Lawmakers in a state are weighing a proposed statute designed to shield families that allow their children a reasonable degree of autonomy.
Whenever Ms. Gordon gives her sons a chance to be outside, she finds herself tidying indoors. “Okay, my kid just wandered around the block to a friend’s place, so I’d better sweep,” she explains. “Because I suspect that a clean house is the first sign CPS will approve of. It sounds odd, but it’s a line of thinking I can’t quite shake.”
Yet it isn’t entirely irrational. Gordon (who asked that her full name not be used) has had the police summoned four times for permitting her boys, ages 5, 7, and 9, to walk and play outdoors in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb near Philadelphia. Reason reviewed several private messages Gordon exchanged with friends that corroborate her account.
The first incident occurred about eighteen months ago.
“I was tending the garden,” Gordon recalls. “The kids were around the corner, but never more than a short distance away.”
She had given the boys her phone to play Pokemon Go, the game that locates virtual creatures nearby. “A woman asked them, ‘Are you lost?'” Gordon says. “And they ignored her because they were busy. She must have called the police.”
The boys were nearly home when the police arrived. “My son [then 6] insisted on explaining the Pokemon thing to the officer, who I think cut the visit short because of that.”
The second incident again involved Pokemon.
Gordon was at the little gym across the street with two of her children. One participated in a soccer program, so the younger boy, 5, asked to step onto the sidewalk to catch a few more Pokemon. Gordon allowed a brief outing.
“He did well,” Gordon says, and soon returned. A woman who spoke with Gordon about an unattended child also appeared. Either before or after, the woman apparently called the police. A officer arrived shortly after.
Gordon told the officer she did not believe her son was in danger. The officer agreed. When he left, Gordon followed him outside and saw him speaking to the woman and another man in the parking lot, saying, “‘No, there’s nothing more I can do. There are no signs of abuse or neglect.'” Gordon recalls thinking, “They wanted me arrested or something.”
It’s worth noting that while it’s increasingly uncommon to see five-year-olds outside alone, psychologists say children that age can be developmentally ready to walk to school.
In the third incident, Gordon walked the neighborhood with her 5- and 7-year-olds. The older boy wanted to go home, the younger one wanted to keep walking. So she let the 7-year-old walk back by himself, which meant crossing a couple of quiet streets he was allowed to cross.
When he reached the corner, a group of pickleball players asked if he was lost. He replied no. They asked where he lived. “He pointed to our house because you could see it from the corner,” Gordon says.
He then continued there, and not long after, the police arrived again. This time Gordon’s husband spoke to them. “I don’t know the exact exchange, because I wasn’t there,” she says. “But essentially it went, ‘Yes, he’s seven. He’s allowed to walk a block and around the corner by himself. He can even go to the playground on his own. It’s right there.’ And the officer replied, ‘Yeah, there’s nothing here to worry about.’ Case closed.”
Then came Incident No. 4. Gordon and her 5- and 7-year-olds were walking a few blocks to drop off books at a little free library. On the return trip, along a busy commercial street, a plastic elephant in front of a car dealership drew the 7-year-old’s attention, and he liked to “ride” it. Gordon discourages this activity.
During that walk, she and her younger son had moved part of the way down the block while the older boy lingered by the elephant. Her younger son needed a bathroom break. Gordon pressed on, hoping the oldest would learn from the natural consequences of his delay. He called to his mother to wait; she told him to catch up. Still, she wasn’t worried, because this walk had become routine and he was almost always within sight—he was just a block behind her on every turn.
Mother and younger son made it home, and the elephant-rider arrived a few minutes later. Yet a few minutes afterward, a police officer appeared, saying, “‘I received a report about a child who looked lost near the BMW dealership.'”
“So it occurs to me that the person who phoned the police must have followed us home,” Gordon notes.
First, we should commend the officers who kept these encounters to a simple check-in and left it at that. But we also need to consider what it means when any citizen with a phone can unleash state power with a single call.
The issue, Gordon argues, is that once a family has more than one child, it’s impossible to helicopter-parent every step. For example: what if several children want to stay at the playground while one child needs to hurry home? (This was precisely the predicament Kansas mother Shaley Knickerbocker faced—and it led to police involvement.)
Reflecting on her own Brooklyn childhood, Gordon says, “My fondest memories are of times when adults weren’t supervising every move.” Trips to the library or to shops—perhaps even building a makeshift clubhouse in an elderly neighbor’s shrubbery—stand out in her memory.
Now Pennsylvania’s Legislature has set its sights on a Reasonable Childhood Independence bill intended to shield families like Gordon’s from unnecessary interference.
At present, Pennsylvania’s neglect statute is broad, requiring parents to provide “proper” care. “But the term ‘proper’ is vague and invites bias and subjective judgments,” notes Kathleen Creamer, managing attorney of the Family Advocacy Unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
House Bill 1873 would revise the neglect definition to exclude age-appropriate independent activities, such as walking to school, playing outside, or caring for oneself for a reasonable period. The measure cleared committee late in 2025 and awaits further action from state lawmakers.
Gordon and her husband chose their home because it sits opposite a playground. She desires a healthy, joyful childhood for their children—free to run errands, ride bikes, and play—without the fear of government intervention.
After all, she adds, “What’s the point of living across from a playground if my kids can’t go there?”
