
Why are little kids in Japan so independent? - jmadsen
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/09/why-are-little-kids-in-japan-so-independent/407590/
======
saosebastiao
I would love to be able to do this with my 3yo son...but there are two things
stopping me: Cars and helicopter parent culture.

Cars, and the entitled culture we have fostered around them, make streets
hostile to pedestrians and likely fatal to small children, even if children
followed the laws and common sense. I experience it practically daily. Every
time I cross the street at a marked intersection, cars will stop for me 9/10
times. At unmarked intersections, its more like 5/10\. Crossing at a stoplight
with a walk signal on is still precarious because of the tendency of many
drivers to blow through crosswalks without stopping so they can turn right on
red. _Every single day_ I experience a situation that could be fatal to a less
visible child with a more fragile body and slightly worse situational
awareness. No way.

The second problem is the CPS story. My neighborhood is extremely safe, but
the parents here are borderline psychotic about helicoptering their way
through their children's lives. Every time I take my kid to a playground, I
end up witnessing helicopter parents freaking out about how my kid will climb
a ladder by himself or jump off of a piece of equipment by himself...
sometimes they swoop in to "parent" for me...and other times they will chew me
out for being so irresponsible as to let my kid learn his own boundaries. As
much as I respect the mission of CPS, I've heard enough horror stories about
their enforcement of parenting methodology that I wouldn't ever risk having
them called because my kid walked to the park by himself.

It's a shame.

~~~
Camillo
As a foreigner, "right on red" seems insane to me.

~~~
Nadya
I agree entirely, I also have an issue with "yield on green".

Green means "go" at 99% of the lights I run into. Then there's that _one_ left
turn I make that's "yield on green" and I'm not supposed to turn. I'm not
surprised at all that the intersection has the most accidents annually. I
don't think many people are used to yield-on-green lights... so many T-bones
its amazing they haven't changed the traffic flow.

~~~
aianus
What's yield on green? Isn't that a regular green light (you can't turn left
unless nobody is coming at you)?

That's how the vast majority of green lights work here in Canada...

~~~
Nadya
It's a rarity in my part of the state. There are only 2 intersections that
don't have protected left turns and are yield-on-green. They both have
triangular signs stating they are yield-on-green and those signs get ignored.

I've been honked at and nearly rear-ended because I yield-on-green on
protected turns at unfamiliar lights where I expect them to be yield-on-green
(I assume any lane without a dedicated _arrow_ light to be yield-on-green.)

The intersections around here give opposite sides protected left turns, then
normal straight traffic flow. None but the "weird two" are yield-on-green and
those two intersections, as a result, have a ton of accidents caused by people
not yielding properly.

It probably wouldn't be as big of an issue if every other light in the town
was yield-on-green instead of protected. It's the fact that those two lights
are the only "special" ones that I think causes the problem. Since everyone is
used to having a protected turn, people ignore the "yield on green" sign and
turn into oncoming traffic (whom they think have a red light).

------
jmadsen
OP here - just my own thoughts:

I've lived here 13 years & am raising 2 girls who both have been able to live
in the manner described in the article.

1) The number one reason why we feel comfortable is the number of "safe"
people constantly around. In Japan, every apartment building of size has
maintenance people who stay several years and know all the children in the
neighborhood, and recognize strangers. Every supermarket has parking
attendants. Every construction site has "guards" to make sure people cross the
area safely. Every train station has staff around. Many grade schools have
patrols of parents who literally "sweep" the neighborhood right before school
lets out, just checking that no "out of place" people are hanging around in
the parks and neighborhoods.

What this REALLY adds up to is like the article said - there are always people
out there keeping an eye on things.

2) "Japan is safe" \- yes, but assaults on children/young people are a
problem, and parents worry. My first point prolly rules, but we are still
selective in when & where they can do that. We make sure someone is meeting
them on the other end. It IS safe, but not all "roses".

Just my thoughts

~~~
bsder
> In Japan, every apartment building of size has maintenance people who stay
> several years and know all the children in the neighborhood, and recognize
> strangers. Every supermarket has parking attendants. Every construction site
> has "guards" to make sure people cross the area safely. Every train station
> has staff around.

It is difficult to have this when a man interacting with a small child is at
risk of being accused of being a pedophile.

