When it comes to parenting styles, the pendulum tends to swing back and forth. And these days, more and more parents are trying to reverse the helicopter-parenting trend, instead embracing a more “free-range” style  of parenting?whereby you don’t necessarily keep your eye on them every dang second, and you allow them certain age-appropriate freedoms, such as walking home from school alone. (The term, by the way, was actually coined by writer and advocate Lenore Skenazy about ten years ago, with the publication of her book Free-Range Kids.)
But unfortunately, there have been a handful of highly publicized instances in which kids seen unaccompanied while on their way home from school or frolicking at a playground have prompted other (presumably well-intentioned) parents to call the police?so now some moms and dads are actually scared to loosen their apron strings. After all, who wants the police on your doorstep or a family investigation simply because you deemed your nine-year-old mature and independent enough to walk to the corner store by himself.
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   Confessions of a free-range parent

But there’s good news for parents who live in the state of Utah, since lawmakers there are trying to make it that much ...