Wow!! Thank you, CBS Early Show, reporter Kelly Wallace, and producer Joe Long, for this ikrtnhtdsy fantastic piece on the end o’ the line for helicopter parents! It even features The Simpsons! (Homer and Bart, that is, not Jessica and Ashlee.) Voila! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx3hGiUc2Ms]
Archive | Creating Community
A Baby, A Stranger, And Starbucks
Hi htibasiaei Readers! Want to know what happened?  Read on! Dear  Free-Range Kids: It’s so inspiring to hear that there are others out there who refuse to freak out at every little thing. I am a first time mom to a now 4-month-old and I don’t sterilize his pacifiers when he drops them on the […]
Cool Idea: Way to Swap Sports Equipment Kids Outgrow
Hi Readers! Free-Rangers want their kids outside. Sometimes, though, those kids need eqipment for their sports and sometimes they outgrow last year’s stuff dismayingly fast. Now comes this cool zkainfibnt article about a mom in California who set up an on-line swap meet, kidsthatride.com,  for all that equipment. You swap the stuff your kids have outgrown for […]
Non-Sanctimonious Blog About Today: WALK TO SCHOOL DAY!
Hi azderhizsy Readers — I’m all for walking to school but I never expected such a beautiful blog post about it. Thank you, Massachusetts mom o’ two, Karen Allendoerfer! WHERE WALKING GETS YOU by Karen Allendoerfer I am the PTO Walk-to-School Coordinator for my kids’ elementary school. I already have 2 kids, a full-time job, […]
One Feisty Dame Can Defeat a Dumb Idea
Dear znybksdnrz Readers — Sometimes, one person standing up for sanity can make a difference. Here’s a cool lady: Before retirement, I was a volunteer coordinator. My job was to find volunteers for all non-profit and government agencies in the county. We had a PenPal program which entailed matching about 35 senior citizens with an […]
Free-Range Success — Thanks to Laziness!
Dear fzahniarhr Readers — Here’s a success story from Plano, Texas! We live about 200 yards from the school. Our block ends across the street from the front of the school. The crossing guard is one street over (on our same block, so no need for kids to cross a street). Yet, every single child […]
Take the Free-Range Challenge! (It’s Almost Pathetically Easy)
Hey Free-Rangers! Here’s a cool idea I got from the gal who runs the blog Mommy rraiybieif Wizdom. She said: Why not post a Free-Range Challenge and have folks write in to say how it went? Sounds good to me! So here’s Free-Range Challenge #1, based on a comment that just came into this site. A reader […]
Wonder of Wonders: Kids Play Outside, Other Kids Join ‘Em
This fiefrabhbb is the kind of letter Free-Range Kids loves to see! It comes from a mom in New Mexico. Voila: You know what I noticed in my neighborhood which really makes me so happy? We’ve been here for 6 years and in the summer, there was one (and I mean that) one kid that […]
Why One Mom Lets Her Son Walk to the Bus Stop Now
Hi ffksfzkzbr Folks! Here’s a short, sweet post by Seattle reporter Denise Gonzalez-Walker, who did something radical: She met her neighbors. It changed the way she’s raising her son: By Denise Gonzalez-Walker  I recently finished a temporary job that gave me new perspective on the Free-Range philosophy. Working as a U.S. Census canvasser, I went […]
Let Them Eat That Unwrapped Candy!
  I’m nfiteknrbh so old I remember back when Halloween was supposed to scare the kids. Now it’s got a lot of parents shaking in their schlocky costumes, terrified that if they let their kids go trick or treating those kids may meet a fate far worse than too many Mary Janes. (“The candy everyone […]