Readers — Oh, the puns I will refrain from. (Though it’s…hard!) Suffice to say, there are many problems with America’s sex offender laws, but perhaps this case illustrates their absurdity best. As Robby Soave writes at Reason: The authorities in Prince William County, Virginia, are pursuing child pornography charges against a 17 year old who exchanged nude picture texts with his 15-year-old girlfriend. The police have even filed a warrant that would permit them to take the teen to the hospital, give him an erection-producing injection, and photograph his penis. Prosecutors want to compare this photograph to the one the…
Author: lskenazy
Let’s hear it for Dear Prudence, the advice lady over at Slate, who was recently sent this letter: Q. Negligence or Get Over It? Our child recently flew to overnight camp, and we arranged for my in-laws to pick him up from the airport. He is 12 years old and is technically allowed to fly unaccompanied but is still very much a minor, albeit a tall one! Having flown many times before, we were comfortable with the idea of our son walking alone from the gate to the baggage carousel and were very particular to tell my in-laws to be…
Let’s hear it for Nashua, NH, a child-friendly city indeed! Take note, all ye urbanists, city planners, and mayors: Look at how simple a summer-changing, childhood changing idea can be. Nashua is giving kids the gift of transit — and trust. According to the Nashua Patch: The city of Nashua will launch a summer recreation route bus service that will run from July 7 to Aug. 22.The pilot program will stop at at popular sites in the city in a continuous loop from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The service is free for all school-aged children (6…
Folks: I sometimes can’t stand how we don’t trust any ideas or instincts unless they are backed up with some official study. However, “science-based” parenting being the obsession of our era, I am thrilled to present this study by University of Colorado-Boulder psychology and neuroscience Professor Yuko Munakata and doctoral student/lead author Jane Barker, as reported in Science Daily, which found that: Kids whose time is less structured are better able to meet their own goals, study shows Munakata said a debate about parenting philosophy — with extremely rigid “tiger moms” on one side and more elastic “free-range” parents on…
When — all-knowing meets all-fearing: Dear Free-Range Kids: Facebook is now aware that I have a newborn, and my targeted ads are full of products to make my kid more “safe” including a GPS tag and this magnet that is supposed to keep my kid from being hit by a car in a parking lot by enticing him to stand with his hand up against the vehicle like he was participating in a stop-and-frisk – Allison Huebert Lenore here: There really should be a welcome page: Congratulations on your new, incredibly vulnerable bundle of joy and welcome to the World…
Readers — This look at cartoon culture comes to us from Dressler Parsons, a content writer at the Arizona-based SAT prep outfit, Student-Tutor. I haven’t seen this cartoon but it does sound great! – L Phineas & Ferb & Fighting the Urge to Helicopter, by Dressler Parsons It seems like the cartoons and kids’ shows that seep into society shoot down Free-Range Parenting. I mean, stereotypically, unsupervised kids run wild and wreak havoc. As far parents, if they’re even introduced, they’re usually bumbling, incompetent dodos. But a show has popped up that challenges the status quo–“Phineas and Ferb,” a…
Got this letter which is so perfect, I had to share: Dear Free-Range Kids: Here we go again: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Police-Charge-Woman-For-Leaving-Kids-in-Car-265587491.html This is the top story in Philly! When this story first broke, it was that babies were found in the car, rescued, and rushed to the hospital. Later, information emerged that the SUV had the air conditioning on, water and snacks for the kids, and a 9 year-old with the younger kids. Yet police still had to pry the door off and rush them to the hospital. I only checked the news because we were on vacation in Ocean City,…
Hi Folks! It is so rare that you see an article like this that I have to share it here. If you’re wondering about the relevance (and I bet you aren’t) just substitute “axe-murderer” for “shark.” – L The number of shark attack deaths in Texas is staggering by Eric Berger (“The Science Guy”) Staggeringly low, that is. There have been two in the last century. People simply have a ridiculously irrational fear of shark attacks. In the last six years there have been a total of six shark attacks along Texas beaches, none fatal of course. How many millions…
Readers — Yes, this study happens to be about fire ants, but it struck me as hugely metaphoric. I think you’ll see why! — L. Fear of predators may be a bigger killer than the predators themselves (PhysOrg.com) — When biologists consider the effects that predators have on their prey, they shouldn’t just count the number of individuals consumed. According to a University of Rhode Island ecologist, they must also examine the effects of fear. URI Assistant Professor Evan Preisser said that fear of being eaten can reduce population densities as much or even more than the actual quantities of…
Readers — I didn’t know what to suggest to this dad, so please weigh in! — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m writing to share what happened to my daughter and me last night and to ask you and/or your readers for suggestions on how to handle this situation if it happens again. I’m a white father to two 7-year-old black girls. Yesterday evening, one of them was walking the dog with me when a woman stopped her car, got out, and walked toward us. “Excuse me,” she said, pointing back and forth to me and my daughter, “but this is…