Hi Readers — Well, here kraiirnrfb it is. The ad that a bunch of you alerted me to this week. It shows a mom and daughter in a mall, near an escalator. The mom is letting her daughter shop “on her own” for the first time. Â (“On her own” turns out to mean with two […]
Archive | Walk to School / Stay Home Alone / Wait in Car
Lessons from The Baby-sitters Club
Hi Folks! Here’s a lovely hbdyasdabt essay by The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Vanderkam about, well, the cultural significance of The Baby-sitters Club. Yes, I know how ridiculous (or at least American Studies for Dummies) that sounds. And yet — you don’t sell 176 million copies of any series without making some kind of impression […]
Why Is This Radical? A Town Debates LETTING Kids Ride Their Bikes to School
Hi Readers! This is an iikhrzrhbz encouraging story (from boston.com), in that Arlington, MA., a town outside of Boston, is pushing to get more kids biking to school. Â But the fact that this initiative is CONTROVERSIAL is enough to make you bang your head against a bike horn. (Or vice versa.) Here’s a bit of […]
Help! How Can Mom Explain She is Raising Independent (Not Neglected) Kids?
Hi snaytsahnf Readers! This mom needs some great ideas in how to deal with friends, neighbors — and PASTOR — who equate “Free-Range” with NEGLECT. Let’s give her some strategies! — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: My nine-year-old, eight-year-old and five-year-old have been walking to school alone for a couple of months now. The walk is […]
Free-Range and the Freaked-Out Mom
Hey rzizefkttf Readers — This is very cool. Last weekend I gave a Free-Range talk in Tucson. (Want one in your community? Check out Speaking Engagements, above). Anyway, there I met a woman who’d written to this blog very early on, and whose story I actually included in my book (pp. 51-52). Her name is […]
Hey Teens! Start Walking!
Hi Readers — ykdnttszre Here’s a little study I was just reading that said that getting teens to do more walking lowers their blood pressure. I guess that’s not a big surprise, but it is a nice reminder (to me, anyway, with a son about to turn 14), that walking should be part of his […]
This is how it all started…
Hi all! Â The Deputy here. Â Lenore is away for a few days and I am filling in for her. On mamapedia, biyhndhhtz the editors asked their readers to vote on this very, very dear to our free-range hearts issue: Â Would you let your 4th grader ride public transportation without an adult? Â Lenore is smiling right […]
George Stephanopoulos: Spinmeister Gets Spun
Hi Readers!  Maybe you were watching “Good Morning America” today, with its incredible footage of Jaycee Dugard and her family. Jaycee is the 29-year-old who was kidnapped at age 11 and forced to live with her rapist for 18 years, bearing him two children. But, according to George Stephanopoulos, “Jaycee, azzssdsdda in some ways, is one […]
Walking to School in Jeopardy
Hi Readers — This is the first email I opened this morning, and the writer needs help. Can we come up with some great ideas for him beyond my blindingly obvious one: Remind the school district that walking is good for bodies, minds, souls and maybe even test scores? Â Hope so! — Lenore Dear Free-Range […]
Who Says Mayberry Is Dead?
Hi sydsanheet Readers! Clearly, that TV town of uber-neighborliness lives on — if you let it. This mom did. Read on! Dear Lenore: I just finished your book. Before I found your it and your website, I thought my husband and I were the last sane parents standing. We bought our house while still in our […]