Readers — I try to feel for the parents so steeped in the acid of fear that they cannot think straight. So I am trying to feel sympathy for this mom. KING5 News reports: A Seattle mom has never been more terrified to send her 11-year-old child to school on a bus. Karenza Ferris thought her daughter, Zya, would ride a yellow bus during her first year as a middle school student at Jane Addams. Zya assumed the same. “A yellow bus would come, they would pick me up, and they would drop me off at school,” Zya said. Except,…
Author: lskenazy
This fthbbeyeef mom believes that letting her kids walk to school by age 9 — as she did — is not only okay, it’s important: [B]eing out in the world, taking chances, making choices — is a critical part of progressing from childhood to becoming an autonomous adult. It is also an important way for us to reduce our environmental footprint, and in light of growing childhood inactivity and obesity, it is directly linked to a health imperative as well. … When my daughter Alexandra was 9 we had some long talks: she thought it was too far, so we…
Readers — A 73-year-old Michigan man registered as a sex offender for standing buck naked on his porch as children ride by on the school bus has been ordered to move for doing it yet again. But as Sandy Rozek, aka Shelly Stow, points out at her blog With Justice For All: If reports are true and accurate, most would call him him a dirty old man, including myself. My question is, is it necessary to bring to bear the weight of the state of Michigan’s sex offender registry and the forceful removal of an old man from…
A little child (or two) shall lead us! Tamati Sagar and Aaron Jones (both 10) love climbing trees, but the practice is banned for safety reasons. The duo surveyed all the school’s parents and found about 90% of them were in favor of allowing their children to climb trees during break times. The boys prepared a pie chart on their findings and presented it to the board of trustees and school staff. Board members were so impressed they relaxed the school rule three weeks ago, and children are now enjoying the freedom to climb trees in the playground. Of…
Readers — This surprising story of parental reversal comes to us from Jody Allard, a single mom of seven in Seattle. Why Stalking Your Kids Isn’t Okay, by Jody Allard Earlier tonight, one of my teenage sons came home from his first date. He plopped down on the couch, kicked off his shoes, and told me pretty much everything. Not in graphic detail, thank God. But enough to know that he’d had his first kiss. As we talked, we briefly discussed consent (in this case, his!), condoms, and his very firm belief that he isn’t ready to have sex…
Ok, readers: MORE advice needed. This time on how to persuade a school that it is being crazy excessively protective. Dear Free-Range Kids: I am so very upset right now and would love to have your (and other FRK readers) advice. I emailed the elementary school principal, asking where my son can park/lock his bike. (FYI, we live nearly a mile from the school — no bus service if a mile or less.) This was his response: Hello Mrs. MOM, To ensure the safety of our children, students are not allowed to ride their bikes to school until…
Readers, this comes to us from my friend and mentor Nancy McDermott. Nancy writes for the online journal Spiked and is an associate with the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent. Here she is responding to my wondering why so many Americans don’t think children should play at the park unsupervised. Somehow we have replaced and ethos of resilience with an ethos of vulnerability. For example. We went to our son’s middle school orientation last night where I learned that he was going to have to do something called Family and Consumer Science (FACS) full time,…
Readers — Enough with the craziness. Let’s leave on a high note with this video, below. And a shout out to my neighbor, Clarence Eckerson, Jr., for making it! Lakewood, Ohio: The Suburb Where Everyone Can Walk to School by Clarence Eckerson, Jr. The inner Cleveland suburb of Lakewood (population 51,000) calls itself a “walking school district.” Lakewood has never had school buses in its history, and kids grow up walking and biking to school. Mornings and afternoons are a beehive of activity on streets near schools, as kids and parents walk to and from classrooms. You can feel the…
Readers — In response to the case of Nicole Gainey, the mom arrested for letting her 7-year-old walk to the park alone, Fox Boston called in Dr. Karen Ruskin to educate the entire Northeast on how to parent. We want to live in a safe world, says Ruskin in this interview, “But we don’t.” Kids 7,8,9 and 10 should not walk to school or even venture outside without you, she says. Perhaps by age 11 you can let your child out in “short spurts,” but really, folks, “It is your job to be the parent,” and if you trust your…
Readers — Welcome to Worst First Thinking: This Time It’s Law. Writes the Denver Post (boldface mine): The owner of the Aurora movie theater that was the site of a deadly 2012 attack could have reasonably enough foreseen the danger of such an attack to be held liable for it, a federal judge ruled Friday. Noting “the grim history of mass shootings and mass killings that have occurred in more recent times,” U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson ruled that Cinemark — owner of the Century Aurora 16 theater — could have predicted that movie patrons might be targeted…