Here is what the “Maryland Free-Range Mom” Danielle Meitiv wrote regarding last night’s ordeal with the police and child “protective” services: The police coerced our children into the back of a patrol car and kept them trapped there for three hours, without notifying us, before bringing them to the Crisis Center, and holding them there without dinner for another two and a half hours. We finally got home at 11pm and the kids slept in our room because we were all exhausted and terrified. How has this incident made the Meitiv children any safer? What were they protected from? As…
Author: lskenazy
UPDATE: The children have finally been returned to the parents, at least four hours after the cops picked them up. Fox 5 in DC reports: The Meitivs say CPS didn’t call them to let them know they had the kids until about 8 p.m. The Meitivs drove to CPS to pick up their kids, but say they were told to “take a seat” and initially weren’t given any information about their children, except that they were there. Just after 10:30 p.m., the Meitivs were reunited with their kids. They had to sign a temporary safety plan to take them home.…
From the: “Don’t confuse me with the facts” dept. comes this note about a note: Dear Free-Range Kids: Our weekly school newsletter contained a paragraph about supervising children at school events with the gem “Unfortunately, the world is not as it was many years ago.” I responded with some objections, citing the various statistics about crime being a decline and such and this is what I got back. “I do not believe the statement to be inaccurate. The world is not the same as it was many years ago. Parents in times gone by often turned their children…
If you look at the tabs at the top of this blog, one says, “Find a Free-Range Friend.” (Online on its own it’s freerangefriend[dot]com>). It’s a way to find other families near you who also want to give their kids more independence. When my kids were younger, one stumbling block to getting them out of the house (and by “house” I mean 37-story apartment building) was that they’d look outside and not see any other kids to play with. I am pretty sure that other kids were looking out their windows and sighing, too. When the streets and parks are…
From Tamara Treber, a high school English teacher, comes this story she calls her “Reality Check.” Dear Free-Range Kids: My husband and I have two kids (ages 7 and 5). We live in an impoverished, largely agricultural area of Central California. Nevertheless, we have a nicely appointed home on a quiet cul-de-sac. I read your book, I follow the website, and while I found myself agreeing with your work and point of view….I wasn’t letting go. Recently my parents were visiting from out of town and my mom and I took a walk around the block with…
James Davis, a summer camp consultant and summer camp director, lives in Dover, NH. He wrote to tell me about his Free-Range-y camp. I like what I heard. But having spoken at many camp conferences, I’ve come to believe that overnight camp is inherently Free-Range, in that the kids are away from their parents. There’s just something heady about being on “your own,” even in the more structured camps. . Anyway, Davis’ camp intrigues me because it’s inspired by the Sudbury Valley school. When I visited the Sudbury in Framingham, MA — the mothership — I felt like I’d stumbled…
What is it that the authorities do not understand about what it means to be human? Humans cannot be perfect. Humans cannot see all. And yet, in cases like this — a 4 year old with autism wandering away from the home without his mom’s knowledge — we seem so ready, even EAGER to blame the parent. The story, as reported by KETV 7 in Omaha, is simply this: The child wandered off. When his mom realized he was missing, she went out to search for him. Meantime: 911 dispatchers received a call around 8:15 p.m. Thursday about a child…
It’s spring. Time to let the kids have some of the freedom we all enjoyed. Study after study shows that kids NEED free time and independence for the sake of their bodies, minds, spirit. Here’s how one mom — and her child — took the leap: I live in Park Slope, a largely residential but very urban neighborhood in Brooklyn. I have a 6-year-old daughter, and my husband and I have been disagreeing about when to let her out and about by herself. She takes the bus to school, but we haven’t come to any agreement about when…
This story comes to us from a reader named Steve who boils it down thusly: Three kids are standing outside their house. When a stranger gets out of his car, running toward them and yelling, they run inside, probably afraid of the guy acting crazy. Nevertheless, the stranger follows the kids into the house, still yelling. Did the kids not know to lock the door? Had they not been taught the perils of home invasions? Did the out-of-control stranger break through the door? Whatever the case, the situation was life-threatening, but not in the way one would…
Meet my friends on the registry, Josh Gravens and Galen Baughman: I wrote about my brunch in The New York Daily News. Here’s to laws that actually do what they’re supposed to — protect kids — nstead of ruining the lives of people who do not pose a threat to them. — L .