dr. joshua weiner what age is okay for a child to play outside alone. so dr. er at what age do you think it's okay for a child to play outside alone? >> it depends on two things. number one, it depends on your child and what they're going to do. so if you live in a busy dangerous neighborhood lots of traffic, you need to have that age be higher. if you're talking about your kid going in your backyard, it can be lower. if you're forcing me to give an age, seven, eight years old, somewhere in that range. but the important point is whatever you're doing you need to sit down with your child ahead of time and make sure they know what to do if problems occur so that way the child's prepared and you can be more calm that things will go well. >> as a psychiatrist with a lot of experience with children and parenting, what do you think is the best parenting style? >> be a sensible parent. neither extreme is really good. it's not good to be a helicopter parent it's not good to be an extreme free-range parent. you want to be a parent who's loving supportive who's there wit