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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Eighty percent of the reason being a kid sucks is you can't drive. You can't just zoom across town whenever you feel like it, you've got to wait for Mom or Dad to get home, or save up your allowance for cab fare, or latch onto the back of a garbage truck. Your ability to participate in adult-level adventures is thus severely limited."''|'''[[Cracked
Generally, in some societies, children usually don't stray too far from home without some sort of older guidance. Children that do go off by themselves usually don't go very far, perhaps just down the street to visit a friend, a nearby venue that helps children use their services, or to school if it’s nearby. If the child were to wander a farther distance, the guardians or the parents would (usually) be quite worried and would probably even punish the child when he or she came back.
▲{{quote|''"Eighty percent of the reason being a kid sucks is you can't drive. You can't just zoom across town whenever you feel like it, you've got to wait for Mom or Dad to get home, or save up your allowance for cab fare, or latch onto the back of a garbage truck. Your ability to participate in adult-level adventures is thus severely limited."''|'''[[Cracked (Website)|Cracked]].com''', [http://www.cracked.com/article_16694_6-horrible-lessons-hollywood-loves-to-teach-kids_p2.html 6 Horrible Lessons Hollywood Loves to Teach Kids]}}
In fiction, this is usually ignored. A good deal of fiction features children who are between the ages of 7 and 9, perhaps in order to help them relate to their younger audience. At this age, such children ''should'' fall under the situation mentioned above; however, in fiction, they will wander about their town, the country, or even the world with little adult supervision or even ''concern''. They'll ride down to their friend's house on the other side of town and go to local venues that aren't anywhere close to their own house. Hell, if plot calls for it, sometimes they'll go down to the next town by themselves, or even the next state or ''country'', with little to no outcry from parents, guardians, or child protection services.
▲Generally, in some societies, children usually don't stray too far from home without some sort of older guidance. Children that do go off by themselves usually don't go very far, perhaps just down the street to visit a friend, a nearby venue that helps children use their services, or to school if it’s nearby. If the child were to wander a farther distance, the guardians or the parents would (usually) be quite worried and would probably even punish the child when he or she came back.
When taken to extremes, like long distance travel to other states or communities, or remarkable freedom in more recent times, this is an [[Acceptable Break From Reality]]. A show involving Timmy and Sally being driven everywhere by their parents and going out only with their family (or their friends with parents in close tow), with them ending their day in their rooms, only to repeat the process the next day wouldn't be very exciting. Audiences want to see their cast do something different, and there is only so much one can do about the home.▼
▲In fiction, this is usually ignored. A good deal of fiction features children who are between the ages of 7 and 9, perhaps in order to help them relate to their younger audience. At this age, such children ''should'' fall under the situation mentioned above; however, in fiction, they will wander about their town, the country, or even the world with little adult supervision or even ''concern''. They'll ride down to their friend's house on the other side of town and go to local venues that aren't anywhere close to their own house. Hell, if plot calls for it, sometimes they'll go down to the next town by themselves, or even the next state or ''country'', with little to no outcry from parents, guardians, or child protection services.
Particularly in animation it can happen over time
This trope is often justified up until the mid-eighties, when media-promoted fears of kidnapping and strangers caused parents and society to clamp down on the freedom of children to wander unsupervised. Before then, kids were commonly allowed much more latitude, particularly in the summer months, concerning what they did and where they went, often taking off on their bikes to local shopping centers, swimming pools, libraries, or woods. Particularly in a [[Close Knit Community]] where other adults would notice and intervene in cases of danger.▼
▲This trope
In periods after the onset of these fears, these children will have [[Open-Minded Parent|Open Minded Parents]] who practice [[Hands-Off Parenting]]. Other times the parents will seem to be just like typical parents, reflecting the fact that [[Most Writers Are Adults]] who are writing from the experience of their youth, when children going off alone wasn’t anything remarkable.▼
▲In periods after the onset of these fears, these children will have [[Open-Minded Parent
▲When taken to extremes, like long distance travel to other states or communities, or remarkable freedom in more recent times, this is an [[Acceptable Break From Reality]]. A show involving Timmy and Sally being driven everywhere by their parents and going out only with their family (or their friends with parents in close tow), with them ending their day in their rooms, only to repeat the process the next day wouldn't be very exciting. Audiences want to see their cast do something different, and there is only so much one can do about the home.
