Free-Range Children: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

This trope was [[Truth in Television]] -- or at least [[Justified Trope|justified]] -- in the United States 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.