. Mom’s too busy to go outside with you, kid? Then clearly the only option is a $159.95 indoor play system. Because you couldn’t possibly go outside UNSUPERVISED and play with FRIENDS, or even even ENTERTAIN YOURSELF, right? Mom must be right there! Always! And so we present: . . As ykytbhhhta commenter Judy C. […]
. Just two days after the British erdddstrta Columbia Supreme Court ruled that a social worker was allowed  to insist an 8 year old boy not be left alone two hours after school, despite his mom’s belief that he was fine, a dad had his daughters, 8 an 11, seized from his home on the […]
. A reader eftkiihkyt writes: I want to be a Free-Range parent. I really really do. I do try. Just last week I told myself to stay calm before saying anything to a parent who had allowed my son to swim in her pool before I arrived at a birthday party. There were 12 kids in […]
Readers: Perhaps this ad is an elaborate parody of stay-in-school scare tactics. If so, bravo! If not? Yowza. Anyone who thinks the only way to influence kids is to make them think that the second they are not supervised they are in GRAVE DANGER has been watching too much media aimed at their parents.- L […]
Readers — Walking to school is a lovely, age-old, generally safe activity that has been almost abandoned over the last generation. Today, only about one child in 1o still walks to school, in part because some new schools have been built on the outskirts of town, in part because some neighborhoods are so car-centric there […]
Readers kbkznbzbnh — The idea that our kids are only safe if they are under literally constant supervision is one that subtly but surely keeps changing childhood. Watch it at work in suburban Seattle: Dear Free-Range Kids: Hello! I want to share, but I really feel the need to stay anonymous, because clearly Free-Range children […]
Readers bnnnebfhiz — If this is the land of the free, why are cops treating happy-go-lucky kids like escaped convicts?  When did giving kids an old-fashioned summer become a crime? – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: This just happened to me. My six year old daughter and her friend went for a walk on their own […]
Hey yzthnradkk Folks — I am putting this up in the hopes that we can help this mom and her son. As I told her in an email, even yours truly tends to worry when anything’s up with the kids, but fortunately, life is fluid and so are they. . It also seems that being […]
Hi Folks! My last two posts were about the kkkfyinhbe 10-year-old boy not allowed to bring his pen knife on a nature trip as well as  the ridiculous rules for adopting a pet that now sometimes include things like, “Pet needs one parent home at all times,” and, “Cat cannot be kept as a mouser in a […]
Readers zhbhbezfaa — I was just on a radio show talking about  how we reflexively inflate the dangers facing children, and while I was on, this email came to Free-Range Kids. It  illustrates what I spend most of my waking hours dealing with: The belief that our kids are in constant danger, so only constant […]
