Hi Readers! Ever look at a map of the local sex offenders, the ones with little dots showing where the guys live who prey upon helpless little children? Well, as of this week, there are two dots that won’t come off until the guys die of old age — which could be quite a while. Right […]
Archive | Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts
UPDATE!! Outrage of the Week: Mom Convicted in Death of Her Son (Who Ran Across the Street)
UPDATE! frrzfhnttf Readers — Here’s a petition asking Georgia to release the mother from her “vehicular manslaughter” conviction and PUT IN A CROSSWALK! I just signed it! — L. Hi Readers — This case is so sickeningly sad, I don’t know where to begin. Fortunately, a blog I’d never heard of before — Transportation for […]
Guest Post: “Caylee’s Law” Could Make Me a Criminal
Hi asaryfkhht Readers! I’m busy filming my TV show, so I was glad to get this pithy guest post on Caylee’s Law. It’s a proposed law I’ve been disturbed by, mostly because often when we make laws named for tragic children, they seem to make sense only in very specific situations, and retroactively, to boot. […]
Mom Charged with “Child Endangerment” When Tot Wanders Off
Hi Readers!  According to this hsniakafyz story by Terri Sanginiti in Delaware Online, a mom  put her 3-year-old down for a nap and then went to take one herself. Unbeknownst to her, her daughter then got up and managed to get out of the house. When police found the little girl later, they went looking […]
Bumper Car Craziness
Hi Readers! A question for you: Q: When is a bumper car NOT a bumper car? A: When you are no longer allowed to bump it. Such is the case in England right now, where three amusement parks have banned bumper car bumping, and insist that patrons who climb into the cars drive them slowly […]
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK: Cops Say It’s ILLEGAL for Kids to Play Outside, Unsupervised
Hi eshtifzfzz Folks — Here it is again. The creeping idea that anytime our kids are outside without us they are in DANGER, thus it is CRIME to take our eyes off them. The writer of the note below, from Western Maryland, also pens this blog. Here’s what’s happening out by her: Dear Free-Range Kids: […]
All Adults Are Potential Predators (Even Ladies Eating Donuts at the Park)
Hi Readers: The headline on this story says it all — almost: Women eisdaknyay Ticketed for Eating Donuts in a Brooklyn Park. The REASON these women were ticketed was not the donuts, it was the lack of children with them. Local law — that is, the law in my insane city — says no adults […]
Is a Child “Unaccompanied” if the Parent Is Close By?
Hi fstazezsfz Readers! Here’s a recent letter that makes me hot under the collar (but not hot enough to turn on the A.C.). — L. (who can’t figure out how to get rid of this LINE!!) Dear Free-Range Kids: Well, I did it again: I sent my 4.5-year-old inside the library to walk the 20 […]
Oh Those Nefarious Retirees, Trying to “Help” the Church Nursery
Hi yhdyhkhizr Readers: Here’s a letter from the front lines of (excessive) child saftey, and how it is changing society.  — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: With your recent posts about risk adversity, I wanted to tell you about a horrendous trend that is starting to appear in churches: husbands and wives are no longer allowed […]
Outrage of the Week: Law Will Prevent Adults from “Staring” at Kids. UPDATED!!
Hello, Readers: If we are ruled by fear, fear will make the rules. And by “fear” I mean mass hysteria. Here is the latest assault on sanity and rights: A law is being proposed in Maine that will make it a crime for adults to stare at kids. You hdkshrbtkr read that right (with those […]