Sometimes, you just need a little fun. Thanks to Donna for sending this link:
Author: lskenazy
Readers — Normally I don’t put entire news stories on my site, but this time I must. Without seeing every word, you might be tempted to believe I edited out the important parts — like any evidence whatsoever that something truly nefarious had just transpired. So here goes. This is from WKYT in Kentucky (boldface mine): WILMORE, Ky. (WKYT) -A neighborhood is on high alert after an unknown man approached a young girl. It happened at the intersection of Creekside Drive and Butler Boulevard in the Meadows subdivision in WIlmore. WKYT’s Sam Smith talked to several people in the area…
Readers, here are some tidbits from “24 Surprising Things about Parenting in the United States,” a project on the blog A Cup of Jo by New York mom Joanna Goddard. The author interviewed nine moms who grew up abroad and are raising their kids here. Boldface mine: On safety: I was surprised by how supervised children are here. In Japan, kids go to school by themselves. As soon as children start first grade, they walk and ride trains and buses by themselve — even in Tokyo! I was surprised that in New York, my friend walks her 12-year-old son to…
Hi Readers! The other day I spoke with Carlos Morales. a former investigator with Child Protective Services who grew disillusioned with the agency (to put it mildly) and is now president and founder of Child Protective Services Victim Support, the host of the Truth Over Comfort Podcast, and a committed legal advocate for family reunification. In other words, he helps families trying to counter the power of CPS, in and out of court. His pursuit of a radical overhaul for child protection programs has led him to university lecture halls, television and radio studios, and the pages of a variety…
Readers — I hear that this story has gone viral, and why wouldn’t it? It’s about two Scottish moms who felt they were being followed around the supermarket by guys who wanted to kidnap their kids. (That is: Two separate moms felt this, about eight months apart, a separate supermarkets. But surely that still constitutes a trend?) How could these women TELL what was up? Did they see a gun, or handcuffs, or maybe a flash of grocery list: “Bread, milk, baby”? Oh wait — HERE’S how the ladies knew these men were out to steal their babies IN PUBLIC,…
A short and sweet note from abroad (and a broad). Remember: Fear doesn’t need FACTS. It feeds on itself. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I live in Switzerland. The paranoia is coming here, too. I gave birth yesterday and am hanging out in the hospital. Protocol is if I want to shower I need to send the kid to the nursery, or bring the bassinette into the bathroom. Because kidnappers. No, this has never actually happened around here. It barely ever happens here, either, yet of course new moms are warned the same thing. Hectored, even. It’s good practice for…
Readers: This is just a little snippet from modern day society — a local listserve note sent to us by a reader. The writer is a mom who didn’t want to give her daughter the chicken pox vaccine. The school is saying the girl needs to leave school for 20 days because another kid got chicken pox and so she’s not safe. “My daughter just started kindergarten at public school last month. They accepted our religious exemption without an issue, and everything was going so perfectly. Then this morning I received a call from her school to…
Readers — This is a piece I wrote for the New America Foundation that got picked up by the Atlantic. Thrilling! I am very hopeful that if schools start endorsing this project, it sends the message to parents and the community that Free-Ranging is more than legit. It’s transformative for everyone involved. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! — L. Silicon Valley Parents Send Their Kids Back to 1972, by Lenore Skenazy Most school field trips are to places the students might never go on their own: A museum, a play, a nature preserve. The idea is to open kids wide to…
Readers — This note from the commenter CoasterFreak reminds me of a fantastic Bloom County comic by Berkeley Breathed reprinted in the Joel Best book I am devouring: “Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern About Child-Victims.” (It’s all about how predator panic began and spread.) Anyway, the comic, from Nov. 21, 1987 (if anyone can figure out how to find it online), shows the reporter Milo rushing into his editor’s office shouting, “Boss!” “Yes, Junior Intern Milo?” “Remember all our sensational, panic-causing stories about The Great Child-Stealing Epidemic?!” “Yeah?” “There NEVER REALLY WAS ONE!” Milo shouts. “Great Scott!” replies the…
Readers — Parenting norms seem to reflect so much about society and so little about what kids really need — as evidenced by the fact that the norms are so different across eras and the globe. Glad this mom-to-be get that! I am 9 months pregnant with my first child and Free Range Kids has been such a tremendous antidote to the avalanche of unsolicited parenting advice I’m getting as a soon-to-be-mom! I often find myself clamming up in social situations when child-rearing conversations get underway. This cropped up in my Facebook feed today, and I think it’s largely because…