Readers bbrzkfbsdn — Canada’s “Contrarian” explains how the media work (and even how upset parents sometimes behave). Read the whole piece here.- Â L Fear-mongering as news: turning sad stories into bogus trends (1)Â A teenage girl becomes involved in sexual activity that most grownups, regardless of their own sexual behaviour as teens, find shocking and […]
Archive | Miscellaneous
Everything I’ve Always Wanted to Say about Fear, Worry, News, Perception, Psychology & Murder, Said by Vlogbrother
Behold Hank Green (bro of John “The Fault In Our Stars” Green) summing up pretty much everything about why, Â despite the fact we are surrounded by good news, it’s the rarest, worst news that we take to heart. Kindly, ponder each point. Spread the message. Feel slight stabs of envy at how good this video […]
Letting Your Child Wait in Car is Abuse or Neglect, New Jersey Court Rules
Readers — On Tuesday a New Jersey state appeals court ruled that a mom who let her 19-month-old wait in the car for 5 to 10 minutes was guilty of abuse. According to this kastiabyaf story by Salvador Rizzo in the Star-Ledger: “A parent invites substantial peril when leaving a child of such tender years alone […]
Cops Investigate Mom After Busybody Reports, “Child Looks Cold”
Readers — This zzeaathrde is an outlier of a case: A mom was walking with her baby on a promenade when someone saw them, judged the child under-dressed for the weather, and called the cops. The cops came a-running and the mom (a nutritionist with two other kids) gave them no truck. Wisely, I’d say! […]
Parenting Tips from Law & Order SVU
Readers — This McSweeney’s tdftyfhefi post by  Beth Levine and Liz Dancho is soooo good. It’s called “Parenting Tips I Learned from Law & Order: SVU” and includes such advice as: Don’t raise your kids in New York City. They will end up running their own adult website and spending all their money on video games. […]
Mom of Allergic Student Sues School for Serving Eggs, Milk
Readers: nsiiazsznh I’m sure if my kid were deathly allergic, I would be  a wreck. Even so, I’m pretty positive I would not expect a whole school to stop serving milk and eggs — two staples — just for my child’s sake. This is what Philip Howard talks about in his book, Life Without Lawyers: the […]
How Come Yesterday’s Free-Range Moms are Today’s Helicopter Grandmas?
Readers, naidyryrbh this comes up often: terrified grandmas who were fearless moms (or at least feared less): Dear Free-Range Kids: Funny thing about my mother… I was very much raised Free-Range. From the time I was six or so, I left the house in the morning, returned for lunch, and then got called home after […]
Bubble Soccer: The Future of Sports?
Readers — This raifzdihkk looks silly and also extremely fun. Â Bigger question: Is it the future of sports for our kids? Weigh in! – L
So Maybe I’m a Sap, But…
I couldn’t resist this ad for Procter & Gamble. And I KNOW it seems to show moms constantly picking the kids up instead of kids out there on their own, but its meta-message (besides buy Pampers and Tide) is, “For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger, thank you, Mom.” Let’s remember THAT part! […]
Help Needed: Add to This Funny (but Sad) Poster
Readers — Donald Christensen, a longtime Free-Range supporter, deep thinker about encouragement, and author of the blog Tryathlete.org, came up with a great idea: Let’s make a then-vs.-now poster with all the modern-day things we say to kids to keep them “safe”… that really just depress, demoralize or defeat them. Woo hoo! Now, I realize this […]