Readers – As I”m sure almost all of you have heard, there enidbkirta has been an arrest, 33 years too late, of a man who confesses to murdering Etan Patz. In the wake of 6-year-old Etan’s 1979 disappearance came the era we are living in to this day, the “Don’t let your child out of […]
Search results for "culture of fear"
H.S. Coach Fired for Leaving 2 Misbehaving Seniors Behind (And an Update)
Hi ztshtttnek Folks! News moves so fast. Here’s a story I was going to post tomorrow, but here it is today — complete with an update that just came in! Ricky Sargent, a football and track coach in Hempstead, Texas, was fired last week for leaving two seniors behind at a restaurant for about an hour, […]
World’s Worst Mom: My Reality TV Show
My Discovery TV reality show, World’s Worst Mom, is a lot like The Supernanny. Except instead of dealing with discipline (something I’m personally terrible at) I deal with families that have reached a breaking point, thanks to extremely overprotective parenting. How overprotective? One mom only lets her 8-year-old use his skateboard…on the lawn. Another wants […]
Letting a Child Stay Home Alone, But Haunted by “What If?”s
Hi yansbskryb Readers! Sometimes I hear from Free-Range parents who feel alone and judged when they let their kids rise to some occasion. Here’s just such a mom in Australia. To her and everyone else trying to buck our fear-everyone/everything/all-the-time culture, I say: We are with you and support you! – L. Dear Free-Range Kids:Â Â I […]
More Outrage! 5th Graders Can No Longer Play Outside “Alone”
Hi adadfhkyfe Readers! The other day my brother-in-law asked me if I ever got really “down” about our culture. I told him that usually I don’t — I get so mad about ridiculous rules and outlandish fears that I just blog in a blind fury and feel better. But this story, sent by the folks at […]
Guest Post: “Five Freedoms I Had that My Daughter Won’t”
Hi tadrbsnhns Readers — Here’s a lovely piece by Kerala Taylor, senior manager of online content & outreach at KaBOOM, the organization dedicated to making sure every kid has a playground nearby. (And even plays in it!) KaBOOM has a “Back to School Pledge” folks can sign, to defend school day playtime. Naturally, I signed […]
“Today I Trusted a Complete Stranger with my Child”
Hi akreidaiki Readers! Here’s a lovely story from reader Deborah Halliday Mills. Remember it when you find yourself between a rock, a hard place, a child and a stranger! — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I have always prided myself on being a common sense parent. I don’t follow “experts,â€or the latest trends or pop culture. I […]
Zero Tolerance for a Good Kid
Hi Readers: This bfinsziiss one will make your blood boil even if it’s freezing outside. It’s about a North Carolina high school senior suspended for a paring knife found in her lunchbox, which, for the record, was actually her dad’s identical lunchbox that she brought to school by mistake. (Dad pares his apples at lunch, […]
THE 2010 “GOLDEN HELICOPTER PARENTING AWARDS”
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 […]
Men as Babysitters: What’s So Scary?
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 […]