This is a lovely piece about Free-Range Kids from the CBC (Canada’s public broadcasting station). Couldn’t have said it better myself: Note: Your child does not HAVE to look like my son Izzy to go Free-Range…even though the kid the CBC found sure does!
Author: lskenazy
Here are some thoughts from readers on how to keep a rare but horrific danger in perspective, especially when tragedies like the murder of Maddy Middleton become part of the weave of everyday life (and Facebook posts), no matter how removed we may be from the town or time when they occurred: I thought it was strangely poetic somehow that this article was imbedded as a link midway through the murder story: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Multiple-People-Injured-by-Fallen-Tree-Kidspace-Childrens-Museum-Pasadena-319087591.html Sometimes, things just… happen. And no one saw it coming. And no one had any warning. And so there’s no lesson to be learned, in terms of…
The saddest news. You know what it is. Hearing that 8-year-old Maddy Middleton of Santa Cruz, CA, was found dead today, and the suspect is a 15 year old neighbor. I will remind us all that this is the least common of crimes. That there are no more murders today than there were in our own youth. That when danger is random and exceedingly rare there is no way to organize one’s life to prevent it. (Remember, after the attacks of 9/11, many Americans cancelled their flights to avoid terrorism — and there was an uptick in auto deaths. The…
Here’s how we look to other, less fear-wracked countries. Boldface, mine. (And for contrast, see my piece in yesterday’s New York Post about not expecting kids to walk to school): Dear Free-Range Kids: I am from Germany and what I read on your webpage is really shocking for me. How did American parents get so paranoid and CPS professionals support that! I am a social worker and a mother of a 4 year old girl and a 6 year old boy. I work for the city of Regensburg at the youth department. Our CPS would NEVER even think about investigating…
Hey folks — Researchers at the University of California-Irvine are studying how people perceive risk. They need people to take their survey and have asked the Free-Range community to join in. I just took it myself. It’s basically brief descriptions of situations when a child is left alone. You rate how safe they are. The whole thing takes five minutes. Here’s the link: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2155453/FRK-1 Thanks! The researchers promise to send us the results! – L .
. This letter I got yesterday reminds me of one of the most thorough, fascinating, damning study I’ve ever read about where the “No touch” policy comes from (and why it is unnecessary, and how it actually makes us all MORE afraid for our kids): So those sex crazed pedophiles have invaded the Girl Scouts now apparently. My daughter went to horse camp this summer and even though the girls are as young as 5 and out in the heat and sun of Tucson the female leaders are unable to help the girls put sunscreen on or help them with…
Here’s a a piece in Canada’s Globe & Mail by teacher Dionne LaPointe-Bakota, about her 3-year-old Malcolm’s “wildness.” Malcolm growls and chases and brandishes sticks. Onlookers who see him always say something like, “My, you have your hands full!” She wonders if they really mean she should make her boy act more like a stereotypical girl: Malcolm and I met some friends in the park after their son’s music/art/dance class (I can’t remember which). Malcolm scouted out a stick as soon as we arrived and began to swing it around. I asked him to be careful and left it at…
In an essay in today’s Washington Post, “Raising free-spirited black children in a world set on punishing them,” Stacia Brown sounds frustrated with the Free-Range Kids movement. She dearly wishes African-American kids could go outside and Free-Range without having to worry about actual discrimination and danger. (Me too!) And she is particularly angered that often low income African-American families who can’t or don’t supervise their kids every single second are not given the benefit of the doubt by Child Protective Services: Skenazy’s site is filled with stories of parents whose families have run afoul of Child Protective Services by allowing…
. Here’s a chunk of my piece that just ran on Politico. After explaining that I’m the mom who let her 9 year old ride the subway alone, yada yada, and that our society overestimates danger and underestimates kids (also yada yada), I went on to say that keeping our kids constantly supervised is — …catastrophic. Free play turns out to be one of the most important things a kid can do to develop into the kind of adult who’s resilient, entrepreneurial—and a pleasure to be around. You see, when kids play on their own, they first of all have…
Let’s help this lady! What CAN and CAN’T strangers do when they see a kid anymore? Dear Free-Range Kids: I am a flummoxed grandmother, age 67, from a rural community in the Midwest. What I see with kids today shocks and startles me. I don’t know when to say hi to a child for fear of getting a lecture from a parent about their child not knowing me (I’m a stranger), to even looking at a child when I walk in the park. When I travel by air and a child is being unruly by my side,…