Archive | 2013

I guess the 13-year-old boy did not look like these kids.

Cops Say Mom Left Kids Home with 13 y.o. WHY IS THIS A CRIME??

Readers — I was going to go out on a high — the happy post below this one, about kids enjoying a New Year’s party together while their parents did the same at another ftkyrsdsya house — when one of you sent in this: “Mom Left Young Kids Alone to Go Clubbing: Police” Young? Her […]

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Woo-hoo! Here's to a Free-Range 2014!

What to Do With The Kids When You Go Out on New Year’s Eve

Readers — This may sound insane to some, but to me it sounds beyond fun. Happy New Year! – L Dear Free-Range Kids: In honor of the upcoming holiday, I wanted to share with you my memory of my favorite New Year’s eve growing up. This was in the late 70’s, growing up in a […]

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It's 8 degrees and Rudy Hummel is snuggling into bed...outside.

‘Snow Joke! Teen Sleeps Outside, Nightly, in Minnesota!

Readers — Here’s a story from the Star Tribune to warm you heart! Free-Range-wise, one of the things we like to remind folks is that THIS generation of kids is not suddenly the most delicate in history! They come fully equipped to handle the same challenges kids did for generations. (Though personally I am a […]

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This is good for all concerned.

Of Kids and Dogs and Allergies and Asthma

Readers — A study discussed in yesterday’s SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle’s website) suggests that kids growing up with dogs may be a little more protected against allergies and asthma, thanks to early exposure to the bacteria the dogs bring in. The bacteria seem to sort of “immunize” the kids. What’s Free-Range about that? Dirt. […]

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Nancy Nord on Common Sense and Imaginary Dangers

The other day I had lunch with Nancy Nord, a former commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Joining us was one of my personal heroes, Philip Howard. Here’s what Nancy wrote on her blog, Conversations with Consumers, a forum that doggedly points out the difference (and distance) between safety and paranoia. As a gal […]

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It is hard to stay sane in a society that sees a boy like this as hideously endangered.

“You Don’t Deserve to Have Kids!” — A Parking Lot Encounter

Dear Readers — When you live in a society spasming with fear, it is hard not to flinch. That’s why we are here on this blog together. To support each other when the world mistakes our confidence and rationality for neglect and abuse. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I just finished reading Free Range Kids, […]

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Contraband!

How DARE Some Lady Give Cookies to Kids?

Readers — This story from Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins is heartwarming, and enraging. Seems a mom there, Anne Tabat, wanted to thank her kids’ school bus driver. So she baked some cookies and brought them to the bus stop — one for the driver and one for each of the kids on the bus, […]

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