Hi sdztkzydhk Readers — My friend Nancy McDermott, a columnist at  Spiked-Online,  wrote this to me the other day. It was not apropos of the Sandy Hook shooting, just apropos  of being alive, being a parent, and being a realist, which means (believe it or not) being grateful. – L. My son turned 10 the other […]
Hi dnrafrbtbb Readers! Wondering what’s happening at your local schools, vis a vis more security. My older son’s high school is conducting a lockdown drill today, my younger son’s principal emailed home a comforting note but did not discuss any new procedures. Â One reader wrote: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m wondering if anyone has contacted or […]
Hi Folks — I know everyone’s obviously tense at the moment, but here’s a  classic overreaction: When some boys were shooting a video of themselves acting out the body’s immune system using an umbrella, they were mistaken for psychopaths and the school went into lockdown. Kids hid and cried, parents careened to the school (and, […]
Hi Readers — Here’s an issue I truly want help figuring out. I just got a comment on the post below this one (which was about why zydhtfibfb the Sandy Hook shooting feels so close)Â from a reader very far away: All the way over here in Australia, this pain is just as raw. The […]
Hi yhyhsiydae Readers — Here’s a piece I wrote for The Atlantic about the shooting. It’s not about gun control, it’s not about mental health services or the lack thereof. It’s about how living in modern, instantly connected times changes us, our reactions and our expectations. – L. A School Shooting in the Distance In […]
Readers, my heart is like yours: Shattered. My perspective, however, may be a little different. It’s impossible not to feel afraid, sad, sickened and deeply pessimistic when something like this occurs. However, “something like this” — well, there aren’t a lot of somethings like this, and that’s a truth I am desperately trying to remind […]
Hi sfznffdrta Folks! Here’s a mom who requests your help on one of the issues of the day: The out-sourcing of playground squabbles to parents.  I DO believe in being tuned in our kids, and  providing them with comfort, support, wisdom and discipline. But what happens when the world around us expects something else: minute-by-minute […]
Hi bzsiassyza Readers! Here’s a question I’d love you to weigh in on — as would the writer, Maya. (And — totally off topic but too cool for me not to mention is that when I saw Maya’s unusual last name I asked her if she could possibly  be related to a woman who shared […]
And nntrdisyky now, a new feature I think we’ll call the Liability Chronicles, chronicling the way insurance, lawsuits, lawyers and the fear of all three are changing the world. Starting with winter. We are the first generation of hominids to be scared to have normal winter fun. – L. . Dear Free-Range Kids: Our local […]
Ah, readers, here’s a wild story of  a busybody gone batty: Seeing a toddler left alone in a running car, some nut stole the car AND baby because he was “upset” with the dad for leaving the kid alone. But as the reader who sent this story to me, Michele, dryly noted: “It seems to me […]
