History FreeRangeChildren / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/CuriousGeorge'': All the child characters, in both the city and country, are allowed to wander about their communities freely. The oldest of the children, Bill, is a young teen or nearly a teen but the others are all in elementary age, with the youngest, Allie, being a kindergartener. This applies to George as well, who is often referred to as a "little monkey" and is essentially a child; The Man with the Yellow Hat trusts him to travel about both the city and country with no supervision.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'' and his friends and classmates, who are all nine, wander around their town completely unsupervised at all times of the day and night with their parents being either unconcerned or unaware. One episode even shows Clarence sneaks out of the house in the early morning and has all kinds of adventures ''every single day'' with his mom and father figure being none the wiser.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': Beavis and Butt-Head live in a house without parents or guardians. They also hate school and their jobs, but for some reason, they continue going to both. They sometimes mention their mothers, but they are never seen. It's likely their mothers are almost never around, as seen by how their home has electricity, water, and phone service. It's easy to assume their mothers would be the ones to handle the bills, as the boys can't even handle schoolwork and rarely have any money.

---> As they tiptoe down the hall, Bart can't resist looking into the detention room. It's now set up with small cages in which children are given some sort of IV. Martin looks haggard in his cage and he shakes convulsively, bringing an admonishment from Skinner: "Easy there, young man, you'll only make yourself tired and stringy. Now, to check on the '''free-range children'''," he continues, looking out the window at a pasture of children running around.

* The Mystery Twins in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' are given fairly free range of the town whenever they don't have to work in the Mystery Shack. While the other employees of the shack do often hang out with them, Soos is essentially a {{manchild}} and Wendy is only a few years older than the twins herself. Increasingly {{Subverted|Trope}} in Season 2, when their grunkle[[note]]great-uncle[[/note]][[spoiler:s]] begin to spend more time with them. Played straight by [[EnfantTerrible Lil' Gideon]], whose parents simply can't control him, and he does whatever he wants whether they like it or not.

* ''WesternAnimation/HaileysOnIt''; The wide-ranging activities of Hailey and her friends (completing items on Hailey's list among other schemes) usually don't have any noticeable interference by parents or other adult authority figures, except in the rare instances when somebody (like Hailey's mom) saying "No" to something (like attending a K-Pop concert when she had already agreed to babysit her twin brothers that night, or adopting a flamingo as a pet) is necessary to the plot, and in the end they usually end up getting to do the thing anyway without getting in serious trouble for it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': Many scenes in many episodes involve the main 8-year-old third-grader cast biking around the town (which is relatively large) by themselves, and eating out at the local ice cream parlor, with no parents in tow. Looking at these kids, they seemed more like middle schoolers/early high schoolers than elementary schoolers.

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins''. Jason and Michelle do have adult supervision when going on their space adventures, namely the eponymous penguins.

* ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'':
** In both [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 the original]] and [[WesternAnimation/Ben102016 2016 series]], part of 10-year-old cousins Ben and Gwen's free rein comes from their elderly grandfather Max, who is driving them around the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates for their summer camping trip and is not as physically fit as he was in his younger days. The original series has less justification, as that continuity had Max as part of an interstellar police/counter-terrorist organization for most of his adult life, which you'd think would give him the common sense to keep better watch around Ben, who happens to have one of the most powerful pieces of technology in the galaxy but repeatedly disregards caution and attacks alien evildoers with no concern for the consequences. In both versions, [[TheSmartGuy but especially the original]], Gwen's maturity in assessing dangerous situations somewhat justifies the lack of supervision.
** Averted in the second series, ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', where Ben has matured noticeably from his hyperactive young self, but still happens to be a 15-year-old boy dealing in potentially fatal missions on an intergalactic scale. The only reason his parents don't put the leash on him is that they are not even aware of his escapades until the episode "[[Recap/Ben10AlienForceS2E07Grounded Grounded]]", at which point they forbid him from using his Omnitrix and restrict his day-to-day activities for fear of his safety. Which he promptly ignores, because there's absolutely nothing they can do to enforce it when he can transform at will into dozens of super-powered aliens. His parents lift the punishment before the episode is even close to over.

* This is usually [[AvertedTrope averted]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' but one episode, "Caillou Walks Around the Block", involves 4-year-old Caillou getting out of the house on his own and walking around town. It is a BannedEpisode on Creator/{{PBS}} precisely because Caillou is unattended while outdoors.

* On ''WesternAnimation/CreativeGalaxy'', show star Arty often travels into ''outer space'' and other planets accompanied by nobody but his small shape-shifting blob friend Epiphany.

