Hi Readers — Here’s a note from Education.com’s marketing director, Kat Eden, regarding the “Reasons to Say No to Sleepovers” post we have been writing about the last two days (that is now gone from the site). — L Dear Free-Range Kids: Thanks so much to you and to your community for sharing your thoughts about this article. We post hundreds of pieces of content each month with the goal of giving parents the information they need to make the best decisions for their families and the ideas and inspiration they want to make learning with their kids more…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — Walking to school is a lovely, age-old, generally safe activity that has been almost abandoned over the last generation. Today, only about one child in 1o still walks to school, in part because some new schools have been built on the outskirts of town, in part because some neighborhoods are so car-centric there is no decent on-foot route to school, but also in great part because parents have been warned every which way that their kids are never safe doing anything outside on their own. (See my last million posts.) Enter Michelle Obama, who dearly wishes kids would…
Readers — The “No Sleepover” article I just posted about inspired these lovely comments from you. Enjoy. — L Good reasons to say Yes to Sleepovers (by “Albert”) 1. Your kids will get a chance to practice the manners you teach – it’s no good if they don’t, right? 2. Your kids will get to do and try different things – food, games, travel, etc. they may not otherwise, which is all part of making it a treat, yes? If it’s good for you, why isn’t it good for them?? 3. Your kids will make new friends, and so will…
Readers — I not only appreciated this letter one of you just sent, I found the Rosetta stone of parental worry in the article she links to! Dear Free-Range Kids Do you let your kids have sleepovers? Shame on you! Yes it’s time for the latest movement in overprotective idiocy, the Ban Sleepovers movement! Look: “7 Reasons to Say No to Sleepovers” Oh my God what were our parents thinking, letting us have SLEEPOVERS! We can’t let our kids might be tired the next day! They might not do well on all that ridiculous busywork from…
Folks — Just got this press release in my emails. Somehow, I don’t think this book — Just What kind of Mother Are You, by Paula Daly — is just what kind of summer read we’re looking for: It is every parent’s worst fear: a missing child. But what if the child you’ve lost was not your own? The unthinkable happens to Lisa Kallisto—an overwhelmed working mother—who takes her eye off the ball for just a moment during an impossibly hectic week, and suddenly her whole world descends into a living nightmare. Her best friend’s thirteen-year-old daughter has gone missing,…
Hi Folks — Let’s hear it for Real Simple Magazine which is running an article by self-professed overprotective mom Jennifer Breheny Wallace who wanted to stop worrying so much. It begins: ” A couple of years ago, my then five-year-old son William took a standardized test in which he was asked about everyday objects. The tester noted his unusual responses to some questions. When asked ‘What do candy and ice cream have in common?’ William replied, ‘They both give you cavities.’ For the question ‘What is chewing gum?’ William answered, ‘A choking hazard.'” Jennifer wanted to be brave enough to…
To Anyone New Just Joining Us Here: Hello! Welcome! Glad you’re here! The Free-Range Movement is dedicated to the idea that our kids are safer and smarter than our society tells us they are, so we don’t have to worry quite as much as we do. That’s why I’m often asked: Haven’t parents always worried about their kids? Of course they have! I’m one of the worriers! Parents have always worried, because our job is to try to get our children all the way to adulthood, safe, reasonably happy, and ready for the real world. There are giant potholes brimming…
Folks — This was a comment made under a piece by me in The Wall Street Journal about how we are criminalizing parents who let their kids wait in the car while they run an errand. The commenter is named Pushpita Prasad and I salute her! — L. Pushpita Prasad: Here’s another very common scenario that plays out daily across America. Drop off at schools/daycares/pre-schools. You pull into the parking with the kid you actually need to drop of and their younger sibling — who often falls asleep during the drive. It could be raining/snowing/cold/hot outside. Your car in…
Hi Readers — This just in from Anna Gonzalez, a social media producer for Headline News, the channel running a special, “Would Your Kids Pass the Predator Test?” I commented on it yesterday, saying specials like these only reinforce the idea that predators are everywhere. Anna’s note: Thanks for the blog about the segment. I think something that Kyra Phillips said can help provide some insight into the special Friday: “As a mom, my child’s safety is my number one concern. And my greatest fear is abduction. So not only do I take this special personally, I think every family…
“Would Your Kids Pass the Predator Test?” is the name of a special Headline News is presenting tomorrow. It’s not surprising that they would do a show like this — when you’re in the headline business, every day is predator day, because that’s the headline that reliably grabs people. The problem is that when we hear about predators all the time, we start to believe that children are in danger all the time. That’s why kids are so helicoptered today: There’s the perception that no child is ever safe without direct adult supervision. A show that “tests” whether kids can…