Readers — On Tuesday a New Jersey state appeals court ruled that a mom who let her 19-month-old wait in the car for 5 to 10 minutes was guilty of abuse. According to this story by Salvador Rizzo in the Star-Ledger: “A parent invites substantial peril when leaving a child of such tender years alone in a motor vehicle that is out of the parent’s sight, no matter how briefly,” Judge Clarkson Fisher Jr. wrote for the three-judge panel. He cited the risk of “car theft or kidnapping” and the possibility that “on a hot day, the temperature inside a…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — This is an outlier of a case: A mom was walking with her baby on a promenade when someone saw them, judged the child under-dressed for the weather, and called the cops. The cops came a-running and the mom (a nutritionist with two other kids) gave them no truck. Wisely, I’d say! (Maybe she reads this blog?) According to the Daily Mail (which I know is not the New York Times): …After refusing to reveal who she was, Mrs Andrew, from Scarborough, was asked: ‘So you don’t want to co-operate?’ She said: ‘I told them that it was…
Readers — This McSweeney’s post by Beth Levine and Liz Dancho is soooo good. It’s called “Parenting Tips I Learned from Law & Order: SVU” and includes such advice as: Don’t raise your kids in New York City. They will end up running their own adult website and spending all their money on video games. Don’t raise your kids in Connecticut. They will just steal your car and take joy rides into New York with their friends, who will most likely kill them and leave them in the trunk. Warn your kids to stay inside on garbage day. Piles of…
Readers: I’m sure if my kid were deathly allergic, I would be a wreck. Even so, I’m pretty positive I would not expect a whole school to stop serving milk and eggs — two staples — just for my child’s sake. This is what Philip Howard talks about in his book, Life Without Lawyers: the way we have gone from pushing for civil rights for whole groups (African-Americans, women, gays, etc.), to the “right” of a single individual to be surrounded by an accommodating world, no matter what the cost to the common good. It’s a fascinating way to start…
Readers, this comes up often: terrified grandmas who were fearless moms (or at least feared less): Dear Free-Range Kids: Funny thing about my mother… I was very much raised Free-Range. From the time I was six or so, I left the house in the morning, returned for lunch, and then got called home after dark The only rule was don’t leave the block without telling someone. My friends and I ran in a pack, organized our own games, settled our own rivalries, and learned important lessons like… ‘poking sticks in the gutters is only fun until you bother a raccoon.’…
Readers — This looks silly and also extremely fun. Bigger question: Is it the future of sports for our kids? Weigh in! – L
I couldn’t resist this ad for Procter & Gamble. And I KNOW it seems to show moms constantly picking the kids up instead of kids out there on their own, but its meta-message (besides buy Pampers and Tide) is, “For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger, thank you, Mom.” Let’s remember THAT part! – L
Readers — Donald Christensen, a longtime Free-Range supporter, deep thinker about encouragement, and author of the blog Tryathlete.org, came up with a great idea: Let’s make a then-vs.-now poster with all the modern-day things we say to kids to keep them “safe”… that really just depress, demoralize or defeat them. Woo hoo! Now, I realize this poster can be hard to read on a screen, so here’s what’s on it so far: THINGS TO TEACH CHILDREN 1980: …
Hi Folks! Here’s my piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. It’s not straight-on Free-Range, just a little slice of life. I hope this link works! (If not, maybe this one?) Anyway, the piece begins: A Hearty Breakfast of Google and YouTube by Lenore Skenazy This is a tale of two breakfasts. Breakfast when I was 15, staring at the back of a cereal box: “Hey kids! Help the Cap’n find his way home!” Breakfast this morning with my son, 15: “Hey mom! Let me show you this commercial I saw during the game!” He hops online, searches YouTube for a…
Hi Readers — I was only vaguely aware of the shelf elf, so I’m grateful to reader Frankie Wood, who just sent this in: Dear Free-Range Kids: I know, Christmas is past now, but the topic of the Elf on a Shelf came up in a recent conversation and since I don’t have my own blog in which to rant, I thought it be an interesting (if belated) topic for you. Have you heard of this thing? It’s a little elf doll that comes with a book explaining all about how hateful Santa is that if you aren’t…