In modern years this is beginning to return, thanks in part to widely-available [[Cell Phone]]s which permit children to be in touch even when they're off by themselves, and in part due to various parenting movements which actively reject the hysterical fears behind the seclusion of modern children. One such organization -- [http://www.freerangekids.com/ Free Range Kids] -- is the near-[[Trope Namer]], in fact.
▲Particularly in animation it can happen over time as an inversion of [[Not Allowed to Grow Up]], with the characters remaining the canonical age they were conceived at, being drawn as they always were, but being given more adolescent storylines as the writers run out of child-appropriate ideas to put them through and take the next logical step.
Compare [[Adults Are Useless]], which shows up in this Trope for some works and compare with [[Toy Ship]], which is when kids have relationships that wouldn't happen until they were several years older. Sometimes overlaps with [[Parental Abandonment]] and [[Wise Beyond Their Years]], and frequently with low-age instances of the [[Competence Zone]]. May involve [[Kid Hero
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Pokémon (
** Keep in mind that most of these children have god-like monsters at their beck and call, giving them enough power to utterly destroy the world if they had half a mind to do so (the less said about why there are no "Poke-Al Queda" the better). We must all hope that none of them ever get dumped or depressed.
*** There ''is'' a "Poke-Al Queda". [[Goldfish Poop Gang|They just suck.]]
** Yeah, but it's kinda obvious that you also need basic survival skills along with the monster bodyguards. The main characters would have starved to death ages ago if not for Brock.
** Parodied in [[Manly Guys Doing Manly Things]] Jared Kowalski's parents were shocked and upset that he wouldn't take off to [[Walk the Earth]] with his pet pokémon.
* ''[[Super
* ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'': The Chosen are 8 to 12-year-old kids who run around Tokyo with no supervision (their Digimon aside), unquestioned, as would be the case with many high-schoolers.
** This was likely part of the reason the ten year olds in ''[[Digimon
** Not to mention that ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' and ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' were arguably [[
* In ''[[Neo Ranga]]'', the girls range from about 10 to 18 and live alone without adults of any kind.
* ''[[Sonic X
* ''[[
** Tomoyo has a troupe of bodyguards much of the time, but when needed they are inexplicably absent.
** Sakura can also create a duplicate of herself to leave in her place, but her brother [[Secret Secret Keeper|already knows]] it's not her.
* ''[[Yotsubato
** To be fair, she does get scolded when she runs off on her own. She just never really seems to learn her lesson. Thankfully her world seems to be super safe.
** It seems this concept was tried out in chapter 1 but was dropped because it made Mr. Koiwai seem neglectful rather than laid back and a bit forgetful. In the first chapter she wanders around the neighborhood and Koiwai is confident she'll come back to the house when she gets hungry. However, after all the trouble she causes during that escapade he becomes more protective of her. The next time she wanders around unsupervised he does punish her.
** [[Deconstructed]] in one chapter. At the fireworks festival, because Yotsuba hasn't realized the potential dangers of getting lost in a crowd, after she runs off (the panel after being told not to let go of Koiwai's hand, naturally), Koiwai has Jumbo, Ena, and Miura hide to teach her a lesson.
* Featured occasionally in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. The duelists on Pegasus's Island are mostly kids.
{{quote|
* In ''[[
** [[Deconstructed]] in a [[Backstory]] arc when the Mouris, before separation, found the Kudos' laissez-faire parenting gotten a bit annoying.
