Folks — As you know, this site believes in safety for children. That includes safety from predators as well as safety from hysteria ABOUT predators. Unfortunately, fear for our children has mestastasized into an ever-expanding Sex Offender Registry that now includes even pre-pubescent children, some of them on the list for LIFE, for crimes ranging from actual rape to consensual sex between children to nudity. This might make sense if these young people represented a threat to other kids as they got older, but the evidence shows they do not. The registration laws “are based on the assumption that children…
Author: lskenazy
Folks — As much as I literally feel my heart pounding every time I hear a story about crazy fear-mongering, or outrageous overreaction to a very small threat, I realize that there is more to life — and even this blog — than just shouting, “But they’re WRONG!” (Even though they are! They’re wrong! I swear they are!) So today, I’d like to ask you for a story that begins: “Nothing bad happened when my kid…” And then fill in the blank with something your child did, indeed, do that other parents might consider “dangerous.” Or even that YOU ,…
Hi Folks! My last two posts were about the 10-year-old boy not allowed to bring his pen knife on a nature trip as well as the ridiculous rules for adopting a pet that now sometimes include things like, “Pet needs one parent home at all times,” and, “Cat cannot be kept as a mouser in a barn.” One guy wrote yesterday that his home, replete with kids, was rejected by a shelter because it was “too exciting” for a dog. TOO EXCITING? So it no longer matters how constricted the life of a boy or dog is, so long…
Readers — This is the surreal story of a 10-year-old who brought a Swiss Army Knife with him on a 5-day nature trip and was treated like a terrorist in training. According to The Daily Caller, the boy’s dad was summoned to cut short a business trip about 100 miles way and immediately come pick up his miscreant: The school principal, Brandi Hucko, allegedly wanted Bandermann to rush to the site of the science camp, pick Braden up for a one-day suspension and then deliver him back to camp. Bandermann told The Daily Caller that he was frustrated over Hucko’s…
Hi Readers! Yes, this is one of my “pet” topics — the way “I care!” can morph into “No one else cares as much as I do,” which can curdle into “I’m the only one who cares enough!” (See, for instance, “Did Being a Helicopter Parent Doom My Marriage (and Kids.”) But I also love this letter because it’s a great example of Worst-First thinking: Oh, you want a pet? What if you’re an abusive pet owner? That outlook wastes a lot of kindness. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I never drew the line between helicopter parenting and the behavior…
Here’s a nice little story to remember: Our kids have brains. Even at a young age they think and try to figure things out. This is something we’ve been encouraged to forget, and act as if they can do absolutely nothing on their own. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I’ve read so many articles and posts here about how resourceful kids can be if left to their own devices and just had to share what happened with my 6 year old son after school last week. For the first time, I was to pick him up at the side…
Hi Readers — Here’s an example of our “Do something — anything!” school safety culture at work. Personally, I’d never heard of airsoft guns. When I Googled them, they looked totally scary and far too realistic for my tastes. BUT they are neither lethal nor, where this family lives, illegal. And, as you’ll read, none of the airsoft OR real guns mentioned here were going to be on school premises. But somehow, banning the experiments they were used in makes our middle school students safer. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids:As a result of Sandy Hook, my 7th grader and 3…
Hi Folks — I’ve got a piece up over at Common Good about a jury awarding a family quite a gargantuan sum after their daughter, 13, died crossing the street to her school bus stop. What can a ruling like this do to childhood? Feel free to check out my worries. — L. Should kids be picked up only on their side of the street?
Readers — The Boston Marathon bombing has brought us an outbreak of sanity in the mainstream media. For instance, there’s this piece from CNN.com by Dr. Charles Raison. (For God’s sake — even his NAME means “reason” in French!) He argues that our brains haven’t evolved to parse the difference between a likely danger and an unlikely one that is shocking and rare. Terrorists, he writes: …commit acts that frighten us so unrealistically that we as a society change our behavior in ways that are profoundly out of proportion to the actual risks involved. While I certainly advocate reasonable caution,…
Hi Readers! This note comes to us from Nandini Ramakrishna, who was raised Free-Range in India and now lives in Phoenix, AZ. She writes the blog Cactus Chronicles. and tweets at CactusChron. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: Four years ago, I was involved in an incident where the state questioned my competence as a parent. After two stressful months, the charge of neglect was dropped. I quickly pushed aside memories of this incident, until I read some distressing posts here about Free-Range parents misjudged as negligent. Those led me to write about my ordeal. I joined the Free-Range parenting network…