~~~
lovemenot
I fully agree agree. The most shameful moment I experienced in England, when I
lived there with my small children whom we'd previously raised in Japan, was
when I was asked by a concerned parent whether I had a permit to be in a place
where children were present. Apparently all of those other parents had already
applied to the government and been vetted to be in a play room attached to a
public library.

That was when I realised things were not the same in England. I felt sickened
and angry at a such society-wide presumption of guilt.

~~~
6t6t6
I am a Spaniard who lived in UK and I feel that this is the most sick aspect
of British society. For them, every single man is a monster that will molest
children if he has the opportunity.

Things like sitting on a bench to read next to the children's playground, or
crossing a park next to them, can put you in trouble.

------
Umalu
Japanese parents probably were never warped by "milk carton kids" \--
throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S., we'd see missing kids plastered on
the sides of our milk cartons. It made people think that kids were being
kidnapped by strangers all the time, when in fact nearly all the missing kids
shown on the cartons were either runaways or were taken by a parent involved
in a custody dispute (bad, sure, but not the same thing as a stranger
kidnapping them). The national hysteria that resulted from this led to our
current era of helicopter-parented kids. I was a kid just before all this
happened, so I consider myself a member of the last generation of free range
kids in the U.S.

For more information see [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2402/how-
many-kids-...](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2402/how-many-kids-
are-found-as-a-result-of-missing-child-posters)

------
chollida1
> This assumption is reinforced at school, where children take turns cleaning
> and serving lunch instead of relying on staff to perform such duties. This
> “distributes labor across various shoulders and rotates expectations, while
> also teaching everyone what it takes to clean a toilet, for instance,” Dixon
> says.

> Taking responsibility for shared spaces means that children have pride of
> ownership and understand in a concrete way the consequences of making a
> mess, since they’ll have to clean it up themselves. This ethic extends to
> public space more broadly (one reason Japanese streets are generally so
> clean). A child out in public knows he can rely on the group to help in an
> emergency.

This sounds alot like a Montessori school philosophy. I've got two kids in one
and that's one of the biggest things we love about the school.

The freedoms that the kids are allowed and the lack of constant hand holding
is something that we really appreciate.

~~~
Zelphyr
Also a Montessori parent and I couldn't agree more.

Our kids were in a private Montessori school from Pre-K to 1st. Due to some
issues with the owner (that unfortunately forced her to shut the school down)
we had to put my daughter in public school for the remainder of 1st grade. She
hated it. She kept asking us, "Why do I have to sit at that desk all day?"

Contrast that to their new school where on the first Back To School Night, one
kid was literally jumping up and down excited to start school the next day.

------
alexleavitt
> "Japan has a very low crime rate, which is surely a key reason parents feel
> confident about sending their kids out alone. But small-scaled urban spaces
> and a culture of walking and transit use also foster safety and, perhaps
> just as important, the perception of safety."

Honestly, this perception – that they try to place secondary – is KEY. Living
in Japan, it's a stark contrast to walking around the States in any major
city. Japan feels – and is – significantly safer.

~~~
nostromo
New York has a walking and transit culture similar to Tokyo. Yet most New
Yorkers would not feel comfortable sending a six year old out alone. I don't
think walking and transit use is alone responsible for the difference.

~~~
ajkjk
I don't think anyone perceives New York as safe enough for sending children
out alone.

~~~
Cadsby
Native New Yorker here. Growing up in the 80's and 90's (when crime was at
it's peak), it was common among everyone I grew up with to ride the subway/bus
alone and generally explore the neighborhood alone/with friends. I remember my
mother being slightly apprehensive when I started commuting to school alone in
4th grade, but it wasn't a major issue.

As many have pointed out, the culture has simply changed. Crime is way down,
but ironically people are more afraid to let their children travel
unsupervised than when I was a kid.

As a side note, I did get lost on the train once (while in the care of a
relative. She got off the train and forgot to take me with her.) I was asleep
and woke up at a stop I didn't recognize. While I remember being a little
apprehensive, I simply walked over to the woman in the token booth, explained
I was lost and had gotten separated from my aunt. She let me inside the booth
and called my mom, who came and picked me up. All in all, it wasn't a huge
affair. I think if that happened today police and CPS will probably turn it
into a major incident of possible child neglect.