* [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. Nanoha's parents practically let her join the enforcement branch of an intergalactic government at age 9. And the government branch seems to have no problems sending out a pair of children to deal with an [[Artifact of Death]] that's already killed hundreds of trained soldiers, which is guarded by a [[Lady of War]] with a ''[[Incendiary Exponent|flaming]] [[Cool Sword|chain sword]]'', among other things. For backup, they get another 9-year-old.
* The Powerpuff Girls in ''[[Demashita!
* ''[[Bakugan]]'' allows some kids to ask adults to take them somewhere by a plane or space shuttle.
* The protagonists of ''[[
* ''[[Sailor Moon
* ''[[Aria]]'': Mizunashi Akari is fifteen years old when she leaves home and family to get a job on another planet. If she ever even '''visits''' her parents again, it's not shown or mentioned. Granted, her new home is a very '''peaceful''' and '''safe''' planet....
** That's a case of [[Values Dissonance]]. In Japan, middle-school graduates are legally allowed to start working instead of attending high school, so Akari isn't a child any more.
== Film ==
* ''[[Stand
** Though ''[[Stand
** This movie's [[Distaff Counterpart]], ''[[Now and Then]]'', features the girls biking for an entire day to read archived newspapers at a library.
* ''[[Invasion of the Neptune Men]]'' has a group of children who can seemingly go ''anywhere''. And not simply around their neighborhood; they can waltz into government buildings during high stakes defense meetings and press conferences regarding an alien invasion. Lampshaded in the [[
** In the "[[
{{quote|
* All three youngsters (and the rest of their Sunday School class) in ''[[Whistle Down the Wind]]''.
* The kids in ''[[Super 8]]''.
* [[Harriet the Spy]]: In the movie, the children are only 11, yet they wander aimlessly around town with little to no concern from their parents. The book may have been written in the 60's, but since the movie was clearly set in the 90's, it was a bit jarring to see.
* A big problem for the recent ''[[Bridge to Terabithia]]'' film, which is set after 2000. Nowadays, the well-off Burke parents would '''never''' have allowed Leslie (their only child and only ten) to go even near the rope or in the woods by herself (or even with Jess), ''precisely'' out of fear that something might happen.
* The four junior high protagonists in ''[[Camp Nowhere]]'' are pretty free-range to begin with. That said, the concept is brought into full play once they set up their own phony summer camp and bring along several of their friends. The trope is also explored in
== Literature ==
* ''[[Duumvirate]]'', in spades. [[Transhuman|Bioengineered]] children are treated as adults by age eight, and the six-year-olds know how to fly jets. [[Mugging the Monster|Want to mess with one?]] [[Schmuck Bait|Go on, try it.]] [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|What's the worst that could happen?]]
* ''[[Feeling Sorry for Celia]]'' has a great version of this trope. The titular girl, who is herself a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], runs off to join the circus. The mother, who had been worried but expressing it strangely for a good part of the book, is instantly put at ease when she's told that her daughter is just with a traveling circus, saying "Oh, the circus! Why didn't we think of that earlier?" Another example from the same book is when a younger Celia and her best friend were planning on building a treehouse. Her mother is absolutely fine with the idea, no questions asked; however, the best friend's mother wants to know details. The two mothers get in an argument over the issue.
* In ''[[The
* ''[[The Famous Five]]'': Certainly there was less helicopter parenting in 1950s Britain, but letting a group of 10- to 12-year-olds go on weeklong camping trips in various desolated areas with no supervision? They have the dog to take care of them, it's probably fine.
** This goes for the live-action TV version, too.
** That said, the books do have them age up a couple of years. Julian was meant to be 15 or 16 at one point. One website worked out, from the pattern of summer/Easter/xmas/half term holidays they had, that by the end of the books they should all be in their early 20s.
* Similarly in ''[[The Ship That Flew]]'' by Hilda Lewis, published in England in 1939. No one in this book thinks it unusual or bad parenting to pack four pre-teen kids a picnic lunch and let them wander off on a day-long unsupervised excursion to an unpopulated beach. And that's a fairly typical day's outing for the protagonists of this book.
