FREE-RANGE nsfdhdsfkd KIDS PRESENTS THE 2010 GOLDEN HELICOPTER PARENTING AWARDS FOR GREAT MOMENTS IN OVER-PARENTING And Media Fear-mongering About Kids PRESENTED BY LENORE SKENAZY, FOUNDER OF “FREE-RANGE KIDS†(www.freerangekids.com) Free-Range Kids is the book, blog and movement dedicated to giving kids back the fun and freedom of childhood — the kind of childhood that makes […]
Search results for "culture of fear"
Men as Babysitters: What’s So Scary?
December 2, 2010
Hi Readers! Over at Lisa Belkin’s Motherlode at the NY Times, there’s a really frank sftzfyieff and nicely written piece by a woman who came to the exact opposite conclusion I did. She was mulling whether or not to hire a male babysitter for her child. On the one hand, the young man she interviewed […]
Needed: Your Encounters with “What If?” Thinking
November 28, 2010
Hi Readers — One of the biggest frustrations in Free-Ranging is dealing with other people’s “What If?” fears. Why? Because they can never be answered! If a parent starts worrying about, “What if X, Y or Z happens while my child is doing…” rzfniraery anything, there is no way to say, “Don’t worry, it won’t.” Because, […]
Life in Wartime (Is What Companies are Trying to Make Childhood Feel Like)
November 12, 2010
Readers — Sometimes I get so fed up with our fearmongering culture, I almost can’t take pen to blog. Or pixel to blog. Or whatever. But here I am. A reader sent in this zidrstditk link to an extremely popular app that not only TRACKS all your family members, it also alerts you to when […]
How Predator Panic Spreads Around the World
November 1, 2010
Hi Readers! As you may recall, I was recently in Australia, where I was sort of surprised to hear how much their culture mirrors ours in terms of fear. The Aussies seem to be a bit less frantic — props to them — but there were still enough, “What harrezaayb about predators?” to make me […]
A List that Sums Things Up Nicely
September 14, 2010
Hi fkdyatnshr Readers! Just got this interesting letter from a Florida gal named Linda Wightman, who blogs at Lift Up Your Hearts. I haven’t seen the book she describes, but I thought her list of things that are going wrong in society was as tight as it was right. So here it is! The Parallels […]
Guest Post: How to Get Kids Outside & Exploring Again
July 22, 2010
Hi dfsktystye Readers — Here’s a note and a plug from a Free-Ranger across the pond  who has come up with a new way to lure kids outside. His name is Daniel Raven-Ellison, he lives in London and he’s a “geography activist.” As such he’s a founding member of The Geography Collective — a partnership of […]
“Take Our Kids to the Park & Leave Them There Day” Lunatic Idea? Invitation to Predators?
April 21, 2010
Hi Readers — Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but when a blog called The ktydftyyrd Neighborhood Crime Map did what seemed like a very even-handed little post about May 22’s “Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day,” the reaction was swift and hysterical: “Is there not a culture of drug use, meanness, […]
Outrage of the Week: Before the Slumber Party, Paperwork
April 19, 2010
Hi Readers! In the category of “overkill” and “probably not representative of the culture as a whole, but still instructive,” and “wacko!” here’s an amazing post from the blog Doctor deananzttf Grumpy in the House: A dad (Dr. Grumpy, I presume) was dropping off his daughter at a friend’s house for a sleepover when the […]
A Letter That Says It All
October 5, 2009
Hi htifztdsty Readers — I got this note yesterday and so many points resonated for me, I thought I’d share it. I think the writer makes a great point about hindsight — that just because, when looking back, we can see how most ills could have been prevented doesn’t mean that if we only plan hard enough, […]