Readers — This story is so strange, it’s almost like watching a sci-fi army come marching out of the TV. (Does anyone remember TV? It’s like a computer, but you can’t ask it questions.) Anyway, the piece is by a dad named Paul Wallich who begins this way: On school-day mornings, I walk my grade-school-age son 400 meters down the hill to the bus stop. Last winter, I fantasized about sitting at my computer while a camera-equipped drone followed him overhead. So this year, I set out to build one. The dad then details all the tinkering involved (paging NASA!)…
Author: lskenazy
Hey Readers! Kindly allow me to interrupt this blog to advertise for a moment. It’s gift-giving season, so why not think Free-Range, as in the book itself, just .53! Lots of laughs, tips and a look at how we got so scared. It’s got a 4.6 outta 5 rating in 118 reviews on Amazon. Not too shabby! And while we’re at it, why not give the gift of spunky self-assertion? The Free-Range Kids Gift Shop (well, our Cafe Press shop) is filled with lovely items, including America’s Worst Mom (or Dad) sweatshirts, t-shirts and hats. For non-Americans (or Americans who…
Hi Readers! Did you know I spent 14 years on staff at the New York Daily News? Sure did — and loved it. I was a features writer then promoted to a columnist on the oped page. That was wonderful, too. (Till the day I was let go. But that’s another story.) Anyway, point is, I love newspapers, and tabloids in particular, but they CAN drive readers crazy. Here’s how. This was a headline in The New York Post about a week ago: Robberies Soaring in Prospect Park. Prospect Park is the Central Park of Brooklyn (designed by the same…
Hi Folks! This being the round-up time of year, I’m wondering if maybe we shouldn’t be doing a round-up of our own. To that end, I’d love you to submit, below, any Free-Range moment that warmed your heart…or any incident of totally unnecessary worrying/warning/coddling/chiding/CYA-ing or waiver-writing that you witnessed or had to deal with when YOU felt your kids were fine, but some segment of society did not. The “perps” can be anyone from passersby to principals to CPS and beyond. I’m also looking for any silly rules or regulations you came upon. So think back on a year of…
Hi Readers — This note arrived about three years ago and I was saving it for some reason. It almost became my sacred creed. Now I want to run it. It needs no intro except: She’s right. — L. Dear Lenore, We spend a lot of time trying to control for risks in the lives of our children. We feed them right, we teach them to look both ways, we try devilishly hard to balance exercise and play with rest and work. But sometimes, despite our careful planning and watching and guiding, things just happen. Three weeks ago, my 9-year-old…
H Folks! I was interviewed for this article on the site PTMoney. Turns out it is one of the most cogent things I’ve ever read about the Kiddie Safety Industrial Complex, in this case, how parents end up overspending on safety for their kids, even though their kids would be extremely safe even at a lower “price point.” What a cool topic! Kudos to Emily Guy Birken for great reporting! – L. ARE WE OVERSPENDING ON CHILD SAFETY? by Emily Guy Birken November is National Child Safety Month — an observance that I personally look on with great suspicion. That…
Readers — What can I say? It’s as if our country — its administrators, regulators, insurance execs and many everyday folks — are in competition with each other. The game is, “Can you think of a way that X or Y is dangerous?” If you can’t, well, clearly you don’t care enough about safety. Don’t be surprised if you are snubbed at the playground/voted out/passed over for the big promotion. But if you are clever enough to come up with a way that X or Y could, conceivably, even once in a very very very long while hurt someone, well…
Hi Folks! Recently a 9-year-old in New Zealand was abducted on his way home from school and found 90 minutes later, abandoned on a bridge. This piece of reporting from the Timaru Herald AND the reactions of everyone in it, including police and principals, remind me there is sanity out there, if only we choose to hang onto it, instead of leaping straight into panic and over-reaction. I’ll put the beginning of the article here. This link will take you to the rest. This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the resilience woven into us, and the ability to recognize and honor…
Hi Readers — Remember the Military-Industrial Complex? You should, because it’s still around. But now it’s time to consider a new one: the Hysteria-Bureaucracy Complex, whereby any and every potential danger triggers hysteria and bureaucratic intervention, especially when that “danger” has to do with children. To illustrate this, allow me to introduce an article from the Courier Mail in Australia. (Australia SEEMS like it would be the land of cocky kids wrestling crocodiles in the classroom. It’s not.) The article says that schools down under are now required to conduct a safety assessment of all potentially dangerous activities. But as…
Hi Readers! The librarian who wrote the letter below is very angry at us, thanks to a couple of misconceptions about what it means to raise a Free-Range Kid. Note to Librarian: We’re with you! We don’t want ill-behaved kids driving you crazy and putting themselves in danger. Thankfully, “Free-Range” does not mean neglect. It means assessing the world and our kids realistically. When (and only when) we feel we can trust both of them, we gradually give our kids more freedom. Free-Rangers do not believe in treating librarians as babysitters. We know you have a job to do…