A Pennsylvania Mom Says the Cops Were Called on Her 4 Times—for Letting Her Kids Be Outside

Whenever Ms. Gordon lets her sons go outside now, she cleans house. “All right, my kid just went around the block to his friend, let me sweep,” she says. “Because I know if the house is clean, that’s the first step toward making a good impression on Child Protective Services. It’s a bizarre thought process, but—”

But not completely irrational. Gordon (who asked not to use her first name) has had the cops called on her four times for letting her sons, 5, 7, and 9, walk and play outside in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb of Philadelphia. Reason reviewed several private messages Gordon exchanged with friends corroborating her version of events.

The first time was about 18 months ago.

“I was puttering around in the garden,” says Gordon. “The kids were around the corner, but they were never more than a few hundred feet away.”

She’d given the boys her phone to play Pokemon Go, the game where you find Pokemon nearby using virtual reality. “They said a woman called to them and said, ‘Are you lost?'” Gordon says. “And they ignored her because they were very busy. And she must’ve called the police.”

The boys were already almost home when the police pulled up. “My son [6 at the time] insisted on describing the whole Pokemon thing to this poor cop who I think decided to cut the visit short because of that.”

Incident No. 2 involved Pokemon again.

Gordon was in the little gym across the street from her home with two of her kids. One was in a soccer program, so the youngest, 5, asked to go out to the sidewalk to catch some more Pokemon. Gordon said he could for a few minutes.

“He performed perfectly,” says Gordon, and soon came back in. So did a woman who spoke to Gordon about seeing the child unattended. Either before or after this, the woman apparently called the cops. A cop arrived soon after.

Gordon told the cop she didn’t think her son had been in any danger. The cop agreed. When he left, Gordon followed him outside and saw him telling the woman and another man in the parking lot, “‘No, there’s nothing further I can do. There’s no signs of abuse or neglect.'” Concluded Gordon, “They wanted me arrested or something.”

Note that while it’s becoming unusual to see kids as young as 5 outside on their own, psychologists say that, developmentally, kids are ready to walk to school by that age.

In Incident No. 3, Gordon was walking around the neighborhood with her 5- and 7-year-old. The older boy wanted to go home, the younger one wanted to keep walking. So she told the 7-year-old he could walk back by himself. That meant he had to cross a couple of streets quiet streets he was already allowed to cross.

When he got to his corner, some pickleball players asked if he was lost. He said no. They asked him where he lived. “He pointed to our house because you could see it from the corner,” says Gordon.

He proceeded there.  And at some point afterward, so did the police. This time Gordon’s husband spoke to them. “I don’t know the exact conversation, because I wasn’t there,” she says. “But basically it was like, ‘Yes, he’s 7. He’s allowed to walk up the block and around the corner by himself. He’s even allowed to go the playground by himself. I mean—it’s right there.’ And the cop was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t see anything here to worry about.'” Case closed.

Then somehow came Incident No. 4. Gordon and her 5- and 7-year-old were walking a few blocks to go put books in a little free library. On the way home, along the local commercial avenue, there’s a plastic elephant in front of a car dealership that the 7-year-old likes to “ride.” His mom discourages this.

On this trip, she and her younger son were partway down the block while her 7-year-old had stayed behind at the elephant. Her younger son had to go to the bathroom. So Gordon continued down the block, hoping this would help the older boy learn the natural consequences of his dawdling. He yelled at his mom to wait; she yelled back for him to catch up. But she wasn’t worried, because even if he didn’t, he’s taken this walk hundreds of times before. And each time she turned around, there he was—a block behind her.

Mom and younger son got home, as did the elephant-rider a few minutes later. But a few minutes after that, a cop arrived, too, saying, “‘I heard a report about a kid who looked lost by the BMW dealership.'”

“So it occurs to me that the person [who called the cops] must’ve followed us home,” says Gordon.

First of all: Let’s hear it for the cops who refused to escalate these calls into anything more than a check-in and goodbye. But then let’s think about what it means when anyone with a phone can set the power of the state in motion.

The problem, Gordon points out, is that when you have more than one kid, you simply cannot helicopter parent. For instance: What if you have a few that want to stay at the playground and one who needs to run home? (Exactly the situation Kansas mom Shaley Knickerbocker found herself in—and had the cops called on her.)

When she thinks back to her own childhood in Brooklyn, says Gordon, “The best memories I have are being away from adults.” Going to the library or store—even building a little clubhouse in an old widow’s bushes.

Now the Pennsylvania Legislature is considering a Reasonable Childhood Independence bill that would establish commonsense protections for families like Gordon’s.

Currently, Pennsylvania’s child neglect law is broad. It says parents must provide “proper” care. “But the word ‘proper’ is vague and it invites bias and subjectivity,'” says Kathleen Creamer, managing attorney of the Family Advocacy Unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

House Bill 1873 would amend the definition of neglect to exclude age-old independent activities, like walking to school, playing outside, or being home alone for a reasonable amount of time. The bill advanced out of committee in late 2025 and awaits further action from state lawmakers.

Gordon and her husband bought their house because it is across the street from a playground. She wants her kids to have a healthy, happy childhood—running errands, riding their bikes, and playing, without the threat of government intervention.

After all, she says: “What’s the point of living across from a playground if my kids can’t go there?”