Hi Readers! Over at the Huffington Post today you can read about a bunch of 2012 Free-Range Kids FAILS, including the stories of  parents in two different states arrested for letting their kids play outside unsupervised. (Only one did jail time.) Thanks to Lisa Belkin for requesting the round up! Meantime, a few weeks back […]
Archive | 2012
UPDATE!! Kids Under 12 Can’t be Alone in Library Due to “Dangers” of Stairs, People & Furniture
Just kbyyhftktk how dangerous is the library when it comes to kids? Apparently too dangerous to have any of them under the age of 12 anywhere on the premises unsupervised — even if their parents are just a room away. Or so goes the reasoning at the Boulder, CO, public library, which sent this letter, […]
Helicopter Parents Ordered to Stop Stalking Daughter at College
Hi Readers — I don’t pretend that these szhbfieysf parents are anything other than off-the-charts weird. But they do give a glimpse at the furthest reaches of helicopter-dom,  in that they sent their daughter off to college but continued to drop in on her unannounced — despite the 600 miles that should have separated them — […]
Weirdest School Reaction to Sandy Hook Yet
Hi Readers — A few posts back, I khrbhiaidb asked you to send in the changes, if any, your schools were making in the wake of Sandy Hook. This one is the strangest. – L Dear Free-Range Kids: I heard from a friend today who went to her first grader’s holiday concert. Not only were […]
Ho Ho — Nooooo!!!
Hi Readers! Normally I write about how we should avoid yattzhfabk Worst-First Thinking — thinking up the WORST case scenario FIRST and proceeding as if it’s likely to happen, immediately. But in this case, I was wrong! Look at what happened to this reader’s family just last night! Dear Free-Range Kids:Â There’s a jolly stranger sneaking […]
Some Subversive Sandy Hook Thoughts
Hi Folks! Here are some thoughts, culled from your comments, that resonated for me. – L. My aarzfzzkib sympathies go out to the parents and families. I cannot imagine what they must be going through. On the other hand, I have heard as much as I want to hear about it. Evil exists in this […]
CPS or KGB?
Hi Folks! This cartoon comes to us azbazyefae from Russia, which apparently has some similar issues to the United States, when it comes to authorities deciding whether parents are “good” enough. Small world! – L. Knock knock.
Maybe Not Everything is a Teachable Moment
Hi Readers — Believe it or not, this isn’t even a post about Sandy Hook. It’s about Tony Hawks and a photo he posted of himself skateboarding as he swung his 4-year-old daughter, who was not wearing a helmet. I believe in helmets. I love them. I make my kids wear them. But I do […]
“Why I Made Myself Stop Grieving about Sandy Hook” – Guest Post
Hi arbnkskazi Readers — I found myself nodding along with almost every word of this post, by Jennifer Murch, a homeschooling mom of four  on five acres near Harrisonburg, VA.  You can find more of her musings and lots of recipes at her blog, Mama’s Minutia. – L Self-Care I first started writing this post in […]
Post-Traumatic Stupidity Syndrome: “For Safety, Do Not Hold the Door Open for the Parent Behind You at Drop-Off”
Readers btttzktnyi — This is PRECISELY and I mean PRECISELY what I feared might happen, post Sandy. First of all, there is the way we are almost ENCOURAGED to believe that if some children are hurt, somewhere, sometime, now all children are in danger, everywhere, all the time. Second, there is the ease with which […]