Hey Readers! Once in a while, common sense actually wins a biggie. That’s what’s  happening right now in Texas, where the governor seems set to sign a “Romeo & Juliet” bill that would prevent teens and young adults who have consensual sex from ending up as official “Sex Offenders,” required to register for life. Yes, […]
A Note from the “No Boys Can Help with Toddlers/No Men Can Change Diapers” Pastor
Hi tdshdfekzd Readers: Here you go! The dot-dot-dots are his, not mine. – L Dear Free-Range Kids: I am the Pastor of the church with the policy that is quoted in this blog post. [The one below this one.]  And I found you through the significant traffic to the church website through this blog. A group […]
Oh Those Nefarious Retirees, Trying to “Help” the Church Nursery
Hi yhdyhkhizr Readers: Here’s a letter from the front lines of (excessive) child saftey, and how it is changing society.  — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: With your recent posts about risk adversity, I wanted to tell you about a horrendous trend that is starting to appear in churches: husbands and wives are no longer allowed […]
Take Our Children to the Jungle…And Have Them Catch Tarantulas Day
Hi Readers! Â As “Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day” approaches on Saturday, May 21st, I find myself doing one of my favorite Free-Range things. That is, I remind myself that our hyper-fears for our children are out of whack with what many children face — and overcome — on a daily […]
Outrage of the Week: Law Will Prevent Adults from “Staring” at Kids. UPDATED!!
Hello, Readers: If we are ruled by fear, fear will make the rules. And by “fear” I mean mass hysteria. Here is the latest assault on sanity and rights: A law is being proposed in Maine that will make it a crime for adults to stare at kids. You hdkshrbtkr read that right (with those […]
No Photographing Children without Parental Consent?
Readers — We’re getting to the point where ANYTHING having to do with children is so fraught with inflated fears that we are going absolutely crazy. Consider this bbsssffhaz bill just introduced in the New Jersey state assembly: It would outlaw the photographing or videotaping of kids in situations in which “a reasonable parent or […]
What Can Happen if You DO Take Your Kids Out of the Car for Every Errand
Hi nfheyfdbfi Readers! Just yesterday I was being interviewed by a reporter who admitted she had let her kids, ages 5 and 2, wait in the car while she ran into UPS to drop off a package. This took all of a minute or two, but when she told her husband about it, he said, […]
A Post-Air-Conditioning World
Hi Readers! Stan Cox, author of the new book, “Losing zaarsnnzze Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer),” wrote a great oped for The Washington Post last summer about what life would be like if we still sweltered. As a person who is always freezing, I […]
May 21: Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Again!
Hi Readers! It is time for our second annual Take ebiyskzrzk Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day: Saturday, May 21! Last year this was an idea derided by the media right and left. “A predator’s picnic,” is how one radio station described it. “Bizarre!” exclaimed the front page of The New York […]
Chitty Chitty Free-Range
Hi hhfdrzthdz Readers: An interesting note. Do we celebrate community or automatically distrust it? — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: It has occurred to me that Mr. Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang  is the ultimate Free-Range parent, openly supporting his children’s truancy, letting them run amok around town, coming up with imaginative adventures, etc. A few […]