** At one point, using the magic of the titular ship, they bring a girl from medieval England back with them to the 1930s; their parents (and servants) happily let her live with them for ''weeks'' without more than a token query about her origins and parents.
* ''[[
** Except Tobias, who's "lucky" enough to have legal guardians so disinterested they barely even notice when he goes missing.
* Brilliantly [[Deconstructed]] in the ''[[Tomorrow When the War Began]]'' series. Here are a band of Australian teenagers who roam around the countryside, armed to the teeth, participating in guerilla-style warfare, all without parental supervision. However, this is only because their parents are being held in detention centers after Australia was invaded.
* The parents of the seven main kids in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]'' might as well be nonexistent, considering how they let their kids roam around unsupervised all day despite there being a killer preying on children loose in town. Of course, one of Pennywise/IT's powers seems to be making the townsfolk indifferent, maybe even accepting, of his evils, so it might be justified.
** Partially justified in story for Bill Denborough's parents, whose grief over the death of his younger brother has made them both withdraw emotionally (even by the standards of the era).
** King also wrote the novella ''The Body'', which became ''[[Stand
* Elizabeth Enright's ''The Melendy Family'' novels have the Melendy children running all over New York City unsupervised.
* As does Betty Smith's ''[[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn]]'', which is based on her own childhood in that borough.
* ''[[The Hardy Boys]]'' and ''[[Nancy Drew]].'' Now Frank and Joe are 16 and 18, but in the earlier editions they were 13 and 15.
* ''[[
* [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Tom Sawyer|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' and ''[[Huckleberry Finn|The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]''. Huck gets a pass because he's an orphan (more or less), but in general the kids are allowed to go wherever they please, and the parents only get worried if the kid doesn't come home for a few ''days''. A little girl's birthday party includes an afternoon of exploring the local caves, though it's well known that you could get lost and never find your way out.
* Any of the Douglas stories by [[Ray Bradbury]].
* Any book by [[E. Nesbit]].
* Any book by Garrison Keillor.
* Lucinda Wyman and Tony Coppino in Ruth Sawyer's ''Roller Skates.'' Set in the 1890's, a policeman sees Lucinda doing pretty much as she pleases every day and thinks that New York isn't too big a city to turn a child loose in, "barring a few corners of it." {{spoiler|One "corner" turns out to be a fancy hotel, and Lucinda, aged ten, finds an adult friend of hers who has been stabbed to death. The policeman never finds out about that.}}
* In ''[[
* In [[Alisa Selezneva]] books, the heroine is this. Apparently by 22th century children got some freedom back (or at least Alisa did).
* ''[[The Magic Treehouse]]'' series averts the trope by having no time pass while the treehouse takes them anywhere or anytime in the world.
* Justified in ''[[
* Most of the Stark kids in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', since they have a tendency to be separated from their parents for long periods of time. Rickon, the youngest Stark at 3 years old, practically becomes feral along with his direwolf Shaggydog. {{spoiler|Arya has to flee from the Lannisters at the end of the first book when Ned is killed and Bran eventually leaves Winterfell with the Reeds and Hodor.}}
== Live
* Many of the underage cast of ''[[The Wire]]'', in a case of either [[Parental Neglect]] or [[Parental Abandonment]] (depending on the character), played straight. In one scene from season one, police go to Wallace's mother, fearing for his life. She doesn't know where he is, doesn't care, and doesn't care to be bothered by cops: he owes her $10, and she's "trying to get my drink on." As the audience has previously discovered, the 16 year old Wallace has spent the last several months living in a vacant building with [[Promotion to Parent|several younger kids]].
* On ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' Barney's childhood was apparently like this, as he comments that he would go grocery shopping and buy nothing but candy when his mom was gone for the weekend.
* ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'' had a solution to the issue of children running off on adventures with aliens on distant planets or around London that was so simple and straightforward that [[Reality Is Unrealistic|it is hard to believe]]: They just ''told their parents'' that they were an [[Evolutionary Levels|advanced form of human]] and were tasked with protecting the Earth. Once they'd seen their children ''teleport'', the parents didn't see themselves as having much choice but to accept it.
* Dean on ''[[Supernatural]]'' was allowed to do pretty much everything he wanted to do, as long as he watched after Sam, which John didn't even have to ask him to do. He reveals this with slightly melancholic undertones to a girlfriend in highschool who seems to be quite surprised and a bit worried.
* In the ''[[Power Rangers]]'' universe the parents aren't seen or even acknowledged unless they're relevant to the plot. A perfect example is the final episode of ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' where the team boards a rocket to go into [[Power Rangers in Space|space]]. Justin stays behind to stay with his father. Nothing is mentioned about the other parents, so apparently they wouldn't miss their kids.
** In ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]],'' there's a two-parter where Vida becomes a vampire. It takes place over several days, naturally mostly at night. We never found out what the parents thought of their teens being out all night, and Vida being ''nowhere'' to be found all that time as far as the parents were concerned.
** In ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]],'' at least, the teens are known to be with [[The Mentor|their science teacher]].
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Round the Twist]]'', the Twist kids regularly wander all about [[Quirky Town|Port Niranda]] without adult supervision - from a new toxic waste-dump to the depths of the local unexplored forest, nowhere seems off limits. To be fair, the two older Twist twins are 14.
* [[Played With]] on the Nippon TV [[Reality TV|reality show]] ''[https://www.ntv.co.jp/english/pc/2011/02/old-enough.html Old Enough!]'', in which very-young children are shown doing errands such as shopping; the children are allowed to act on their own, but the hidden-camera crews are always nearby.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Calvin of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' is more deeply philosophical than most 6-year-olds, and is allowed to ride his wagon all over creation, because behind his house apparently there's some kind of national park.
** This may be a case of an [[Unreliable Narrator]], like the time Calvin runs away from home and figures he must be in the next state by the time he's a few hundred feet away. Everything looks bigger to six-year-old Calvin.
* ''[[Peanuts]]''. The strip began in 1950 but hit this trope due to being a [[Long Runner]] and with the introduction of Peppermint Patty's [[Cast Herd]], who take the bus across town by themselves whenever they visit Charlie Brown's neighbourhood. Then again, adults barely exist except for the "wah-wah" speech in the animated cartoons, or a few brief appearances in a few of them.
** Linus's Halloween tradition of spending all night in the Pumpkin Patch was cut short by being forced inside at 9PM the year his Gramma was babysitting. The opinion his parents have of the matter is never brought up.
* ''[[The Perishers]]'', being a kind of quirky British take on the same concept, also does this. Every year the kids go off on summer holiday without any kind of adult supervision.
* Most every character in ''[[Mafalda]]'', despite a prominent adult presence. Though most of the time, they ''are'' implied to have been sent on errands by their parents, or walking back and forth between home and school.
* ''[[
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
** To say nothing about Mayl, Dex, and Yai. While they occasionally can't accompany Lan to something or other due to something during the main plot, they always at least try to follow Lan into the evil base at the end of each game. The epitome of this has to be the 5th game where Yai manages to take the entire gang to a ''deserted island'' two hours away from home. And then they go to explore an ''abandoned mine'' with predictable results. You'd think after that their parents would never let them go anywhere on their own again.
* ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'': In the second game, Geo goes running off to other countries. His mom doesn't seem to notice her son's absence.
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*** Deconstructed in ''Black and White'', as Bianca's father goes nuts at the thought of his daughter traveling out there alone in the dangerous world. {{spoiler|Reconstructed as he's reminded that his daughter isn't alone as she has friends and monster bodyguards, and that roaming the world is a good way to expand one's horizons}}.
* ''[[Harvest Moon]] DS'' has your character's child wandering about the valley (mostly to and from Vesta's ranch).
