A parent scared of letting their child(ren) out of their sight to travel to/from a neighborhood park, friend's house, community pool or walk to school for fear of being reported to Child Protective Services (CPS), or their child(ren) being picked up (abducted) by the police and delivered to CPS. These parents would normally be fine with letting their children be unsupervised for such excursions, but have been closely monitoring the news of the couple in Maryland who have had ideological clashes with CPS and by extension, the police. This case has sparked a national debate as to whether these parents actually neglected their children in any way, and further, how helicopter parenting has raised a generation of helpless children to adulthood (millennials) who now expect the government and society to protect and coddle them, and who are in turn projecting these values onto modern GenX parents.
Dan and Mary are such free range chickens; they won't let their kids walk to the park anymore. They used to be free-rangers.
by Bloggernaut April 15, 2015