I am so glad one of you sent this Fred Small song in…even though I’m now typing with tears in my eyes. What a song, what a story, what a lesson. (This is not a video — only audio, so don’t wait for the picture to start moving): And a good song for us to hum when someone starts talking about stranger danger. – L
Author: lskenazy
Readers — After we questioned the wisdom of a TV talk show psychologist who told Boston viewers to only let kids out in “short spurts” and then only once they reach age 11, the aggrieved psychologist posted a link to this blog, which I hadn’t seen before. I’ll give you just a taste: Lenore Skenazy’s Free-Range Kids book and website spawned the fad of letting kids roam around on their own with little, if any, parental oversight. It’s stunning that this even needs to be said, but here’s just a little glimpse of what can happen to kids without adult…
Readers — This is a story that happened in 2012 in Canada: Ryan Gibbons, a 12 year old with asthma, was not allowed to carry his life saving medicine at school. School policy was to keep the inhalers under lock and key and staff repeatedly confiscated spare inhalers from Ryan, added Gibbons. “I received many a phone call stating Ryan had taken an inhaler to school and they found it in his bag and would like me to come pick it up because he wasn’t even allowed to bring it home with him,” [his mother] said. “There’s supposed to be…
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,…
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,…