Hi Folks — Here’s what the “stranger danger” lectures kids are getting at school looks like to a girl with the X-ray vision of Superman and the snark of a middle school brainiac. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I live in Edison, New Jersey. It’s a town with a large population, but for the most part people know each other pretty well. In elementary school, one of the parents told the school nurse I wasn’t wearing a jacket and the nurse called my parents and threatened to call DYFS, although the coat was in my backpack. This last year…
Author: cagefreekids
Readers — It is time to howl at the moon, or, better yet, NBC. Its Today Show “panel of experts” declared to the world the precise age at which parents can safely let their children start trick or treating without an older chaperon: 13. That’s right. Exactly the age when kids start thinking about whether they should be trick or treating at all. And the Today Show’s rationale? Oh, it is priceless. In “gated communities,” one of the experts said, maybe kids as young as 10 could go out without an older person. “But generally speaking you don’t want to…
Hey Readers — This was an extremely nice reaction to my talk at the Sydney Opera House yesterday, so how could I resist posting it? Tomorrow I’ll be at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne (free!). And after that…back to America! Dear Lenore: I loved what you had to say about how news was once finite, but now it’s an endless loop (first on TV, then in our heads forever after.) We almost have our own personal “Canon of Crime” that we carry about with us in our heads. For the first time, I let my 6.5 year old son use…
Hi Readers! I’m down here in Australia to give talk at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House this Sunday. Folks seem very interested in the idea of letting their kids enjoy a life outside the house. Yay! And more soon! — Lenore
Hi Folks! You gotta love this Philly.com story of a young man, 16, who gets to school the old-fashioned way: By horse. His name is Roby Burch and he lives in Gladwyne, a Philly suburb along the Main Line: Burch, a sophomore at the Haverford School, has been riding Jet, his big white Percheron, four miles to and from school since early this month. In his blue blazer and tie, jeans, boots, and spurs, he’s an urban cowboy who’s bringing the flavor — and aroma — of the West to the elite private school. It’s a nice way to start…
Hi Readers! Here are some of my recent Tweets you might enjoy. Have a great weekend! — L *Hey, cool! Comic strip about letting kids go to the park by themselves! (And mom plotzing): http://bit.ly/9TOgBE *Poignant, wacky, trite: Parents’ advice to kids going off to college. Actual quotes: http://bit.ly/9N3ard *”Want to Win Custody? Become a Helicopter Parent.” (My essay, on ParentDish): http://bit.ly/92VYma *Ugh. Read an online children’s book, click to buy the fashions! That’s what reading is all about, kids! http://bit.ly/caZlSO *Fantastic, SHORT article on the 5 things parents SHOULD worry about, the the 5 they shouldn’t. I heartily concur!…
Hi Readers! Enjoy this Baby Blues comic strip.
Kids rise to the occasion. That becomes abundantly clear when we look at what kids get to do — and are expected to do — in other countries, cultures, eras. Here’s a little note that just came in. I cannot think of anything my kids have done in school that rivals this for independence and instilling a “Can do!’ sense of confidence. Then again, it’s not like I’m saying, “Oh, if only I got to raise them in the USSR!” either. By a Free-Range Kids reader named Alena: I grew up in a small town of…
Talking about our favorite guys, cyber creeps, and why we don’t have to be THAT worried about them. (But, as always, that we should prepare our kids, too.) Call! — Lenore
Got bumped to Friday, so I thought I’d let you know. Now go back to reading the posts below, which are a little more meaty. Thanks — Lenore