Go to LetGrow.org to see the original Today Show interview with me about letting my 9-year-old ride the subway alone (host was quite dubious) vs. the CBS Evening News interview that ran last night on Utah’s Free-Range Kids Law, which, the report explained, naturally allows kids to naturally walk to school and naturally parents are […]
Search results for "culture of fear"
Why Are Parents So Scared? Ask Barry “Culture of Fear” Glassner
Hi Folks! Just read a wonderful, kndybztfda cogent Q&A with Barry Glassner, the author of The Culture of Fear and now the prez of Lewis & Clark University. He’s been tracking our escalating worries for over a decade and come to the same conclusions as me (he came to them first!!) Â about where the fear […]
From Trophy Culture to Campus Microaggressions
Dan hsdarfyhky Shuchman, chairman of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), the group that fights for free speech on campus, has written this Wall Street Journal review of a book by one of my favorite thinkers, Frank Furedi. Furedi wrote “Paranoid Parenting” back in 2002, which was the first book I read about this […]
It’s Impossible to be a Parent in Our Hyper-Critical, Hyper-Vigilant, Picky, Panicked Culture
. The title of this Time piece, “Parenting sezsiatyek is Now Officially Impossible,” made me sit up. It’s so true! Â Anything we do as parents can and may be used against us. It’s like living in a totalitarian state — we are not free to raise our kids as we see fit because we are […]
How to Fight the Laws and Culture That Mandate Helicopter Parenting
. This post comes to us from the amazing appellate and intellectual property attorney at Andrews Kurth LLP, Matthew ftadkzhbay Dowd, who took on the Meitiv cases(s), pro bono, and won!  He says he now gets to sleep in sometimes because his 11-year-old son and 7-old-daughter walk themselves to school. Building on the Every Student Succeeds Act, by […]
Kids Getting Drunk on Hand Sanitizer: CNN’s Latest Fear
. A bunch of you sent me this feahsntrbr CNN piece about the hidden dangers (every TV producer’s favorite kind!) of hand sanitizer. While the video is about teens deliberately drinking the stuff, the written story is about Purell-pickled nippers, and that’s what I’d like to discuss today. It starts with a story that’s almost too […]
“Some Kids Freeze in Dangerous Situations!” Your Response to this Fear?
Readers siihiffear — It’s kind of amazing to hear all the reasons we can’t trust our kids to be smart, safe or competent. As Peter Gray puts it in his book, Free To Learn, “I doubt there has ever been a human culture, anywhere, anytime, that underestimates children’s abilities more than we North Americans do […]
How Helicopter Parents Needlessly Scared My Anxious Son
We can’t control the busybodies out there (sigh). But this mom wonders how can we get them to stop interfering with our kids’ sense of safety — especially if our kids are anxious to begin with: Dear sfrnbiekbz Free-Range Kids: I have always been a Free-Range parent/educator and for me, it’s about common sense and […]
You Don’t Have to Breastfeed Till Age Five to be “Free-Range”
“Free-Range” can mean many things to many people, which is fair, I guess. It’s not like I have the trademark on “free-range.” But I actually do have the trademark on “Free-Range Kids” (because my friend is an intellectual property attorney), and the Free-Range Kids book/blog/movement does not believe that serious illnesses can be cured homeopathically, […]
How To Arrange a Free-Range Parents Meet-Up
. This extremely helpful post comes from Rachel Howe, a writing teacher and mom in South Philly, where she started the South Philly Parents Resource Center. What she’s describing sounds like a sort of “consciousness raising” or support group, without the heavy title. Dear ehrrzbsdir Free-Range Kids: I’ve got three children to chase after (and […]