alone—Police Didn't Charge the Parents
This is a good story only if you think it should be national news when a kid does something on his own, and the parents aren't charged with neglect.
"I have children," remarked Patrol Officer Perri, one of the officers who responded to the call from restaurant employees. "You get that knot in your stomach because you know, somebody else who's a parent is missing their child," Perri said. The empathy and compassion shown for these parents was a breath of fresh air.
The Real Good News: 3 More States Passed Childhood Independence Laws in 2025
With the help of Let Grow, the non-profit I helm, three more states passed Reasonable Childhood Independence laws in 2025, bringing the total to 11. Now parents in Florida, Georgia, and Missouri can let their kids walk to the Chick-fil-A or home from the bus stop, without being questioned by authorities.
We nag children to get off their devices, but give them so few real-life alternatives. But if we stepped back and let them step up and out, kids would be engaged with the world outside their door. Let Grow is dedicated to making that kind of childhood easy, normal, and legal again, and will continue that fight in 2026.
is president of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting childhood independence and resilience, and founder of the Free-Range Kids movement.
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