When you're a parent, everyone wants to gve you advise.
Everyone thinks they know what's best for your child.
Well, the state of Utah recently passed a law
telling those people to [bleep] off.
Woman: One state is standing by the concept of free-range parenting.
The governor of Utah signing a bill into law Friday
that gives parents the freedom
to allow their children to do more activities independently
without being penalized for child neglect --
like walking to school, playing outside,
and staying home alone.
Utah needed a law to stop people from calling Child Services
when your kid plays outside.
That's insane!
When I was young, I used to leave the house for hours.
I'd ride my bike around with my mates.
My parents didn't know where I was.
They never even asked!
They didn't even notice if I came home
or even -- even told me that they loved me.
And -- And I -- I turned out just fine!
[ Laughter ]
Yeah.
I'm just fine.
[ Laughter ]
The law is in reaction to the so-called helicopter parents
who hover over their kids' every move.
And that's very much an American thing.
In other countries, parents do things
that would make Americans lose their [bleep] minds.
In Scandinavian countries, babies just hang out
in strollers unattended while Mum and Dad run errands.
In Japan, kids ride the subway alone as young as 4.
And in the U.K., kids run around wild
on something called an adventure playground.
Do what you want. It's a free place.
You just have loads of fun. You can't do anything bad.
They'll say, "No, you can't do it."
You're just free.
Man: How free?
Well, after taking a sledgehammer
to these wood pallets...
Smash!
...we watched the kids pile up the broken boards
and set them on fire.
[ Laughter ]
That's brilliant!
I wish I had one of these in my neighborhood!
I'd let my kid play there with his friends.
Because there's a couple of his friends
I wouldn't mind if they were burn victims.
I know what it means to be an overprotective parent.
I'm guilty of it, too.
We drive ourselves crazy trying to raise perfect kids.
But it's impossible.
Here's my message to all the parents
and soon-to-be parents.
Your kid will be [bleep] up.
There's nothing --
There's nothing you can do to avoid that.
You will screw up badly.
And your kid will resent it.
But that's great.
You want them to resent you enough
just so they move out and get their own place.
But not so much that they totally ruin their lives.
So how do you strike a balance?
Well, it's up to each parent.
There's no right way to raise a child.
But there are plenty of wrong ways.
Woman: The four Martin children --
ages 11, 8, 5, 2 --
simply don't go to school, never have.
They aren't homeschooled, either.
Instead, they're what's called "unschooled."
Dayna says her children have learned reading and math
without formal instruction.
But when we asked 11-year-old Devin
a basic multiplication question, he stumbled.
Of course he stumbled!
He doesn't go to school!
No little kid is choosing to do math!
"Hey, Devin, do you want to do this long division
or play PlayStation for six hours?"
"Ohh. That's a tough call, Dad.
Uh, I'm gonna go with the PlayStation.
Also, what's a six?"
[ Laughter ]
You know what would make a good parenting trend?
Not being an insane person.
You don't have to monitor your child's every waking moment.
You also don't have to let them wander the streets
like a [bleep] hobo.
There's a middle ground in there somewhere.
So, to help, I've created my own adventure playground
where kids can run around and play
whilst learning valuable life lessons they can use as adults.
It's dangerous, just in a more subtle way.
For example...
here's the slide that lowers you down
into a fire pit called Credit Card Debt.
You can't avoid it.
You just slide right into it before you realize.
[ Applause ]
Here's a weight-fluctuation merry-go-round.
It's cyclical, like life. And fatness.
These are the monkey bars that just stop and go nowhere,
so you can prepare yourself for a dead-end job
as a Comedy Central executive.
[ Laughter and applause ]
And we can't forget the trampoline
that suddenly stops supporting you,
like your parents will when they die.
And now here's the swings, and what they do '
is they swing back and forth because they're swing
and swings are fun.
And not everything has to be nasty.
Let your kids be kids.