Hey hdidaadthk Readers — Just got this sociologically stimulating note and wanted to post it for us to chew on. So chew! Dear Free-Range Kids: The rise and fall of the “Baby on Board” signs is a fascinating case study for our topic of Free-Ranging. The signs became popular as a plea for caution from […]
Archive | 2011
A Glass of Sprite
Hi idbzsfbdtd Readers! I loved this letter from a guy named Brad. You may, too. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: Â I happened to rabbit-hole into your blog tonight, and read it for about 2 hours, fascinated by the psychotic parents out there. I’m 27 and was raised Free-Range. I was allowed to run amok, largely […]
How Very Welcoming!
Hi Readers! Here’s the sign a nature center director is about to take down from the local preserve where, for the record, there are no cliffs, no plunging ravines, no standing water, no wild animals beyond the usual squirrel-type thing, no snakes, and no evil trees. There IS some poison ivy. Anyway, as he put […]
A Bouncing Bundle of Kidnappable Joy
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, […]