** Happens in ''Cute'' and the ''Wonderful Life'' sub-series too. This can be justified being that the valley is pretty small, there's really nowhere to go, it's safe, and everyone knows each other.
* Nine-year-old Pearl is incredibly sheltered in ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' and barely knows anything about the outside world, probably because of her mother. However, after {{spoiler|Morgan's arrest}} it can be assumed that the other women in the village are taking care of her. So why do these women let Pearl ''walk'' to Los Angeles by herself (a two hour train ride from the village) and constantly hang out with Maya and Nick? Is anyone paying attention to this kid?
** Because that's a Japanese game, and portrays mainly Japanese society with ''some'' [[Eagleland Osmosis]]. It's pretty normal in Japan for nine year old kids to commute around all by themselves. Even sheltered ones.
* The first two ''[[MOTHER]]/[[
** In ''Earthbound'', Ness got ''thrown out'' of his home town, Paula's parents know their daughter has a destiny to fulfill (and know how strong she and Ness are), Jeff's dad doesn't give a crap about his son, and Prince Poo is on a mission from his ancestors, something his people take very seriously.
* In ''[[The Sims|Sims 3]]'', any Sim older than toddler can go anywhere in town the player or their own free will sends them, subject to curfew restrictions on children and teens.
* ''[[Final Fantasy X
* Most ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' characters are minors (Tails is 8, Sonic is 15, Amy is 12, etc.) but only three have characters that could be their legal guardians - Cream the Rabbit, who has her mother Vanilla, as well as Charmy [[Species Surname|Bee]] and Espio the Chameleon, who have Vector the Crocodile. The latter is a guess, but it makes sense. Charmy and Cream are the youngest characters, both being 6, but everyone from age 7 and up (minus Espio) seems not to even ''have'' parents, or any legal guardian for that matter. There's only a few cases where the lack makes ANY sense:
** With Knuckles, as he's the only echidna left {{spoiler|outside of the Twilight Cage.}}
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== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Project 0]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20110404083451/http://www.centralcitytower.com/2010/03/new-installment-project-0-phase-i-part.html this scene] only starts to feel out of place when you realize that they're 13
* ''[[Cyanide
* ''[[Bad Machinery]]''.
* ''[[Manly Guys Doing Manly Things]]'' parodies the ''[[Pokémon]]'' tradition with Jared Kowalski, a teenager who balked at the idea of leaving home on a Pokemon journey (because it would [[This Loser Is You|separate him from his Xbox games]]), until his parents got fed up and kicked him out of the house.
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== Western Animation ==
* Deconstructed, in a way, in ''[[
* ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|Lilo and Stitch]]'': Lilo is about six years old and yet she and Stitch run about Hawaii finding Stitch's cousins with little older supervision.
** And Mertle, who says she's the best hula dancer in the seven year old division in ''Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch.'' She also seems to have a bit more freedom than most children as she travels with her friends.
** It is kind of justified that she's allowed some freedom after Stitch joins the Ohana. Do you want to imagine what would happen to a normal person who tried to harm or kidnap the girl while her super-strong and rather protective alien "dog" was there?
* ''[[Hey Arnold
* ''[[Doug]]'': The sixth-graders seem to be much more like high schoolers, even though it is stated that Doug is only about 11. The gang run about their town with little concern from Mom and Dad, although Doug sometimes needs his older sister to drive him places.
* ''[[Arthur (
* ''[[
** The kids have also been to Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru, Imaginationland, at least two other solar systems, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and Canada]].
*** Despite being grounded for most of ''South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut,'' Stan, Kyle, and Cartman are still free to roam the town as they please, largely because their parents are too busy waging war on their behalf to keep track of where their children are.
* ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron:
** Subverted in [[The Movie]], where the plot revolved around the kids feeling annoyed about the restrictions their parents keep placing on them. But really, the only thing they kept him from doing was going to a theme park on a school night, which really isn't that bad.
