Hi tdeyyszbzd Readers! I’m in Minnesota to give a Free-Range talk. Always happy to spread the word because then things like this — see below — start happening! This post originally appeared at the blog Last American Childhood. by Rachel Federman. Enjoy! A Free-Range Exeperiment by Rachel Federman In the playground this morning I tried […]
Guest Post: She’s Breaking Up with “The Today Show”
Hi Readers! dfehnbnntn This post origianlly ran on Brain Twinkles, a  blog by Layne Aingell. Some of us may join Layne in her break up!  — L. I have watched The Today Show for over thirty years. I remember when it was hosted by Jane Pauley, her pony tail, and Tom Brokaw. I started watching it as […]
Why I’m Not Cheering the “Helicopter Parents Have Neurotic Kids” Study
Hi Readers! A bunch of you have forwarded this aibbanfddt story, from livescience.com, that I’ve been mulling for days: ‘Helicopter’ Parents Have Neurotic Kids, Study Suggests The piece is about a study of 300 college freshmen that found the students who are “dependent, neurotic and less open,” may have their over-involved, over-worried, helicopter parents to […]
G’Day Aussie Free-Rangers!
Hi Down There! In about an hour I’m giving a talk to the YPAA — Young People & the Arts, Australia — and I’m psyched! (And Skyped!) Meantime, an Australian TV show, Today Tonight, is looking for Free-Range Families to appear in a story about the movement. If you’re down there and interested in being […]
Pacifier Aggression
Hi isabaeetez Readers — Boy, your letters keep blowing me away. Here’s another one that made me think — and fume. Â It reminds me of a great essay by Spiked Online contributor Nancy McDermott (Spiked is sort of Britain’s Slate) about how this generation of parents treats every childrearing decision as a Nobel-worthy research project. […]
Guest Blog: What Do You REALLY Need to Register For?
Hi hdkftasibd Readers! Here’s a boiled down excerpt from a book I loved, Ada Calhoun’s “Instinctive Parenting: Trusting Ourselves to Raise Good Kids.” Ada was the founding editor at Babble.com and the more she read about parental doubts — is  this the right way to raise kids or is that? — the more she realized: […]
Estonia, Here We Come?
Hi kzftzznkhr Readers — As usual, I’m sitting here wondering whether it’s  “lucky” to live in such a first world country. Check out these two notes I just got: Dear Free-Range Kids: I am a writing from Estonia, it’s a small country in Europe. I came a cross your blog through babble.com and a quick flip through your posts […]
“I Endangered My Children!”
Hi sysrnnfyen Readers — I am hearing so much about “Can I ever EVER leave my child in the car?” lately that I thought I’d share this note that just came in from a sane and loving mom. Voila: Dear Free-Range Kids: I thought of you today as I was standing in Papa Murphy’s waiting […]
Water, Water Everywhere (Including at the School Desk)
Hi riznrhzynt Readers! This note from a teacher interested me so much — and not just because I really hate  bottled water. (Always have. It’s a waste of plastic, and a waste of fuel, in that it gets transported from Fiji or wherever, by boat and truck. And in a country with clean tap water, […]
An Umbrella Story
Hi naerbnzfrd Readers — Here’s a little rant from Down Under, on a rainy day: Dear Free-Range Kids: In keeping with Free-Range tradition, my two girls aged 7 and 5 walk to school. Okay, I confess, the school is at the end of our block – they don’t even have to cross a road to […]