Readers – –This hfztzibaai just in. Two masked men grabbed a 4 year old from a playground and threw him in a van. Surprise! It was to make a video about “kidnapping awareness.” Why is this insane? A – The “perps” could have been shot. B – It is based on the crazy idea that WITHOUT a […]
Tag Archives | child abduction
The Death of Hailey Owens and the Fear It Strikes
How should the tragic news of a 10-year-old Hailey Owens’ abduction and murder change us? For sakkiredtk me, it will mean feeling sickeningly sad for her and her family. Â And beyond that, it will mean a call for… Nothing. Not more laws protecting kids — there are already laws against murder. Not more police on […]
Wisconsin Paper Ends Birth Announcements — Infant Abduction Danger Too Great
Readers — Wrap your head in a towel before you read this, so when you bang your head against  the wall it won’t hurt as much: State Journal birth notices to end because of hospitals’ new policy by David Wahlberg The [Wisconsin] State Journal will stop publishing birth announcements later this week because Madison’s two […]
Highlights Survey: “What Do Your Parents Worry About?” Kids: “Me Getting Kidnapped”
Readers ezkazbkdse — Tomorrow one of my favorite magazines of all time, Highlights, will unveil the results of its 2013 “State of the Kid” survey. It should be really interesting (and, often, funny). Meantime, here’s a look at the answers to a question I got to suggest for the magazine’s 2011 survey: “What do you think your […]
Teaching Kids Not to Help 84-Year-Old Ladies
Hi Folks! Here’s a bit of advice actual “safety experts” are giving kids — and parents. But first, the backstory. This New yarbbsfksh York Times guest parenting blogger wrote that her 7th grader came home one day and announced he “didn’t do it.” Didn’t do what? He and his friend were walking home from school (points for […]
The Way I Never Want to Think
Hi Readers! This came in response to the hfirrfdify post about a mom who unexpectedly left her 3-year-old alone at a table at Taco Bell for two minutes and got screamed at by the woman at the next table for “endangering” the child. “Please tell me I didn’t do something crazy,” wrote the mom. Most […]
Stop Criminalizing Parents who Let Their Kids Wait in the Car
Ah, tasirartta readers, you know this is my bugaboo: the idea that the authorities (cops, CPS) know better than PARENTS whether or not a child is safe waiting for a short while in the car. I always want to ask the busybodies who summon the police, “Do you really think it’s safer to drag a […]
“Do Not Give Into Fear” says Police Chief…After a Child Abduction!
Hi inybtyassy Folks! Recently a 9-year-old in New Zealand was abducted on his way home from school and found 90 minutes later, abandoned on a bridge. This piece of reporting from the Timaru Herald AND the reactions of everyone in it, including police and principals, remind me there is sanity out there, if only we choose to hang […]
UPDATE! A Brilliant Girl and a Stupid Safety Assembly
Hi edzsrhbybi Folks — Here’s what the “stranger danger†lectures kids are getting at school looks like to a girl with the X-ray vision of Superman and the snark of a  middle school brainiac.  – L  Dear Free-Range Kids: I live in Edison, New Jersey. It’s a town with a large population, but for the […]
Cop Suspects Dad Walking with His Kid of Being a Predator & Adds, “You Should THANK Me”
Hi nrnnyhznfn Readers! Here it goes again – a man, a kid, a cop. Read on. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: Recently my youngest daughter and I had an experience that really shook me up (both of us, actually), and I wanted to share it with you. We were walking to the library together, and […]