Hi Folks! Two stories for you. Here’s the one to remember when folks start “What If”- ing your decision to send your kids outside to play or walk to school or do pretty much anything without you. One question I always get is, “Well what if they get HURT and you’re not there?” Here’s what if, sent to us by a mom named Jennifer who lives in St. Paul, MN, where she teaches ethics at the state university and homeschools her two kids.: Dear Free-Range Kids: We had a Halloween experience that reinforced my view that most people are…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Another day, another report from the frontlines of our obsession with predators. Allow me to make a strange analogy. As the storm Sandy approached us this weekend (I’m in New York), Mat McDermott at the blog TreeHugger wrote a post, “What if New York City Invested in Climate Change Adaptation Like it Has in Combating Terrorism?” Says Mat: New York has pulled out all the stops in preventing another massive act of terrorism—going so far in some cases that it has trampled civil liberties….—but has done far less to mitigate the effects of a much longer term, slower…
Hi Folks! I am at a friend’s apartment, borrowing her internet connection. I live in New York City — Queens — which was hit hard by Sandy, but my neighborhood was not severely affected. I wish everyone could say the same. Anyway, for those not dodging downed power lines, it’s a great day for the kids to go forth and revel in candy and independence — both sweet. But how can parents start letting go? Maybe it’s not that hard — at least, that’s what I just saw. On Saturday, I gave my Free-Range Kids lecture in Whitby, Ontario, and…
Hi Folks! Did you know I write a weekly syndicated newspaper column? Yup. Been doing it for seven years, through Creators Syndicate. (And dare I suggest, maybe your local paper should run it? It’s not always about Free-Range topics. I cover everything from bioterrorism to Barbie.) Anyway, here’s my latest, about a letter you read here, and a case far away. – L. PREDICTING THE UNPREDICTABLE Abductions. Earthquakes. What do they have in common besides the horror they create? They are both, to a greater or lesser extent, random. And randomness — call it “fate” — is something we 21st…
Hi Readers! Here’s a little note from a mom in Massachusetts, land of freedom-seeking Pilgrims, who adds that this Thanksgiving celebration is supposed to be as “authentic” as possible: Dear Free-Range Kids: I just got an invitation to my 3rd grader’s upcoming Thanksgiving celebration. Parents are welcome, but must have a current CORI form (criminal background check) on file. Just to come have a snack with your child in a well-supervised group setting. Which reminds me. That Squanto fellow who was always hanging around. Didn’t he seem a little TOO nice? – L.
Hi Readers! I don’t know about you, but I let my kids eat their Halloween candy without my inspecting it. In fact, they can eat any homemade treats or apples they get, too. (Ha! Like they’d ever eat an apple on Halloween.) If you also happen to trust the world not to be poisoning your kids — and I think you should: there have been no instances of a child ever poisoned by a stranger on Halloween (here’s the Snopes report) — I’m wondering if you’d consider doing this: Send me a photo or video of your children eating an…
Hi Readers! Let’s help Bree! – L. Dear fellow Free-Rangers, I am thrilled to tell you that my daughter’s school is re-vamping recess to make it… FUN! That’s right, after years of cracking down on things like tag (no touching, someone might get hurt or feel violated), cartwheels (someone might get kicked), touch football (someone might take it too far and tackle another player), etc. we now have a new conversation is beginning. It started with our principal asking parents how to make recess more safe and productive. When another Free-Ranger and I were the only parents who showed up…
Hi Readers: This letter made me ill. Simple as that. Until we learn to blame CRIMINALS and not MOMS, we will continue to create a world of blame and fear and good ol’ pitchfork-through-the-heart cruelty. – L. (who did not bother to make any corrections to the writer’s note) P.S. This note is about the Jessica Ridgeway case, not the tragedy we are hearing of today, in New Jersey. Dear Free-Range Kids: First and foremost my heart and prayers go out to the family, friends, and community. I am a mother of two children. Daughter is 9 and my son…
Hi Folks — Here’s me, today, on the show “The Doctors.” This was not an appearance I’m proud of. I don’t think I got my point across — that kids today are pretty safe, and it is only our worst-case-obsessing culture (as exemplified by, ahem, The Doctors) that is convincing us our kids are in constant danger. What really upset me about this is…everything. That includes the fact that New York City’s parks are portrayed as citadels of crime, because there were 41 incidents over the summer. In a city of 8,000,000 people! Hey, it’s too bad there wasn’t ZERO…
Hi Readers — As you know, I don’t jump on every study that comes along (in part because that would require an inordinate amount of jumping). But this one, out today, I found interesting: Cyberbullying Only Rarely the Sole Factor Identified in Teen Suicides. You can figure out the topic from the title, obviously, but you may be wondering: How is this relevant to Free-Range Kids? The answer is not that we are here to endorse cyberbullying. (Surprise!) It’s that in the past year or two, the cyberbullying-suicide connection has achieved almost “stranger-danger” status: a very rare but very awful…