Someone called the cops when a gaggle of young folk in Gainesville, FL, had the temerity to play street basketball, instead of silently staring at their screens inside. Here’s how an officer responded (it’s a little garbled for the first 15 seconds or so):. And then the cop, as promised, returned, with “backup.” A must-see:
Author: lskenazy
Here’s a Yahoo Parenting piece by Beth Greenfield about kids not sledding along anymore. She was inspired by columnist Tom Purcell in TownHall.com, who wrote, “I drove by a popular sledding spot after it snowed last week. I only saw a handful of younger kids and every one of them had at least one adult keeping a watchful eye over him. ” Beth interviewed me about this, and what struck me was that perhaps there’s a link between “sledding alone,” which kids don’t do, and “Bowling Alone,” which adults do do. In his book by that name, Harvard public policy…
Anita Hirth, a software engineer from Denver, CO, asks this practical question: Dear Free-Range Kids: Thank you for being a rare voice of reason in these completely insane times. I live in a house on a very quiet street in a suburb of Denver. Yesterday evening I wanted to drive to pick up some takeout at the Chipotle 1 mile away from my house. It was 15 degrees outside, and I felt bad schlepping along my almost-6-year-old daughter with me on this cold and unexciting errand. I considered leaving her home alone for 20 minutes while I got the food,…
. Marisa Quinn, an office worker in Western Australia, sent in this article about whether you can leave your kid in the car even when just paying for “petrol,.” The article quotes an expert on child safety, Dr. Claire Wilkin, saying: “Children can become distressed in a matter of minutes, or even less in the case of babies. Children’s bodies heat up to five times faster than an adult. Children cannot cope with high ambient temperatures as well as adults can, and severe illness can occur much more rapidly,” she said. Severe illness? Like, what, polio? Malaria? She never says.…
. Though we are exhorted to live in a constant state of hysteria when it comes to our kids, some people get just too fed up — or tired — to heed the latest safety “advice.” Here’s kaenekfdsa one of them! Let us salute Anna Claire Vollers on Alabama’s AL.com for her dismissal of the nattering nabobs of helicoptivity. (Hey — is that a new word i just coined? Kids living in helicoptivity? Are they helicoptives?) 5 photos of your kids you shouldn’t post on social media & why I do it anyway, by Anna Claire Vollers “5 photos…
. Southwestern Law School Professor Catherine L.Carpenter puts it bluntly in her new research paper, Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative. “Truth be told,” she writes, “we are afraid for our children and we are afraid of our children.” Being afraid for our kids has lead us to create ever harsher sex offender registration laws. We want to protect our kids from creeps. But this protection plan of ours has backfired. And now, Carpenter writes, whenever we arrest a minor for a sex crime, our fear “of our children ensnares and punishes them under the very same…
. Fresh from the Meitivs of Maryland — the family famously investigated TWICE for child abuse simply for letting their kids walk home from the playground alone — comes this video starring parents Danielle, Alexander, and kids Rafi and Dvora (and some other relatives). I think you know the song! . https://youtu.be/LNAD6gYHXiE .
This post comes to us from the amazing appellate and intellectual property attorney at Andrews Kurth LLP, Matthew 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 Matthew Dowd On January 10, 2016, the Every Student Succeeds Act became law of the land. Lenore Skenazy [woo hoo!] has rightfully praised the new law as the “first federal Free-Range Kids legislation.” The Act is an excellent indication that our federal lawmakers…
Can’t tell you how fantastic it is to have Cory Doctorow — Boing Boing co-editor, author of “Little Brother,” and general genius all around — recognize the new Free-Range Kids’ legislation and the role of this blog in bringing attention to the problem it tries to address. That is: parents getting harassed/investigated/arrested for allowing their kids some unsupervised time outside. Doctorow writes: After years of documenting instances in which parents and kids are terrorized by law enforcement and child welfare authorities because the kids were allowed to be on their own in public places, the Free Range Kids movement has…
. How does something become so normal no one even questions it? Something like shampooing daily, or eating whole wheat bread, or paying $3 (!!!) for a coffee? The process is gradual. Some people start doing it, then others join the crowd — or are prodded to join — and eventually what was once unusual becomes the norm. And many of those norms are great! Viva flossing! But some norms aren’t. Some are excessive, onerous, expensive or ridiculous activities that get woven into everyday life without our noticing. That’s what is happening with taking our kids out of the car,…