~~~
po
Part of the problem is that there is no longer a woman in the token booth.

------
mgbelisle
I spent four years growing up in Japan (my parents were ESL teachers) and I
attended Japanese public schools for 2nd/3rd grade and sophomore year of
college. What the article says is very true; I feel like strangers can be
trusted in Japan but not here in NYC. There is strong pressure in Japan to do
what's good for others: be clean, be quiet, be honest, be economical. There is
also strong pressure to follow the social norm and to not take risks, which
affects startup culture in Japan like
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8573992](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8573992)
describes well. Both these traits have one thing in common: they point to
Japan's exceptionally homogenous culture. I really wish we could have the
ubiquitous "care for others" mentality alongside the "be yourself" mentality,
but so far I've not seen anywhere that is very much the case. If anyone has
seen it I'm really interested to know.

~~~
rybosome
> I really wish we could have the ubiquitous "care for others" mentality
> alongside the "be yourself" mentality

Agreed. I'm not even sure if it's possible for those to coexist, but it's
wonderful to imagine - discover yourself and your place in the world while
respecting others and recognizing that your actions can negatively affect
them. The US has too little of the "care for others" mentality, as evidenced
by the large number of individuals who do not believe in climate change and
see environmentalism in general as useless government meddling.

~~~
digi_owl
They can, but it's a balancing act. One that is constantly under threat by
advertisement and similar that push the self above all else.

I sometimes wonder if one need to experience real hardship for the idea to set
in. To really experience the need for cooperation to get something done.

------
lexcorvus
It's impolitic to notice it, but America used to be a lot like this as well.
See, e.g., _Bowling Alone_ by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam
([http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-
Commun...](http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-
Community/dp/0743203046)). One of Putnam's main conclusions: a principal
factor undermining social cohesion (corresponding to a decline in "social
capital") is _diversity_. We're constantly bombarded with messages that
"diversity is our strength," etc., but you'll note that Japan isn't exactly
_diverse_ by our standards. Neither does it face much pressure to allow
massive immigration to change that.

You may still believe in the benefits of diversity, but there are also costs.
One of them is that little kids can't ride American subways alone.

------
carlesfe
I'm from Spain and I've traveled Europe a bit. Kids here go to school alone
since they are 6-8 years old, they take the bus/metro, they do errands alone.
That's the norm. It also happens in North Africa and Middle East. And, as the
article says, it's the norm in Japan too.

Actually, the headline should read "why are USA little kids the only ones so
dependent?"

I could go ahead and be a demagogue and say it's because all the helicopter
parenting and the fear mass media... but I think it has more to do with the
fact that we can go walking anywhere.

Europeans in general, and Spaniards in particular, live on the streets. We
hardly use cars: most things are at walking distance, and public
transportation is fine. Real crime, like abductions and violence, is very
rare, and people help each other.

Local policemen (non-militarized) are everywhere and they help any lost kids.
I have been lost maybe a couple times, in a supermarket and in a foreign city
and, while I lament the stress that caused on my parents, they knew that I
would turn up at some point. And I did. I was a little kid and I was just...
lost. That happens and it's not a huge deal.

I'll turn the argument 180 degrees: the USA is a very, very young country. You
know what they say, in Europe, 1000 km is a long distance, and in the US, 1000
years is a long time. We've been living in small cities literally since the
dawn of time. We've walked. Many cities have streets where cars don't even
fit.

It is mainly a car and culture problem. However, it'd be an improvement if you
americans could convince your mass media not to constantly spread fear. We
also have those fake-fear-documentaries but most people disregard them for
what they are: yellowish press crap.

------
zach
They have "My First Errand", we have Dateline NBC and America's Most Wanted.
What else should we expect?

I think Americans have an almost pathological reflex to gaze at sentimental
stories that are sensational because they are exceptional, then use them as
guidelines for how the world is now.

The sentimentality aspect, which drives interest, outrage and action, is what
makes it so pernicious. Sentimental appeal is what drives our politics, media
and fundraising. If there's no emotional aspect, our media is quick to invent
one by creating angles like arguments between talking heads.

I know many on HN understand that there are fewer than 200 stranger abductions
of children per year in the US. Maybe you even know that runaways have
decreased by over 70% in the last ten years.

How would the US public ever know this?

