The children were playing alone in the park. And so someone called the police.

It’s a parenting ‘trend’ that gets everyone talking. But there’s a reason we don’t need it in Australia.

So, here we are: Two kids, aged six and 10, play alone in a park.

A passer-by sees them. Observes them. Wonders where their attending adult is. And calls the cops.

Is that a stupid, or eminently sensible thing to do?

It’s a debate that’s raging in the US today after a family from Maryland, Danielle and Alexander Meitiv found themselves under investigation after allowing their children to do just this.

Read about it here: Parents investigated for neglect after letting children walk home alone.

This is not the first time that the cops have been called to the Meitivs. The couple are self-proclaimed “free-range” parents – who embrace an anti-helicopter movement where they allow their children play outdoors and walk home without adult supervision.

It was 5pm when the kids were seen playing alone and picked up by police car.

They were held in custody until the parents were finally informed at 8pm.

When the children were returned, the parents were forced to sign a “safety plan”.

Every time these kind of parents make headlines, the same questions are asked:

– Are we over protective of our kids?

– How can we ensure our children are safe? How can we ensure our children don’t come to harm?

Well the fact is, we can’t.

What we know is that a child faces a 1-in-1.4 million-years chance of being abducted and murdered by a stranger.

We know that our children face a greater risk online, or from people they know. And yet we hold a fear that some the horrors of the world we read about and see on the news will intrude into our lives.

It is a fear difficult to shake.

As a parent I like to think I allow my children a certain degree of “free range”.

Opinion: “Free-range parenting is helping our kids not hindering them.”

My seven-and-a half-year-old rides his bike to neighbours’ homes. Our street holds a preference for knocking and asking if Adam can come out to play, rather than pre-arranging play dates.

But as much as we try, we can’t escape over-parenting in today’s society.

We are governed by risk management and fears of liability. Our children are born into a world with infrared baby monitors and padded playgrounds. We sign waivers at preschools if they want to climb trees.

They attend schools where they are banned from running or kicking balls.

Our society is geared towards insulating our children to risks. There is no escaping it.

There’s a fear that in hovering, in constantly being there to make their decisions, to hold their hands, to stop the mistakes before they are made. that we will breed a generation of narcissists, of adults unable to think for themselves.

And the way that many are trying to combat that impending doom for a generation is to make an abrupt about-turn – and parent less.

This is the so-called “free-range parenting” movement, that Danielle and Alexander Meitiv subscribe to.

But do we need to full embrace this movement in the suburbs of Australia?

I don’t think so.

More from Shauna: “I lost my six-year old over the weekend. But I wasn’t worried.”

I am all for giving our children more independence, for fostering their sense of adventure, for encouraging them to learn through their mistakes, allowing them to learn risk and autonomy.

I for one aspire to embrace many of these philosophies, what I don’t embrace is the label as I believe many Australian parents are, to a degree already “free-range”.

But the label we prefer is ‘sensible’.

For the most part the parents that I know DO give their children freedom.

Many 10-year olds I know walk the, very safe, streets to school. Many nine and 10-year olds in my suburb are allowed to play in the park and attend parties without mum or dad hovering.

Many children in my neighbourhood walk to the shops clutching a two-dollar coin tightly in their sweaty fists mentally calculating the greatest number of mixed lollies they can buy all on their own.

These boys and girls are flourishing in their freedom, they grow a little every time they are given the responsibility, their shoulders broaden as their eyes creep every so often to the clock to ensure they are home at the exact time mum says. Otherwise she’ll worry.

This happens to many boys and girls I know right here in a suburb within five kilometres from Sydney.

What these many boys and girls don’t realise is that while they are unsupervised by their mothers or fathers they are watched. Dozens of eyes of other neighbours silently clock their steps and guard over them, ensuring their safety.

There is no doubt that their mothers are silently watching the clock at home, clutching their phone, and staring out the window. There is no doubt their parents have managed the risk as best they could – a quiet time of day, a safe route to school, a phone to call to the neighbour to make sure they arrived safe.

And there is no doubt that, as our own did, every time they venture out alone these parents don’t relax until their children are safe at home.

But Aussie parents don’t need to be labelled free range because to a degree we already are. Let’s try and stay that way.

Do you think you are a “free-range” parent?