Free-Range Children: Difference between revisions

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.

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 to widely-available [[Cell Phone]]s which permit children to be in touch even when they're off by themselves.

== Anime and Manga ==

** [[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.

* In ''[[Detective Conan (Manga)|Detective Conan]]'', five seven-year-old children with a knack for wandering into murder scenes are allowed free rein over Tokyo. Two of them happen to be [[Older Than They Look]] but the parents don't know that.

** [[Deconstructed]] in a [[Backstory]] arc when the Mouris, before separation, found the Kudos' laissez-faire parenting gotten a bit annoying.

== Film ==

** Though ''[[Stand By Me]]'', did take place in the 50's where kids WERE a lot more free range and almost all of them had bad or disconnected parents.

** This movie's [[Distaff Counterpart]], ''[[Now and Then]]'', features the girls biking for an entire day to read archived newspapers at a library.

== Literature ==

* ''[[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 Babysitters Club]]'', the eighth-graders are treated like high schoolers, while the sixth-graders are treated like young teens. They're allowed to run around New York City and Europe and take little kids sailing on the ocean, all without adult supervision. Eleven-year-old Jessi gets the starring roles in all her ballet productions, and was left in charge of her 8-year-old sister and baby brother for a whole weekend.

* ''[[Arthur (Animation)|Arthur]]'': Many scenes in many episodes involve the main 8-year-old third-grader cast biking around the town (which was relatively large) by themselves, eating out at the local ice cream parlor, with no parents in tow. Looking at these kids, they seemed more like middle schoolers/early high schoolers than elementary schoolers.

* ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'': The kids are the same age as those from ''Arthur'' and have even more "adult" adventures, with little interference from their parents. There was one episode where Stan goes to New York to return a margarita maker, and you never see Randy or Sharon questioning where their son has gone, despite the fact ''he's on the other side of the country by himself.'' In "Night of the Living Homeless," they go so far as to ''applaud'' the fact that the boys are driving a bus cross-country by themselves, as it spares them the trouble of stopping the homeless problem. On the ''very'' rare occasions when their parents are aware that they're missing, the approach they take to getting them back is...less than effective, to say the least. Then again, all of the [[Too Dumb to Live|adults]] on ''South Park'' have the [[Idiot Ball]] every episode.

*** 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 (Animation)|The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'': Jimmy and friends, whom are in probably fifth grade, are given incredibly free rein, often making trips to space, Egypt, and the depths of the ocean with minimum interference from parents. There are a few instances where Jimmy is prevented from flying in his homemade rocket into space (Without a space helmet even!) before finishing his chores, but still, that is incredibly free rein. On a typical day, the kids will go down to the local fast food joint to hang out, and their parents are nowhere in sight.

* ''[[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.

* On ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents (Animation)|The Fairly Odd Parents]]'', Timmy and the other kids will be seen wandering the town on their own when the plot calls for it. One episode had Timmy biking through the desert and at a fast food restaurant ''at night'' without his parents. He also tends to spend extended amounts of time in Fairy World without his parents noticing.

** As in ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', 99% of the adults in the show aren't exactly the brightest bulbs on the tree.

** 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 ''[[Daria (Animation)|Daria]]'', the high-school aged kids walk around Lawndale without a drivers license until later on.

** 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.