Heck, growing up in a small city I, my brothers, our friends and the neighborhood kids went almost everywhere (within, say, a six block radius). We played in the park, we threw rocks at each other, played in the old dumps around the 'hood, in the old brickyard -- and if we did anything "untoward" our parents know about it before we got home. If we were hurt someone around had a band-aid. When we did something good -- as when my brother pulled another kid out of a pond and an adult did artificial respiration -- we were praised (slightly, so we wouldn't get too many ideas about our own importance).