* ''[[
* ''[[A Pup Named Scooby
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** It is also (coincidentally?) the [[Trope Namer
* Stewie Griffin from ''[[
** Well, Peter too, sometimes.
* ''[[All Grown Up
* ''[[Captain Planet and
** Would you argue with the creator of the Earth? Or your kids if they had super powers they could kill you with?
** This may also be where [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]]. Ma-ti could make them understand, though that pretty much constitutes [[Brainwashing]]. Still, he can do it.
* ''[[Rocket Power]]'': The late elementary school cast runs all about Ocean Shores with little concern from their parents. To be fair, Ray tends to be laid back about everything, except when the gang really screws up. He also works in a restaurant near the beach and skate park, where the kids usually are. Twister's parents, just say to him when he gets in trouble, "We'll talk about this later," and little is usually shown after that. Sam's mom is pretty fussy, but he still tags along wherever the gang goes. And presumably, she wants him to be within a certain area where he can contact an adult.
** Also it looks like the kids are more around a certain area of Ocean shores. Most of the action takes place around their cul-de-sac and the pier which is ''right'' where Ray works. (He's also pretty laid back anyways) There are a couple occasions where they appear to go outside the zone and have to use a GPS, or get in trouble when they're caught doing something unsafe like surfing in a channel.
* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy
* On ''[[The Fairly
** As in ''[[
* ''[[
** [[The Wild Thornberries|Is it that one about the little girl who wanders around the jungle with no parental supervision, avoiding crises and conversing with the local wildlife with the aid of her foreign language-speaking monkey?]]
* None of the parents seem to pay any attention to their kids, but [[Invader Zim|Dib and Gaz]] have extra free range on account of their dad being a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] [[Mad Scientist]]. One episode seems to lampshade the trope when [[Invader Zim|Zim]] himself gets lost by trying to go to a different part of town on his own.
* On ''[[Rupert Bear
* ''[[
** Surprisingly averted in the sequel series, ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force
* Touched upon in ''[[
** "How could this have happened?! We're always so careful with the kids!"
* This trope may be an understatement in ''[[Codename
* Depending on the cutoff age for "children", the thirteen-year olds [[
** In [[The Movie]] they travel all around the country from their town in Texas, to the Grand Canyon to Washington D.C., just to get their TV back. All the while (accidentally) foiling a terrorist plot. And the parenst situaiton is explained too.
* In ''[[
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** It's debatable exactly how old the CMC are, however. If one views Cutie Marks as an analogy to puberty the trio could very well be the equivalent of 9 or 10 in human years (possibly even older) which is plenty old enough to be wandering around a sleepy rural village on their own.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* This ranges from the tragic (Third World countries where the eldest sibling must take care of his younger charges due to dead parents, or in ghettos, where apathetic or drugged-out parents make for kids raising themselves on the street) to the normal (some parents are less restrictive than others, or it is more culturally acceptable in that area. There's been controversy over a mom allowing her children to take the New York City subway routes unsupervised, and I've heard of many people from the American South who learned how to drive by themselves).
** There have been cases of people ''calling CPS'' on parents for letting their kids walk home from school alone, and we're not even talking somewhere like [[Los Angeles]].
*** A Dutch correspondent living in the USA made a satirical article about that controversy. A thing like letting your child go across town with public transport or by bike is considered perfectly normal in some countries, even <s>[[Vestigial Empire|other]]</s> 'first-world' countries.
*** A good example of that is Japan. Mainly, this is because these countries are safer (or they perceive their country to be safer) so they don't have to worry so much about strange people on the subways abducting kids. It is not unusual to see nine and ten-year-olds using trains without adults, but they will usually be in groups of three or four, so it is not so bad. However; there have been horror stories of people being mugged while walking home from cram school or lost.
