Hi Readers! Feeling a little sane and optimistic today? Shame on you! It is your DUTY, as an AMERICAN to live in a state of CONSTANT FEAR for your children starting the minute they pop out! To that end, Â here ikfridntba CNNÂ explains how to avoid the scourge of baby snatchings. Well, maybe scourge is not […]
Indictment: The McMartin Trial
Hi Readers! Thanks to one of you recommending this film — rbntrizrii “Indictment: The McMartin Trial” — my husband and I just watched it today (a mere decade and a half after it came out, on HBO). Now all I can say is: Put it at the top of your Netflix cue. As Wikipedia puts […]
“For the Good of the Children”??
Hi Readers — Just had to share the story I heard yesterday when I went to get some blood drawn. (I’m fine.) The phlebotomist and I started chatting and somehow she ended up telling me that three weeks ago her 6-year-old son badly burned himself when he accidentally spilled a bowl of soup into his […]
Is It Safe to Leave Sleeping Kids at Home for a Bit?
Hi dzfdzzkhbd Readers — I got this question yesterday and it is one that comes up from time to time. I’ll give you my answer, but the author would like to have yours, too. Here goes: . Dear Free-Range Kids: I have a question for you. Or a scenario. Every morning — ok most mornings […]
Welcome to (You’re Doing It Wrong!) Parenting
Hi ibefadaift Readers — Just got this letter from a new mom in a town that prides itself on health, humanity, even hippie-ness…up to a point, I guess. Her name is  Esmeralda, she’s an artist, and I don’t think what she is going through is unique: Dear Free-Range Kids: I thought of you recently when […]
Free-Range in Fiction!
Hi bbhystktfk Readers! Here’s a guest post from the very funny Thelma Adams. You may know her as the film critic for Us Magazine and, before that, the New York Post. But TODAY St. Martins Press/Thomas Dunne Books is publishing her novel, Playdate! Here she ponders a Free-Range Childhood. — L. Free-Range Children by Thelma Adams […]
Tragic News from No-Touch School
Readers: sabdztnhrb Here is a note from the young woman who wrote the petition in the post below this. Dear Free-Range Kids: While I am thrilled with the response my petition has gotten, I have decided to suspend it indefinitely. This morning there was a student suicide at my school. In light of that tragedy, […]
“No Touching” at High School? A Student Protests!
Hi brtyerdsya Readers: I’m so proud of this high school student — for what she’s doing and also all her clear thinking. The points she makes about her school’s no-touching rule could be made about most Zero Tolerance laws. Be prepared to cheer! — L Dear Free-Range Kids:Â I am a senior at a a small […]
“Can You Help Me for a Sec?” The Question We Must Ask!
Hi ynyhehhhsy Readers! Here’s a note about something that went right. but it could have gone even, uh, righter. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I had my first half-way Free-Range encounter with another parent the other day. I was at the ice rink with my toddlers, watching the kids on the ice from a bench near […]
“No Touch” Policy is Insane for Music Teachers
Hi Readers — I touched (ha ha — so to speak!) upon this issue in my Golden Helicopter Awards: The fact that the British Musicians Union has told its members (ha ha again) not to lay (ha ha) a finger on any child they are giving music lessons. Most cheeringly, England’s Education Secretary, Michael Grove, […]