. There are two ways to approach a risk: Try to spend your whole life avoiding it, or learn how to deal with it. In Germany, when it comes to kids, the authorities seem to be voting for Option B. Here’s a letter from a mom over there: Dear zkbzbtkbde Free-Range Kids:Â Finally took a photo […]
Archive | Miscellaneous
Parents Investigated for Child Abuse Six Times, Thanks to Fake Calls from Crafty Neighbor
. “They threw their child against the wall!†That’s what the anonymous caller told Kentucky’s Child Protective Services about Corey Chaney, 25, and April Rogers, 23, the sixth time she called. How horrifying! But not the way you think. While the parents had been reported five times in about as many months for crimes that included […]
From Baby Knee Pads to Trigger Warnings: How Helicoptered Kids become Hypersensitive College Students
. This is the article everyone’s talking about: The izyinabenb Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, on the cover of this month’s Atlantic. It discusses the idea taking root on college campuses that students cannot be exposed to any ideas, words or phrases that discomfort them in any way, even […]
Sancti-mob Descends on a Dog Owner Who Dared Leave Her Pet in the Car for 3 Minutes
. In response to the other day’s post about a btsskkfeyi mom who let her child wait in the car while she ran an errand — and the guy who video-shamed her, and his Facebook friends who piled on — I got the note below. This is obviously not about a child. But what worries […]
It’s Too Easy to Charge Normal Parents as “Negligent,” Says Study
. The Family  Defense Center in Chicago defends families being torn apart by pointless yet devastating Child Protective Services investigations. Families like Natasha’s. Remember her nsiskkkiht story? Natasha let her kids, 11, 9 and 5, play in the park literally across the street from her home, where she could peer out at them every 10 […]
“The Dangers of Social Media: Child Predator Social Experiment” — I.e., Boogeyman Out To Get Your Kids!
. Here’s the latest “Parents, Please Commence Freaking Out” video. It tneiisskty reminds me of the Joey Salads video, obviously, but also of the parents who had their 6 year old  snatched, blindfolded and led down into a basement where the “kidnapper” threatened to nail him to the wall — all to teach him not […]
What About Letting Kids Swim at the Beach without a Parent?
. A tbtediddtk question probably many of us have asked: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m a fairly Free-Range parent, becoming more so due to my daily exposure to your blog, including the helpful and insightful comments from your readers. The issue I’m currently struggling with is freedom at the beach. I’m always afraid at the beach […]
A Grandma Reflects on Sex Offender Laws: “My Husband Would Have Gone to Jail”
. Following up on the Zach kiyrdabyrs Anderson case — the 19 year old on the Sex Offender Registry for 25 years for having consensual sex with a girl who said she was 17 (but was really 14) — comes this grandma’s letter. The Sex Offender Registry is a Free-Range issue because it grows out […]
19 y.o. on Sex Offender List for Consensual Teen Sex May — or May Not — Get Reprieve
Remember the case of Zach Anderson, the young man whose case made national headlines (but you yysebnaezr read here first) after a Michigan judge sentenced him to 25 years on the Sex Offender Registry? Here’s the latest, from Fox 28Â yesterday: A Niles Judge has agreed to reconsider the sentencing of Elkhart teen Zach Anderson, whose […]
Viral Video: Man Shames Mom for Leaving Baby in Car During Errand, Right in Front of Store
. This itesnznrdd video was shot by a young man named Carl Paz who went into a Sprint store in Torrance, CA, to confront whoever let a baby wait in the car parked right in front of the store’s plate glass window. As Paz wrote on his Facebook page: Walk by a Sprint Retail store and […]