* In ''WesternAnimation/CuriousGeorge'', all the child characters, in both the city and country, are allowed to wander about their communities freely. The oldest of the children, Bill, is a young teen or nearly a teen but the others are all in elementary age, with the youngest, Allie, being a kindergartener. This applies to George as well, who is often referred to as a "little monkey" and is essentially a child; The Man with the Yellow Hat trusts him to travel about both the city and country with no supervision.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'', the high-school-aged kids walk around Lawndale without a driver's license until later on.
* ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'' usually averts this -- the ''Pteranodon'' siblings are always accompanied by at least one of their parents and/or the Conductor on their adventures. It's played straight with Elmer ''Elasmosaurus'', though; his parents are shown, but they let him go on the Dinosaur Train on his own.

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is usually an [[AvertedTrope aversion]], as the action is typically restricted to the cul-de-sac and adjacent areas, [[FridgeBrilliance like in plenty other suburban areas]]. For the BigDamnMovie, however, the characters travel across the country without supervision ([[JustifiedTrope justified]] with the Eds, who are essentially on the lam, not so much for the others), crossing sweltering deserts, festering swamps, and abandoned factories. The Eds are even "[[KidsDrivingCars driving]]" a car at one point (meaning that Ed is running through the bottom of the car, ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstones]]'' style).
* In ''WesternAnimation/EmilyAndTheBabaYaga'', the adults send Emily off alone into the forest, and her father doesn't seem to worry.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' episode, "[[Recap/EwoksS2E8TheLandOfTheGupins The Land of the Gupins]]," Wicket and his friends agree to help the Gupins almost at the drop of a hood. However, there is also an apparent last-minute comment by Teebo, depicted in the distance as an imposed voice-over line, that they intend to speak to their Elders first, and the scene changes to the characters on their way with permission to go apparently granted.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy and the other kids will be seen wandering the town on their own when the plot calls for it. One episode had Timmy biking through the desert and at a fast-food restaurant ''at night'' without his parents. He also tends to spend extended amounts of time in Fairy World without his parents noticing. As in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', 99% of the adults in the show aren't exactly the brightest bulbs on the tree.

* On ''WesternAnimation/GoldieAndBear'', Goldie, Bear, and the others pretty much have the run of Fairytale Forest on their own. Their parents are apparently entirely unconcerned about there being any real danger within it that could trouble unsupervised children.
* The Mystery Twins in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' are given fairly free range of the town whenever they don't have to work in the Mystery Shack. Granted, the other employees of the shack often hang out with them, but Soos is essentially a {{manchild}}, and Wendy is only a few years older than the twins herself. Increasingly [[AvertedTrope averted]] in Season 2, when their grunkle[[note]]great-uncle[[/note]][[spoiler:s]] begin to spend more time with them. Played straight by [[EnfantTerrible Lil' Gideon]], whose parents simply can't control him, and he does whatever he wants whether they like it or not.
* On ''WesternAnimation/HaileysOnIt'', the wide-ranging activities of Hailey and her friends (completing items on Hailey's list among other schemes) usually don't have any noticeable interference by parents or other adult authority figures, except in the rare instances when somebody (like Hailey's mom) saying "No" to something (like attending a K-Pop concert when she had already agreed to babysit her twin brothers that night, or adopting a flamingo as a pet) is necessary to the plot, and in the end they usually end up getting to do the thing anyway without getting in serious trouble for it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': None of the characters are more than 13 years old, yet they do random things like going to outer space, fighting aliens, buying weapons, drinking alcohol, etc. and nobody has any problem with it. Though it's somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] since ThereAreNoAdults in [[CrapsaccharineWorld Smileyland]], and especially in Mr. Cat and Quack Quack's cases since the former is a runaway and the latter is an orphan. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in "[[Recap/KaelooS1E33LetsPlayCircuses Let's Play Circuses]]", where [[TheDitz Stumpy]]'s mother sees him [[JugglingDangerously juggling chainsaws]] on TV and calls him so she can tell him to stop because it's too dangerous.

* Maggie in ''WesternAnimation/MaggieAndTheFerociousBeast'' wanders around Nowhere Land with her Beast, completely unsupervised -- except for maybe Hamilton -- despite being only six. However, she's also pretty responsible for a 6-year-old.

