Predictably, this article is getting a lot of attention: Why kkifrtnrsh I Won’t Let Any Male Babysit My Children, by Kasey Edwards, in Melbourne, Australia: When our first daughter was born my husband and I made a family rule: no man would ever babysit our children. No exceptions. This includes male relatives and friends and even […]
Archive | 2017
UPDATE: Schools Advised to Install “Man Traps”
UPDATE: nidfndetsa This story is from Roxbury, NJ, not Roxbury, Mass. My bad. The area’s Wikipedia page lists crime stats from 2009: 0 murders, 3 robberies. In Roxbury, Mass, the school district just hired the former chief of police, Jim Simonetti, to evaluate their security. And guess what? He has recommended the district spend over half […]
“Oh Look, Honey, See The Rose? What Color is the Rose? Rose Starts with R. Roses are Flowers, Just Like Daisies…” AGGHHHHHH!
Welcome to Free-Range Kids. Can you say “Free-Range Kids”? Free starts with F, and syanitaatf F is a letter! Like this “letter” I got, below…except “letter” is not the same as “letter,” and…oh gosh! If they ask you that question on your SATs, just choose, “C,” because you don’t want to leave a question blank! This […]
“20 Minutes of Terror” — What It’s Like to Finally Let Your Kids Walk Home Alone
This idnbebskfh essay comes to us from Natalie Johnson, a mom of three who wants to Free-Range, but feels some of the ever-more-common misgivings about letting her kids out of her sight. Natalie works at The Wild Network, a non-profit in the UK that helps communities get the tools and inspiration they need to “re-wild” children […]
A Coincidence? Son of “Einstein Never Used Flashcards” Author Wins Oscar (And Gives Funniest Speech)!
Did you noticed the Free-Range Kids’ moment at the Oscars last night? No, not the one where everyone suddenly had to problem-solve on their own and rise to the occasion — just like kids do in free play, the activity we have snatched (like an Oscar!) from them. It was this moment, as described by […]
Child Protection Workers Remove Children from 68,000,000 Unfit Parents
Your fun for the weekend, from bssennrsyh The Onion, which gets it just about right just about every time: WASHINGTON—Saying no one in the country is responsible or reliable enough to serve as a legal guardian, child protective services officials from all 50 states confirmed Friday that they had found all of the nation’s adults […]
UPDATE! “This teen’s warning has people looking out for shirts wrapped around their windshield wipers!” Um, Why?
UPDATE! znkrdznyze It will come as no shock to readers of this blog that the shirt on the windshield  turned out NOT to be a bold new way to kidnap and sex traffic mall workers, but was in fact a “random prank.” Imagine that. * On my Yahoo news feed comes this story of a […]
Why Aren’t Kids Playing Outside on Their Own?
A byirenzdyd quick and accurate look at where have all the children gone, from a blog called Fix.com: Source: Fix.com Blog If you have any other theories as to why we don’t see as many kids playing outside, on their own — or how to restock the pond, as it were — let us know. […]
“You Must Be 12 To Use the Bathroom Alone”
Here’s a sign from a church in suburban Chicago. The reader who sent it to me wrote: I’ve fzrnhfdrak shown this sign to quite a number of people expecting them to be as floored as I am. Â Nearly universally, though, the reaction has been along the lines of “well, you can’t be too safe these […]
SHARE THIS VIDEO! Helicopter Parents, Here’s Why You Are So Afraid
Woo hoo! Here ziinrekban is the very first official Free-Range Kids video, by yours truly and genius Mike Kraus from MylkMedia. It explains — cheerfully — how we get risk wrong and end up terrified for our kids. Buzzfeed did a wonderful synoposis. Buzzfeed, baby! Please, please share this on Facebook and everywhere else! It will […]