Hi Readers — Here’s a piece I wrote for The Atlantic about the shooting. It’s not about gun control, it’s not about mental health services or the lack thereof. It’s about how living in modern, instantly connected times changes us, our reactions and our expectations. – L. A School Shooting in the Distance In the end there were 38 children dead at the school, two teachers and four other adults. I’m not talking about the horrific shooting in Connecticut today. I’m talking about the worst school murder in American history. It took place in Michigan, in 1927. A school…
Author: lskenazy
Readers, my heart is like yours: Shattered. My perspective, however, may be a little different. It’s impossible not to feel afraid, sad, sickened and deeply pessimistic when something like this occurs. However, “something like this” — well, there aren’t a lot of somethings like this, and that’s a truth I am desperately trying to remind my heavy soul. It may feel like “school shootings happen all the time,” but they don’t. They are rarer than rare. They are as unpredictable as anything can be. And if today we find ourselves making a mental list, “Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook,” that’s…
Hi Folks! Here’s a mom who requests your help on one of the issues of the day: The out-sourcing of playground squabbles to parents. I DO believe in being tuned in our kids, and providing them with comfort, support, wisdom and discipline. But what happens when the world around us expects something else: minute-by-minute involvement? Got any great ideas for this mom? – L Dear Free Range Kids: I am trying to raise 5 Free-Range Kids. My oldest is 9 and in Grade Four. I am struggling with how to deal with “girl drama” issues in a Free-Range way.…
Hi Readers! Here’s a question I’d love you to weigh in on — as would the writer, Maya. (And — totally off topic but too cool for me not to mention is that when I saw Maya’s unusual last name I asked her if she could possibly be related to a woman who shared it named Marie who, about 70 years ago, was my father’s mentor, teaching him interior design in Chicago. So Maya went and found her husband’s family tree and there on one of the branches was his great aunt, born 1900, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston.…
And now, a new feature I think we’ll call the Liability Chronicles, chronicling the way insurance, lawsuits, lawyers and the fear of all three are changing the world. Starting with winter. We are the first generation of hominids to be scared to have normal winter fun. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: Our local ski resort, Ski Granby Ranch, used to have this amazing sled hill which anybody of all ages could use. My husband and I would take our son there all the time over the winter. Well, this year they got rid of it, and here’s the response when…
Ah, readers, here’s a wild story of a busybody gone batty: Seeing a toddler left alone in a running car, some nut stole the car AND baby because he was “upset” with the dad for leaving the kid alone. But as the reader who sent this story to me, Michele, dryly noted: “It seems to me that the only person the child was in danger from was the guy who took him as a ‘lesson.'” The story is here. And while I don’t like the idea of a car with keys AND a kid in it, the dad most certainly…
Hey Readers — This came in as a comment to the post below this one, about a mom named Tara who wants to be Free-Range, but can’t help dark, scary thoughts taking over brain. It’s a reminder that even though we cannot protect our kids from everything bad, we can still move beyond the Rapunzel Option. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: My only advice to Tara would be to prepare her children to be survivors instead of victims. No one has a crystal ball or any guarantees that nothing will happen to our children. The proverbial lightning…
Hi Folks! I don’t think this mom is the only one out there with this issue. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m writing to you in the hope of some Free-Range Kids help. Help in what way, I don’t know. Some words of wisdom? You see I’m starting to doubt my free range kids thinking. I think I’m starting to give in to the media’s portrayal of an unsafe world out there for our kids. Even as I write that I don’t really believe that. I don’t want to believe it. But I’ve just read 2 (more) dreadful stories…
Hi Readers! Here’s a word about stranger danger, from reader Regina Long: Dear Free-Range Kids: Last night I was leaving the YMCA with 3 of my children when I noticed a mom behind me carrying a baby and accompanied by a little girl of about 5, so I stopped and held the first lobby door for them. I also stopped to hold the second door for them when the 5-year-old burst ahead and started running towards the very busy parking lot just a foot away. Instinctively I put my hand on the front of her to stop here from going…
Oh readers, I bet you of all people can guess WHY a hazmat crew was dispatched to Seminole High School in Florida yesterday. According to this dnzhnytiba WTSP report, it was to save kids from a dangerous chemical a student brought into the building: MERCURY! In a THERMOMETER! The kid brought it in as his homework, to illustrate a substance from the periodic table. But once it was discovered, says WTSP: …the school went into lockdown. Deputies say the thermometer was discovered as the substances were checked before going through the school. No one was put in harm’s way, but…