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs this trope]]. While Orel and his friends often run around town without adult supervision, this is shown to be because his and most of the other kids' parents are incredibly neglectful. This usually leads to them causing havoc in town, such as raising the dead and causing a ZombieApocalypse, impregnating women with bags of semen in the middle of the night, or destroying a manger scene in front of the Church, and only stopping them when it's too late, and hardly doing anything to remedy the situation. In "[[Recap/MoralOrelBeforelOrel Beforel Orel]]" it’s shown that Orel's parents have been letting him run around a playground next to an electric tower since he was 4-YEARS-OLD.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', the children are always doing stuff on their own, such as building a treehouse. Creator/CraigBartlett even stated that the kids' adventures are supposed to be similar to his childhood adventures where the kids would just run around without adult supervision. Although, the kids do have adult supervision in space. ''[[Recap/ReadyJetGoOneSmallStep One Small Step]]'' marks the first time that the kids go to space by themselves. However, they got Carrot and Celery's permission to do this.
* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'' [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zags]] this trope.
** The late elementary school cast runs all about Ocean Shores with little concern from their parents. To be fair, Ray tends to be laid back about everything, except when the gang really screws up. He also works in a restaurant near the beach and skate park, where the kids usually are. Twister's parents, just say to him when he gets in trouble, "We'll talk about this later," and little is usually shown after that. Sam's mom is pretty fussy, but he still tags along wherever the gang goes. And presumably, she wants him to be within a certain area where he can contact an adult. They are also shown mountain biking in the evening.
** Additionally, most episodes happen in areas such as the Pier, the beach, their cul-de-sac, school (which is within walking distance), and occasionally some things like another street or the library. On ''most'' of the occasions when they go to different areas of the town (especially areas they are not familiar with), the kids either have to ask permission or sneak out - and get in trouble for it. The "Secret spot" in particular is an area that is not too far from where the gang lives, but they have to get permission from their parents.
* The ''Franchise/{{Rugrats}}'' franchise often has a problem with this;

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** The show does this frequently and {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it with jokes about Homer's neglectfulness as a parent. It is also (coincidentally?) the {{trope namer|s}}, as this phrase is seen in the HalloweenEpisode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV Treehouse of Horror V]]", although it was used [[MadeFromRealGirlScouts rather more literally]] in that context, the opposite / an [[InvertedTrope inversion of this trope]].

** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the Season 27 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS27E22OrangeIsTheNewYellow Orange Is The New Yellow]]" where Marge gets arrested because she let Bart go to the park by himself. Marge mentions in court that when she was a kid she was allowed to be alone outside all day, which gets her mother retroactively arrested.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The kids are the same age as those from ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' and have even more "adult" adventures, with little interference from their parents. There was one episode where Stan goes to [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York]] to return a margarita maker, and you never see Randy or Sharon questioning where their son has gone, despite the fact ''he's on the other side of the country by himself''. In "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E7NightOfTheLivingHomeless Night of the Living Homeless]]," they go so far as to ''applaud'' the fact that the boys are driving a bus cross-country by themselves, as it spares them the trouble of stopping the homeless problem. On the ''very'' rare occasions when their parents are aware that they're missing, the approach they take to getting them back is... less than effective, to say the least. Then again, all of the [[TooDumbToLive adults]] on ''South Park'' have the IdiotBall every episode. The kids have also been to UsefulNotes/{{Ethiopia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}, UsefulNotes/{{Peru}}, UsefulNotes/CostaRica, Imaginationland, at least two other solar systems, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E11ChildAbductionIsNotFunny Child Abduction is Not Funny]]", this was done deliberately by the parents as their final solution to the child abduction crisis, as they have become too paranoid to even trust themselves to actually protect their children. The kids end up living with [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Mongolians that have been attacking the wall surrounding the town]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the [[KidHero titular protagonist]] moved out of his father's van and into virtually his own house so he could focus more on training with the Crystal Gems when he was still very young (the [[MagicalGuardian gems]] have an adjoining temple they live in). Additionally, he roams around the beach and the boardwalk unsupervised with nary an eye batted by the other adults in the town.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'': i.e. the one about the little girl who wanders around the jungle with no parental supervision, avoiding crises and conversing with the local wildlife with the aid of her foreign language-speaking monkey and her RaisedByWolves little brother. To be fair, Mr. and Mrs. Thornberry's biggest failing as parents is that they seem to put too much trust in their teenage daughter Debbie to keep an eye on things while they're away studying said local wildlife. In the BigDamnMovie, when they discover that Eliza's managed to chase after a poacher despite having been sent to a UsefulNotes/{{London}} boarding school, they're horrified that Eliza would put herself in that much danger.
* ''WesternAnimation/WordParty'': Well, they do ask you if they can go outside, but then you have no control over where they go once you say yes.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy and friends, who are in probably fifth grade, are given incredibly free rein, often making trips to space, UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}}, and the depths of the ocean with minimum interference from parents. There are a few instances where Jimmy is prevented from flying in his homemade rocket into space (without a space helmet even!) before finishing his chores, but still, that is incredibly free rein. On a typical day, the kids will go down to the local fast food joint to hang out, and their parents are nowhere in sight. Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' where the plot revolved around the kids feeling annoyed about the restrictions their parents keep placing on them. But really, the only thing they kept him from doing was going to a theme park on a school night, which really isn't that bad.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': Beavis and Butt-Head live in a house without parents or guardians. They also hate school and their jobs, but for some reason, continue going to both. They sometimes do mention their mothers but they are never seen, so it's likely their mothers are almost never around, as seen with how their home has electricity, water and phone service, so it's easy to assume their mothers would be the ones to handle the bills, as the boys can't even handle school work and rarely have any money.