In a hallelujah moment for parents everywhere, charges have been dropped against Susan Terrillion, the Maryland mom who took her kids, 8 and 9, on a trip to to Rehoboth Beach, DE, and left them at their vacation home while she went to pick up dinner 4.5 miles away. While she was gone the kids, who’d been instructed to stay inside, didn’t. Instead, they took the family’s two dogs out to relieve themselves. The unleashed dogs proceeded to run off, and a man driving by almost hit them (the dogs, that is). As he got out to help the kids…
Author: lskenazy
The show Stranger Things takes place in the ’80s and you know what they say (or at least what the novelist L.P. Hartley said): The past is foreign country. On the show, kids ride their bikes and have adventures on their own. Here’s what one of the show’s stars, Millie Bobby Brown, says about then versus now in an interview with Jen Chaney at Vulture: As somebody who wasn’t alive in the ’80s, what felt weird to you about kind of going back in time and seeing how things were back then? Was it the lack of modern technology? .…
Helicopter parents get a lot of blame and I don’t want to add to it. I want to end it. For the most part, parents helicopter because society DEMANDS it. There are schools that won’t let kids walk home on their own, and cops who chide parents who let their kids play outside. There are companies peddling devices to GPS our kids, or read their texts, or watch their keystrokes, warning us of the horrible things that will happen if we don’t. Then the media blasts us with horror stories. So the Free-Range movement is not anti-helicopter parent. It is…
After a neighbor called the cops and CPS on a mom whose child was 50 feet away from her in her own large backyard (see the post right below this one) and the cops, thankfully, realized how ridiculous that was, the mom wanted to fight back. She pondered suing the neighbor. She wanted to make it clear to the neighborhood — and world — that kids have the RIGHT to play outside, if their parents think they’re ready. . Many of you readers cautioned against this, saying let’s not fight excess legal involvement with excess legal involvement. But David DeLugas,…
Folks, I am hoping this story will soon go national. Local news in Decatur, GA, is following up on it. It comes to us from Kim, a mom to 3 kids, aged 7, 4 1/2, and 3. . Dear Free-Range Kids: This week I had 3 police officers knock on my door. A neighbor saw my 4 1/2 year old playing in the park behind our house that’s an extension of our yard, and reported us to DFCS for neglect, then called the police. . We bought our home for the backyard and access to the park. Our…
Whenever I got an email from Alisha in Arizona, I knew I was in for an outrage — and often a laugh. Most recently she wrote the post, “I Must Get Out of the Car to Pick Up My 8-year-old and I am Disabled.” Though her child was perfectly capable of walking out to the car, the teacher insisted Alisha come fetch her, despite the fact that for Alisha this was a physical ordeal. It was also the same feisty, fed-up, Free-Range Alisha who sent us “What Happens When You Set Off the TSA Groin Alarm” — which the metal…
BREAKTHROUGH! Instead of us Free-Rangers agreeing amongst ourselves that it should be up us to decide what age we want to let our kids walk and play outside unsupervised, now an entire state has gone Free-Range! I realize it will be hard to read the poster here (I’m having trouble myself), but here’s the best of the best advice: Oregon has no legal minimum age requirement for children traveling to school on their own. How can I know when my child is ready to travel to school alone? Think about your unique child — can your child: *Pay attention? *Remember…
I get emails on a weekly basis from moms chided by onlookers for letting their kids do anything by themselves: walk to the corner store, play in the backyard (editing that one now!), climb up the jungle gym without a parent underneath, arms widespread, like a fireman ready to catch a jumper. So this note surprised me: Dear Free-Range Kids: My almost six-year-old kindergartner and I walk to school (about 2 blocks with a crosswalk and crossing guard across a busy street and one quiet neighborhood street to cross just before it). Since the second week of school, my son…
Here’s a modern day dilemma that I don’t have an answer to. On this overcast Sunday (well, it’s overcast in NYC), thought I’d put it out there to you: Dear Free-Range Kids: I have a question I think maybe your readers can help. Recently, my neighbor ask me to drive her 12-year-old boy for free to Sunday school, which is 15 miles away. I do not mind doing so, since I have to drive my son to the same school anyway. But my friend asked me what if my neighbor sues me if a car accident happens? Now I am…
And what is the Free-Range take on clowns, you ask? Yuck. Not yuk-yuk, like funny. Yuck like why would anyone ever find a white-painted face with distorted features amusing, rather than horrifying? But of course the bigger question now is what is going on with our culture’s clown craziness. Clowns are popping up everywhere, leading to strange sightings, warning letters sent home from school and actual arrests. That’s not to mention this weird case — a man in Kentucky shot his gun into the air when he mistook a woman walking her dog for a creepy clown. I’m sure the…