Readers — When I was growing up, I knew what predators were: Lions, hawks, sharks…. Now animals come to mind only distantly when we hear that word, and that has changed our outlook on crime, childhood, safety — and parenting. This musing comes to us from the commenter signed worthdoinganyway: Dear Free-Range Kids: I think just the explosion of the use of the word “predator” is part of the problem. I don’t remember, when I was growing up, people talking about “predators.” Sure, we knew there were kidnappers and child molesters and murderers, but it seems like in the…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — Here’s a piece from Tasha Batsford, “a working mama of three small children,” who writes about her parenting journey at www.maybediaries.com. She lives in New Zealand. The Downfall of The Baby Sling by Natasha Batsford For millennia, women the world over have been taking the fabric at their disposal and using it to tie their babies to their backs. While the practice largely died out in the 20th century, it has recently seen a revival and there are now a large number of businesses, from international organisations to work-at-home moms, creating their own interpretations of the traditional…
Readers — Here’s a poem to keep in your pocket…forever. It came to me by way of Bob Weiman, director of the lower school/assistant head of school at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes in Alexandria, VA: COME nzansdhndn TO THE EDGE, by Christopher Logue Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to the edge. It’s too high! COME TO THE EDGE! And they came, and we pushed, And they flew.
Readers — Once again cops have been called to the scene of a tragic crime: Some children were photographed in a water park by a man. Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t quite tragic. No one was hurt at all. And it wasn’t actually not a crime. In fact, you could call it a NON-EVENT. As the CBC reports: As far as police know, the individuals taking pictures had no connection to the children present. In the most concerning incident, on Sept. 21, a man with what police called “a powerful lens camera” was seen talking to children while taking…
Readers — This is an idea that someone should write their doctorate on. Dear Free-Range Kids: During the height of this summer’s “hot car” hysteria, I found your website and it was like a lightbulb went off. All the common sense I have stifled in the interest of being a “good mom” has a voice! And a community! Anyway, as I delved into your site, and came face to face with some of my own irrational fear as a modern day mother of three children (ages 9, 7, and 4) I started to really wonder, what happened? Like pretty…
Readers — Sometimes when I am trying to explain why the laws against letting kids wait in the car a few minutes make no sense, I point out that if we are going to prosecute parents for putting their kids at some infinitesimal risk, we’d also have to include all parents who raise their kids in homes with stairs, or feed their kids solid food. After all: those pose some danger, too. Where do we draw the line? Is ANYTHING in daily life safe enough? And then I opened today’s email: Dear Free-Range Kids: In two recent episodes of House…
Readers — Here are two comments on the post below this one, about a mom leaving her son, 7, at home for half an hour: It is absolutely irresponsible to leave a child age 5,6,7 even 8 at home alone. That is just lazy parenting. You leave them because it is not convenient for you to take them. Don’t disguise it by saying I am training my child to be independent or self sufficient. There is plenty of time and many other ways to teach your children responsibility. Wendy W. from someone who has lived the military life for 18…
Readers — Let’s hear it for Lizzie Heiselt, the MotherRunner blogger who wrote about letting her son, 7, stay home while she ran an errand. She took heat for the usual “What if…?”s but stayed calm and fantastically poised on The Doctors, a show that sometimes sneers at helicopter parenting and sometimes sneers at Free-Rangers (when I was on, it was the latter). Clearly, all the good doctors want is good ratings, so at the end of the Lizzie interview they resort to the national pastime of dreaming up fantabulous circumstances to scare her and the audience with. (E.g., “But…
Readers — A new app lets college students alert the authorities when they leave one building and head to another, so the cops can instantly come looking for them if they don’t get to their destination. Which makes sense if you are going to college in ISIS-held neighborhoods of Syria. Otherwise it is yet another way to convince us that everyone under 21 is in constant, life-threatening danger. Especially on campus! As South Coast Today reports (boldface mine): DARTMOUTH — Audry Kivlin is a freshman dorm resident assistant at UMass Dartmouth. Her biggest job, she said, is “to keep students…
Readers — Here are two letters I just got, with but a single lesson: You are not allowed to trust your child in even the safest of circumstances simply because someone ELSE (or that someone’s insurance policy) can IMAGINE something TERRIBLE happening, no matter how fantastical. All children are too vulnerable to be out in the world, even for a minute. Bold face is mine. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I haven’t responded yet to this note from our elementary school principal. Finding a respectful and non-snarky way to respond to the paranoia is proving difficult. My…