Sorry Readers — I’m all riled up today. Too many things are annoying me, and one of them is the story I just heard from a friend. On Friday, in honor of Mother’s Day, her first grade daughter’s class was having a tea. So, in the foyer, waiting to go into the classroom, were a [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Miscellaneous, School and Zero Tolerance and Bullies, Uber Safety | 106 Comments »
Hi Folks! This is a documentary done by Carla Reid and Franny Plumridge, two university students who were raised in the country 16,000 kilometres apart (Carla in Australia, Franny in Canada), but both encouraged by their parents to actively explore and experience their world. Their rural Free-Range upbringing and shared passion for filmmaking inspired them to [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Miscellaneous, Other Places Other Eras, Parks, Playing and Playgrounds | 19 Comments »
Readers — This note comes to us from Nathalie Delage up north, where “Canadian Tire” apparently sells paranoia, too! – L. Dear Free Range Kids: Have you seen these baby carseat videocameras? They stream live video from the backseat to a monitor you attach to your windshield like a GPS. I wonder what exactly a [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Marketing Madness and Gadgets, Miscellaneous, Uber Safety | 95 Comments »
Hi Folks! This oped of mine recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Afterwards, I heard from guess who? Hint: She’s Chief Operating Officer of a very popular social network — and a Free-Range Kids fan! Here’s to spreading the “Kids are not in constant danger” message…perhaps via social media? – L LEAN IN AND [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Helicopter Effect on Kids, Infantilizing young folk, Marketing Madness and Gadgets, Media Madness, Miscellaneous | 157 Comments »
Hi Readers — I love and agree with the post below so much. It comes to us from the blog Life as an Adverb by the gal whose last name IS one: Bonnie Overly. – L. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GOAL (AND TAKE THEM OFF YOUR KIDS ONCE IN A WHILE) by Bonnie Overly [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Guest Post, Helicopter Effect on Kids, Miscellaneous | 126 Comments »
Readers — Normally I don’t reprint whole stories from sites. Bad internet etiquette. BUT this story is so strange in its entirety, here goes: Scary false alarm puts Primrose School of Barker Cypress in lockdown by Tiffany Craig / KHOU 11 News CYPRESS, Texas — A mother got quite the scare after she saw a [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Eek! A Male! (and Stranger Danger), Miscellaneous, Worst-First Thinking | 122 Comments »
Hi Readers — Over at CommonGood.org, I’ve got an essay about the family that found a paring knife at the bottom of the birthday cake they bought for their 2-year-old at Walmart. The teary-eyed father lamented, ”We’re not going to get that second birthday back ever.” Ohmigod–he’s right! How is anyone expected to recover from a blow [...]
Filed under: Breaking news, Crazy Parents, Insurance repercussions, Marketing Madness and Gadgets, Media Madness, Miscellaneous | 72 Comments »
Readers — I was just on a radio show talking about how we reflexively inflate the dangers facing children, and while I was on, this email came to Free-Range Kids. It illustrates what I spend most of my waking hours dealing with: The belief that our kids are in constant danger, so only constant supervision [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Helicopter Effect on Kids, Infantilizing young folk, Miscellaneous, Walk to School / Stay Home Alone / Wait in Car | 76 Comments »
Readers — Just another note from the frontlines of our freaking-out country! Got this yesterday: . Dear Free-Range Kids: I found this story, currently going on in my greater neighborhood as I type this, incredibly alarmist. A little background: I live in a nice, average neighborhood in Seattle. We have a neighborhood blog that [...]
Filed under: Breaking news, Crazy Parents, Eek! A Male! (and Stranger Danger), Miscellaneous, School and Zero Tolerance and Bullies, Stupid Advice, Worst-First Thinking | 58 Comments »
Hi Readers! You know how you can go to one site to look something up and a few clicks later you end up someplace else completely different? (I was trying to find the percentage of parents who worry their kids will be kidnapped — a London study found 98%, but I couldn’t find a figure [...]
Filed under: Crazy Parents, Creating Community, Helicopter Effect on Kids, Miscellaneous, Other Places Other Eras, Parks, Playing and Playgrounds | 39 Comments »