In the emotional marketplace, that simple fact can't compete with these facts
which, when conflated in the media, produce utter paranoia:

[http://www.missingkids.com/KeyFacts](http://www.missingkids.com/KeyFacts)

I have nothing against the work this organization does; they are as captive to
the existing narrative as police or parents or anyone else.

I think the progress in this area is that through electronic media, we can
actually measure pretty easily how informed the public is by the media they
consume. Hopefully we can get closer to news that demonstrably informs people.

~~~
anigbrowl
_Americans have an almost pathological reflex to gaze at sentimental stories
that are sensational because they are exceptional_

I don't think those stories are sentimental - sentimental to me means stories
like 'adopted siblings reunited after 40 years or something.' The crime-
centric TV shows you mention tap into a kind of latent sadism which allows
people to vicariously enjoy the violence of gruesome crimes and then project
their bad feelings about themselves on the perpetrator, revving up the sadism
again in anticipation of an impending execution or a lifetime rotting away
behind bars. They are a form of ritually desexualized pornography.

------
Tharkun
The real question is: why are kids in the US lacking in independence? Most of
what this article says about kids in Japan applies to a lot of countries in
the EU as well. Why is the US somehow different?

~~~
shalmanese
The US has an outsized culture of fear that's far in disproportion to other
countries. The reasons are complex but I'd posit one major factor is that the
US has, by far, the most commercial and competitive media market of any
country. This leads to the normalization of sensationalism in the chase for
ratings and a systematic distortion of reality.

Watch the movie Nightcrawler for an example of the type of culture that
pervades newsrooms around the country and understand the effect that has on
people's decisions regarding safety.

------
kuschku
Interestingly, the same also tends to happen in Germany frequently.

Helicopter parents tend to be more of a US-American invention.

The question is how helicopter parents will change the way the next
generations behave in society, as children have to take responsibility and
become independent at some point.

------
ansible
And this is in stark contrast to my neighborhood in the USA, where parents
will wait with their children for the schoolbus pickup... not even a block
from their own house.

Now granted, we occasionally have reckless drivers speeding down the street.
There isn't as much respect for pedestrians in the USA, so I guess that's a
factor.

~~~
nostrademons
A lot of this is because of assumptions made by other people & law
enforcement. A couple friends of mine had DSS called on them for letting their
two daughters, ages 10 & 5, walk to a park a block away, with a cell phone,
within shouting distance, while their mother was at home. The charges were
eventually dropped, but it's not really a hassle that any parent wants to go
through.

The assumption in many parts of the U.S. is that if kids don't have a parent
standing next to them, they aren't safe. In many cases, they're not safe
_because_ that's the assumption.

~~~
geon
I agree that there seems to be a state of constant paranoia, but could you
elaborate on this:

> In many cases, they're not safe _because_ that's the assumption.

~~~
zyxley
Many people are now overprotective of their children not because of fear of
crime but because of fear that the state will take those children away if
they're not kept in bubble-wrap and on leashes 24/7.

------
Mz
_Japan has a very low crime rate, which is surely a key reason parents feel
confident about sending their kids out alone._

They mention a lot of good things. What they don't mention is that Japan has a
relatively high average age. It is a country full of old people.

In Africa, when too many adult elephants get killed, you see unsupervised
adolescent elephants get injuries that essentially never happen if there are
enough adults around. Countries with an average young age for the population
tend to have more problems, generally speaking, especially with a violent
angle, whether violent crimes or civil war or terrorist groups or what have
you.

This is not the sort of thing where you directly observe "Specific old person
does X, young people respectfully go along and we can see how it happens." It
is more subtle than that. But the effect nonetheless exists.

I think it is a good article, but I think that detail is one they overlooked.

~~~
Torgo
It was extremely safe 20, 30 years ago too. I don't believe this is a factor.

~~~
Mz
I am 50 years old. When I was a child in the U.S., I also went where I wanted
without a parent and so did other kids.

The world was different 20-30 years ago. I don't know that how safe it was
20-30 years ago has any bearing on the current conditions in Japan as compared
to the rest of the world currently.

~~~
Torgo
Japan wasn't always filled with old people (even this is overstated as a
percentage of the population,) and it was still extremely safe. I witnessed
this firsthand.

