My kids very seldom go out of the yard unless I'm with them and typically don't play with other children unless at well supervised events (such as VBS) or the children come to our house to play. These events and playdates happen rather frequently though, and also I take them quite a few places... so it's not like I'm holding them hostage or anything.
Also, they are a bit younger than Richie. Demario is the oldest in years, at 10, but has the maturity and responsibility level of about a 6 year old.
There ARE reasons why I'm as overprotective as I am. There is an adult person in our community who is not quite right in the head and has in the past found odd ways of accessing my 9 and 7 year old daughters and really freaking them out. My girls are a really worrisome obsession of hers. Oddly, this person is a female that we've known for a number of years and were kind of friends with until we discovered that she was a bit on the strange side. I don't think she'd actually ever be a threat (at least not physically), but the plain and simple fact is that I really don't want her frightening my kids and neither do they.
AC, I don't let Demario do too much unsupervised because he too knows no strangers. I think probably that even now this child would get in the car with someone he didn't know just because they were nice to him. And even though I trust my girls, there's more to it than that. I can't trust everyone else. I can't be sure what the kids will encounter when riding their bikes or walking around. We live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and you'd think they'd be safe anywhere they went... but this small town also has no less than three registered sex offenders and a number of other creepy types that I really don't want influencing my kids. No, I don't give them doomsday lectures about what might happen and I'm not walking around paranoid. But I also don't give opportunity the chance to strike. There are plenty of ways for the kids to interact with other children in a supervised fashion that doesn't leave much room for wierdness.
I think you're doing the right thing by demanding to know where Richie is at all times and who he's with. And I think your vigilance and insistance that the rules be followed will pay off. Sure, he may grow up and gripe about how he was "never allowed to do anything" ... But at least he WILL grow up and have the chance to say that. Many, many children won't.
-Susan C.