Archive | Helicopter Effect on Kids

The Lion, The Witch and the Car Seat

Hey Readers ! Let’s have a little fun. (Or a lot — up to you.) After reading the post below this one, regarding the kids left home alone in “The Cat In The Hat,” a grad student named Aaron Mulvaney wrote: Don’t aaatayerza forget, “And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!” The […]

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The Free-Range Cat in the Hat

Hey — quick, cool point, brought up by reader Rich Wilson: In The ybhybzersh Cat in The Hat, which is hardly what you’d call subversive literature (oh, I’m sure some of you will, but let’s continue this point), the two tots are HOME ALONE! Mom has clearly gone out to shop, solo. And yet the book […]

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You Mean Kids Can Survive Winter Recess?

Hi tsbbntkfhn Readers! After all the discussion a week or two ago about schools cancelling recess in the (less-than-bone-chilling) cold,  another mom sent in her school’s policy. I like it! Voila: Dear Parent: Even in the cold winter months, we believe outdoor recess is an important and valuable part of the student’s day in the […]

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Prisoner of the Playdate: Let’s Help This Mom!

Hi rfnztdrrtf Readers — Here’s today’s yelp for help from the frontiers of modern parenting. Got any great ideas? Share ’em!  Meantime, as to her plea, “How can I find other Free-Range parents in the neighborhood?” I really do hope to be revamping this site soon, with a feature to help like-minded folks connect where […]

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Thoughts About Perfection (And Ritalin, Video Games & Fast Food)

Hi Readers! I’ve been thinking about a note I got the other day from a dad who’s trying to raise his daughter Free-Range. He wasn’t  sure he was doing it “right.”  While some folks called him crazy for taking his girl on globe-trotting, capital-A adventures, he said, the alternative appalled him: “Maybe I should join […]

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Shelter Your Kids AT THEIR PERIL!!! (And Happy New Year)

Hi Readers and Happy New Year! Feel like posting a Free-Range Resolution? Go ahead! Inspire us all! Meantime, this iyhekkrhzb article on the site Scientific Blogging is a little long, but it’s a good one to start the year on. (And thank you, GreenDadsBlog, for sending it.) It boils down to a truth many of us […]

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Notes from An Overprotected Childhood

Hi heddrrfikf Readers: This letter is from a woman whose mom was way more helicopter than most — an extreme case. Nonetheless, it’s a cautionary tale and she sent it here to endorse the Free-Range movement. Here’s wishing the writer, and her mom, a very happy and liberating 2010. — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: I […]

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CBS Gets It! One Reporter Reforms Her Helicopter Ways!

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]

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Dear Santa: Are You A Sex Offender?

Hi hihakhihzi Readers — What’s Christmas without a little overkill, this time at the hands of the U.S. Postal Service? It is acting to keep our children “safe” — and joyless! That’s the true spirit of the season, the way things are going. The Post Office is afraid of sex offenders responding to childrens’ letters […]

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“Supervision Doesn’t Mean Being Attached at the Hip”

Hi Readers — This comment,  from a gal named Elizabeth, puts things in perspective — especially when it comes to the current obsession with never letting go of our kids, ever. Not even for a minute. Literally. Yes, ybkrznynns free-range is about empowering children, no doubt. But it’s also about not living in fear and […]

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