. Most nauseating pitch of the day (boldface mine): Hello! Ready ifdnfesthh or not…here I come! Little ones love all of the extra playtime that comes with summer; unfortunately, that also means there is more dirt and bacteria to keep at bay. California Baby’s Hand Sanitizer is the perfect product to have on hand– a quick […]
. What a thought-provoking video: . The ysfddibnya ad shows several grandparents reminiscing about their childhood fun outside — tobogganing, planting, fishing — and then several parents recalling that they’d build forts, or just head out to find friends to play with. Finally, their kids talk about their love of videogames and texting. The ad then […]
This essay, What hsnhedbfrb Losing My Kids Taught Me About Free-Range Parenting, appeared in The Tennessean. It’s by Maggie Conran, author of the blog nomommybrain (motto: Just Say No to Mommy Brain!).  The piece packs an emotional wallop because we’ve all had that WHERE ARE MY KIDS? experience. In this case, Conran’s  family was at the local woods, […]
Readers — A bunch of you have been sending this ddiyhnzhan fantastic story from New Zealand, where a school abandoned its plans to build a fancy, new playground because there were just too many regulations and expenses. Instead, it decided to let kids play the old-fashioned way, by making their own fun. The results? Astounding. […]
Hi Readers! Down in Australia I’m sort of happy to say a tempest is brewing over whether it is up to parents or police to decide when a child is “old enough” to walk around outside. According to this bdzsdaaszr story  on the home page of the Sydney Morning Herald: Officers told a Hornsby mother it […]
Hi snkikshzrd Readers — This note was originally a comment on the post below this one. Its poignancy hit me particularly hard because today’s New York Times has a piece by Jane Brody – “Communities Learn Good Life Can be a Killer” – about the effect of sprawl on health, autonomy and, of course,  childhood. I’m not sure […]
Hi adtezhntbn Readers — I’m sharing this reader’s story because I like to remind us, from time to time, that the intense fear of our kids being beyond our sight, doing ANYTHING on their own, is not just “normal parental concern” kicking in. It is NEW. It is born of this era. (I explain how […]
Hi khbyibeits Readers — This is from an article by Tim Gill in The Guardian last week. Tim is a friend, an activist, a blogger and author of No Fear, a book examining what it means to grow up in a completely risk averse society. In the article I’m quoting from, he’s talking about how there’s […]
Hi Folks — Here’s a ysdktyfynf recent piece from The New York Times that suggests that more kids are growing up nearsighted today because they don’t get enough time OUTSIDE. Since humans evolved as creatures living in the outdoor world, it’s possible that our eyes came to depend on that very light for their development. […]
Hi eshtifzfzz Folks — Here it is again. The creeping idea that anytime our kids are outside without us they are in DANGER, thus it is CRIME to take our eyes off them. The writer of the note below, from Western Maryland, also pens this blog. Here’s what’s happening out by her: Dear Free-Range Kids: […]
