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…
Author: lskenazy
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 .
. Like everyone else, I wish that the suicidal Germanwings pilot had been stopped from boarding the plane. I even think it makes sense for Europe to copy our “two people in the cockpit at all times” rule. Nonetheless, I love this essay by Stacey Gordon on her blog Xray Vision about the impossibility of predicting and preventing every tragedy. SHOULDACOULDAWOULDA, by Stacey Gordon After every tragedy that involves numerous casualties has been analyzed from every conceivable angle; after it has been Monday morning quarterbacked to death by the 24 hours news cycle, a mantra is born. It is always…
British parents in Cheshire are on notice: Let your kids play a “mature” videogame and this will not go unnoticed by the state. This new level of micromanagement comes to us from SpikedOnline writer Nancy McDermott, who says, “Amazing how abuse has been defined down to patents making a banal decision others don’t agree with.” The story? ITV reports: Parents have been told by headteachers [the British word for “principals’] that they will be reported to police and social services for neglect if they allow their children to play over-18 computer games, according to the Sunday Times. The newspaper reported…