Japan has a culture that expects and reinforces cooperation and responsibility
and respect, and it's ethnically homogeneous enough that this is manifested
even between strangers. It also doesn't have the kind of downright devastating
poverty that I've seen in the USA even in well-off cities. There are a lot of
reasons that Japan can do things we can't do, but I don't believe the
percentage of old people has much if anything to do with it.

~~~
Mz
This is where we agree to disagree. "Old people" is just one factor in my
opinion. It doesn't throw any of the others out. (For that matter, "high
average age" doesn't mean "a country of old people." It can also mean "A
country with fewer children." Edit: I guess I am the person who used that
phrase to start with, but I feel like you are twisting my meaning, I guess.)

Have a good day.

~~~
Torgo
I interpreted it in the context of repeated "demographic crisis" claims about
Japan getting older. I still read it that way, but if that wasn't your intent,
I apologize.

~~~
Mz
I used to have several friends in Pakistan, a country with a relatively low
average age. IIRC, Pakistan is the "youngest" country on the planet,
demographically speaking, and has a lot of problems that grow out of that. So
I have read up a bit on how average age interacts with things like crime
rates, tendency to be involved in violent organizations, etc.

More adults/higher average age/demographic shift in one direction or the other
has a known impact on group tendency towards either civility or violence. The
most violent groups on the planet are predominantly made up of young men under
a certain age. Governments take advantage of that reality for filling the
ranks of their military branches.

Anyway, maybe I am just saying it badly.

Have a good day.

~~~
selimthegrim
Why the "used to"? Did they all leave?

~~~
Mz
Friends come and go. We fell out of touch.

------
Paul_S
Why single out Japan? Come and visit most of Europe and observe the same.

~~~
dba7dba
I seriously think it's the car culture of US. You move around outside of your
immediate neighborhood enclosed in your car, cut off from others except for
occasional eye contact or hand motion at stop signs.

And that somehow seems to have translated into a mentality of cannot trust
anyone other than immediate family/friends.

------
hansjorg
This sounds normal where I'm from (Norway). The cities are slightly smaller
here though.

~~~
riquito
"Sligthly smaller"? The article mention Tokyo, that has more than twice the
population of the whole Norway :-)

~~~
hansjorg
On the other hand, people here are a bit larger on average. Evens out I guess.

------
ausjke
I saw the same elsewhere except for US.

Not only we drive kids all around in the car to get things done, we also need
tell them "not talk to strangers" etc if they happened to be walk home from
nearby school.

And the school always need more parents to be lunch helpers or recess
watchers, of course PTAs etc, all the way so kids entering college are still
treated like a baby to some extent. no wonder many of them live with their
parents at adult age after they graduate, we just blame the economy for that
though.

In addition, soon we may need armed guards on k-12 campus to keep them safe?
for some colleges they will need learn how to carry a gun to stay safe.

------
macspoofing
>Kaito’s stepmother says she wouldn’t let a 9-year-old ride the subway alone
in London or New York—just in Tokyo.

If you do it in New York, you'll probably get a visit from Child Protective
Services.

~~~
Symbiote
In London it would be moderately unusual - children have to pay for the metro,
but buses are free, so they often use buses.

Wealthy children are more likely not to go to their local school, so they
might need the metro.

------
interpol_p
> A popular television show called Hajimete no Otsukai, or My First Errand,
> features children as young as two or three being sent out to do a task for
> their family.

I want to try this with my 3 year old. Find a very large park which has a
canteen or shop at one end and send him off to buy something. I'd still like
him to be visible, but it seems like it would be really fun and empowering.

~~~
eru
Keep us posted on your endeavour!

------
lazyant
It seems driving kids in cars (to school etc) is unsafer (due to more obesity
and car accidents) than letting them walk after a certain age. I think in
Canada there have been no cases [citation needed, maybe a handful] of children
abducted by strangers, they are always family members.

------
grecy
> _Ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help
> others._

After 9 years living in North America, that one line explains the difference
between here and my home country better that I've ever been able to.

On a daily basis, it just feels like Americans are not in a unified society
working together to help each other and have a common good - it's a much more
individualistic society where everyone is looking out for number one. If
someone else has shitty healthcare and is on hard times, too bad for them.

The Police in my home country are friendly and helpful, and I fondly remember
asking them for help as a child and young teen. Upon arriving in NYC, I asked
a policeman for directions and he barked at me for not calling him "Sir". Wow.

