Folks — This is an area I have no expertise in. Can those of you who have adopted, or know about the process, help out? Thanks! – L Dear Free-Range Kids: I’ve noticed we have some adoptive parents in this crowd. I would really like to adopt, but I am concerned about dealing with the adoption process and having a Free-Range philosophy, especially since we would prefer to adopt school age and domestically, which basically means dealing with CPS and the foster system. Any tips or reassurances?
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! This is from the mom of four in Canada who wrote about the fear of “dry drowning” last week. Today, a new peeve that peeves me, too. Dear Free-Range Kids: As seen around Facebook lately, sales of the ProTecht BodyGuard blanket have, in the words of the manufacturer, already “far exceeded our wildest expectations.” It’s been on the market for about two weeks. Hooray! Another ineffective, expensive product touted as “the way” to keep our kids alive! Maybe we can keep the economy afloat by stocking up on dubious antidotes to our already statistically irrelevant “worst nightmares” –…
From my inbox: Hey Lenore! I came across a product the other day in my Facebook feed and I was curious about your opinion and your readers’. It’s basically a wearable GPS device for tracking your kids. My first impression was a big eye roll. But then we had a situation this weekend that would have been so much easier if we had one! Our 9 year old was out playing with her friends in our neighborhood. She told us she was going to bike to Friend #1’s house and they were going to bike to the…
Here we go again: Yardley Mother Facing Charges After Leaving Infant In Car LOWER MAKEFIELD, Pa. – A Yardley Mother is facing charges, after police say she left her 10 week old daughter unattended in her car while shopping at a Lower Makefield drugstore. Police say 47-year-old Cynthia Kelly left the baby in the car with the motor running shortly after 2pm on May 31st. The store’s surveillance cameras showed that the child was left in the car for about four minutes before the baby was spotted in its car seat by a man in the parking lot. The man…
Readers — This is the holy grail of summer activity guides! It’s on the site Scary Mommy, and it begins: 10 Ways to Give Your Kid a 1970’s Kind of Summer by Melissa L. Fenton Summer’s basically here. The Pinterest pages, Facebook feeds, and family magazine features are loaded up with all the fun-filled activities you should do with your kids summer. AS.IF. As if we need more activities. MORE I say! As if I am sitting here, ok, really laying here in my end of school year coma, thinking, “OMG! I CANNOT wait to tackle that homemade moon sand…
Found this in the comments, by lollipoplover: On finding an [unsupervised] 18 month-old child:At both my mom and dad’s funerals, one of our old neighbors, Mrs. P, shared her “How I met your Mother” story. Her family had just moved in down the street. The movers were unloading furniture and Mrs. P was unpacking her car with her 4 kids in it when she noticed a toddler sitting in the driveway playing with her children’s toys. She picked her up and noticed she was freshly bathed and happy. She knocked on the house next door but no…
Readers — This mom notices a continuum I’d missed! — L. Dear Free Range Kids: Lately I have noticed 2 trends that I believe relate to helicoptering. My son will be 5 in late July. The cutoff in our state for Kindergarten is “age 5 prior to August 1.” My son has been screened by our local public school and deemed intellectually and developmentally ready to start school. It never occurred to me to deviate. However, nearly every parent, and more than a couple of educators, that know when his birthday falls related to the cutoff, seemed surprised…
What a great piece by Michael Brendan Dougherty in The Week (a magazine for which I created and ran the weekly humor contest for three years till they took it in house. But I guess that’s neither here nor there.) Dougherty starts out noting the Salon story, wherein a mom let her son wait in the car for a few minutes on a mild day, an onlooker videotaped the perfectly happy kid, after which the mom was arrested for this “crime.” He then refers to a couple of similar stories he found right here on this blog, including the parents…
A note: Dear Free-Range Kids: I just read your response to the viral video on the secondary drowning. My “worrywart” friend told me about this last week and I thought it was an overreaction as is so much these days. I read your book years ago and every time someone tells me a scary kid story, I remember the book and don’t worry. I wish I could get all parents to read your book! And you know what, even when the “worst thing happens,” you survive. My middle daughter was diagnosed with a terminal genetic disorder when she was 3…
Readers — Our country has grown delusional creative when it comes to thinking up new child dangers to be worried about. The latest involves a San Antonio, TX, school where kids were going on a field trip, but forbidden to bring sunscreen, which the school classifies as both a “medication” and “toxic.” Now, if kids were generally inclined to guzzle the Coppertone, maybe this would make some sense. But…have you ever witnessed this? I don’t think they even drink liquid soap, the gateway drug for sunscreen. But according to school district spokeswoman, Aubrey Chancellor, as quoted on KSAT.com: “Typically, sunscreen…