*** Russia, despite being [[The New Russia|not safe at all]]. Even in Siberian cities with constant supply of freshly released convicts and "prison-style" knives or shivs sold at any flea market. The very concept may be alien enough to call not only for questions about kid-stables, but also looks hinting that people suspect you meant [[Eats Babies|raising them for food]]. Digging tunnels in two-meter snowpiles or wasting wooden junk in bonfires of same height are normal after-school pastimes, after all. And that's normal kids who have parents, not street urchins (Russia has loads and loads of these, too).
*** Most Dutch children cycle to school (well, it depends on the distance. young children can't cycle much more than a few kilometers) from the age of eight. Especially in the countryside.
*** In Germany (particularly in Berlin), it's quite normal as well.
*** It was common in the United States until at least the late eighties, though in the last two or three decades media-driven fear has really clamped down on these formerly-common childhood experiences. They're not entirely gone though, as some parents are better than others and there are kids who walk to school and you're more likely to see this in small towns or where everything is centralized and there's more trust amongst the populace. As well, a lot of neighbourhoods have this trope. A lot of places aren't exactly pedestrian friendly and sometimes the children have to hitch a ride with a friend or family member if they want to get ''anywhere'' in less than an hour. This is worse in rural areas where kids can't always walk to school.
** Ishmael Beah, originally from Sierra Leone, mentions this in his memoir, ''A Long Way Gone''. The story begins with Beah, his older brother, and several of his friends walking several miles to a neighboring town so they can compete in a talent show. None of them had bothered to tell their parents where they were going, since they planned on being back the next day.
** The so-called "Feral Children" is also a major problem in the UK due to the combined results of teen pregnancy, single mothers or general parental neglect even in families where both parents are present and grown up.
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* Of course, there is always lying to your parents about where you will be
* A book called ''Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry)'' by Lenore Skenazy offers advice for parents regarding this concept. Could be considered the [[Trope Namer]].
** There's also her website. [
* This is actually normal in less-urbanized parts of the UK (eg- [[The West Country]]), with kids as young as 5 being allowed to wonder wherever as long as they come home in the end.
* The extent to which kids are commonly sheltered from the outside life in white middle-class US households is utterly alien to most Russians (as can be seen above), where the first-graders are fully expected to walk themselves home from the school, eat their lunch and do the homework all by themselves while both parents are at work. For the five-graders it's the norm to freely commute around the town. It's true that Russian cities, as common in Europe, are much more pedestrian friendly than American suburbia, but still... The cultural consensus seems to run along the lines "If we won't gradually expose our kids to the difficulties of the life from the early age, they'd be much worse off when we decide they're old enough and dump them to the outside world."
** Yep. Many of the examples given here, especially in the Literature section, ''used to be realistic''. What the Russian troper says used to be true in the U.S. and still is for many working-class families. In lots of places, as long as it was summer vacation or you didn't have homework you could go wherever and do whatever you damn pleased as long as you were home by dark/for dinner/whatever. Younger children were often supervised by older ones. The clampdown on kids was partly based on fear of "predators" which spread through the news media like wildfire starting in the mid-1980s, although there are many other factors.
*** Russia is, too, chock full of crime and pedophile scandals. But most parents think that the advice to not talk to strangers is enough.
* There also is a justifiable zig-zag in Suburban American towns. Kids can be allowed to roam all they want, but only around a certain area, usually this are is where they can contact an adult that the family trusts if something goes wrong, trusting them with more space as the kids get older and prove themselves responsible. This is also because things tend to be more spread out and less pedestrian friendly as stated earlier. Not all of the students walk to school because for some, walking to school essentially means a commute of about an hour or so. Especially true in more rural areas where the "next door neighbours" can be about a mile or so away.
* Note you do see things like that in large cities in the US, to some extent. Though it is more of young teenagers roaming out in the cities, often using public transport.
** It really depends on how safe a place is or is perceived to be, and what all is in walking or biking distance. Of course, the ''worse'' areas sometimes have more of this trope because, as mentioned before, parents are less able to parent and kids had better get used to ducking when the gunshots start as just a fact of life.
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