------
dba7dba
Same thing in Seoul, South Korea also. Little kids walk/subway to school or go
to friends' place without parents or older siblings. No such thing as play
date being arranged by parents as done in US. Kids do it themselves.

All within artillery range of North Korea too.

------
russnewcomer
Reading this article, I can forsee comments about how American kids are being
messed up since they can't go and do things freely, pointing to this story
about Japan as an example.

While I myself would wish to live in a community where this kind of behavior
is OK or encouraged (I'd like for my son to be able to walk to the grocery
store a quarter mile away at age 6 or 7 without fear of societal
repercussions), I also reject some of the narrative that this article seems to
be putting forth (and I predict the comments here will also put forth) that if
we let our kids be independent, they'll turn out better. They might, they
might not. They'll definitely have a different set of problems, just like
every generation before them.

~~~
jandrese
There were articles from just a couple of months ago about parents being
charged with child endangerment for allowing their 10 year old to walk home
from the bus stop in a safe neighborhood.

[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents-
investigated-letting-children-walk-alone/25700823/)

------
mcantelon
Because Japan is a cohesive, rather than atomized, society.

------
Nadya
Honestly - a large amount of crimes in Japan go unreported. Many murders are
written off as suicides (which contributes to the high suicide and low murder
rates reported by the government...). I don't really trust crime statistics
coming from a country that's heavily influenced by Yaks.

This has to do entirely with _public perception_ (as user alexleavitt also
mentioned).

In Japan, I feel safe to leave my bag on a bench while I go use a public
restroom. I expect my bag to be there when I return. It's probably not any
safer, in reality, than it is where I am in the States - but I would never
leave my bag on a table unattended where I live. I would expect it to be
stolen.

In reality, it would probably be there when I get back. No different than in
Japan.

When I walk around Los Angeles at night, I walk defensively and make sure I
keep alert at all times and I'm always paying attention to my surroundings.
When I was walking around Tokyo at night - it felt no different than the day.
Except it was dark outside. I'm certain that had I had better knowledge of the
"dangerous" streets of Tokyo, my perception would be different.

If I feel safe, I'm likely to feel my child is safe. In the US, a child
walking on the streets in most suburbs is likely just as safe as in Japan...
but public perception means you'll get child protection services called on you
if you think about letting your 9 year old walk down the block to the store to
buy a soda.

~~~
bcoates
You were doing so well until you brought up the CPS boogeyman, which is as
much a part of the baseless fear culture you're deriding as anything else.

Getting in trouble with CPS over letting your kid be independent is as
unlikely as any of the other horror stories the media (and your friend's
cousin's hairdresser) pushes about childhood. CPS employees are stretched thin
on full-blown abandonment and horrifying abuse cases, and don't care if some
kid walks down the street alone.

~~~
Nadya
The CPS boogeyman was hyperbole, yes. Few freerange parents get charged with
anything, but a few do still have to deal with investigations or charges by
local police. Is it isolated? Yes. But it happens. Even if police don't get
involved, you get flak/judgement from neighbors and nosy busy bodies butting
into your business and trying to parent your kid(s). That happens a _lot_ more
and is something most any free range parent in a suburb knows the feeling of.

The fear is there and my father had plenty of issues with busy body neighbors
and the police being called because of an "unattended child" (me). The shit
happens and my own mother is one of the judgmental busy bodies herself;
looking down on her neighbor for letting their 11 year old child to play jump
rope with her friend in the front yard of their house. Has my mother called
CPS on the neighbor? No. But she treats them like shit and refuses to let my
sisters' visit their house in fear they'll do something "unattended".

Yes - those two examples were very personal anecdotes. But it's not like I'm
the only person to ever deal with this stuff. A great thing about the internet
is you get to meet countless other people who have the same issues you have:

[http://www.freerangekids.com/why-do-i-keep-scaring-people-
wi...](http://www.freerangekids.com/why-do-i-keep-scaring-people-with-stories-
of-good-parents-hounded-by-the-authorities/)

If the US didn't have a culture of fear and nosy busy-bodies butting into
other peoples' business at every turn, this wouldn't even be a discussion and
"free range parenting" wouldn't even be a term. It would be called
"parenting". Like how it is in the UK, Japan, and many other countries.

