Dear Readers: Here’s a little missive from the frontiers of irrationality, brought to you by a terrified culture and a school in Arizona. . Dear Free-Range Kids: I was shocked when I received this in an email from my daughter’s school: “Mrs. K has informed me that all volunteers must have a fingerprint card prior to volunteering in our schools. I know there was different information relayed to you all with regards to the fingerprinting matter. I asked Mrs. K to clarify that for me so that you would be given the correct information. If you don’t…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Once again, one of you alerted me to a phenom I was completely unaware of: Schools are asking parents to write letters for their kids’ emergency packs, in case they are separated…perhaps forever. It certainly sounds like a wrenching exercise for the parents, one that — per usual these days — forces us to imagine the very worst, saddest case scenario and proceed as if it’s likely enough to happen. It’s what I call “worst-first thinking,” and it’s the way we are being TRAINED to think about our kids. Think of the advice columnist who suggested we…
Hi Readers! Sometimes I get the kind of note that makes my day/week/month, as did this one. Naturally, it comes with one nagging question, which I am often asked. — L. Dear Lenore: Thank you so much for your wonderful book. I am not (yet) a parent but plan to start a family soon. I am so glad I picked up your book (I could barely put it down, you made me laugh more than I have laughed in a long time) before I started having kids! It caught my eye because after I began working at a…
Hi Folks! Here’s a note that resonated with me so much. It’s why I tried to start that “I Won’t Supervise Your Kids”class with kids of all different ages, and why I want kids to meet up with each other and HAVE to figure out how to have fun on “Take Our Children to The Park…And Leave Them There Day.” Even as I write this my 14-year-old is trudging off to school knowing that at 3:30 he won’t find anyone to play with at the park just opposite the school because…the kids don’t do that. They go straight home and…
Hi Readers: This one made me worry, then smile, then realize that one part of Free-Range is remembering it’s not just us adults who are the problem-solvers. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I can’t tell you how much this blog and its community have meant to me. I have come a long way as a Free-Range parent. This place is a haven of rationality in the turmoil of the current tragedy. After beginning to read this blog, I started to let my kids walk short distances in our neighborhood by themselves. I will continue to do so.…
Hey readers — Just got this note and I found it revelatory! – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: The ability to get very scared of danger that strikes around us has probably been extremely important throughout evolution. I would say that it is a basic instinct. Having media triggering this for issues that have no relevance to our own survival is one of our time’s biggest challenges. It’s not too different from overeating and obesity. We need to see that our bodies and our instincts do not always give us the right information. Lenore here: What a great analogy! Throughout most…
Dear Readers — Like no doubt most of you, I am horrified and dismayed by the disappearance of Jessica Ridgeway and what may be the recovery of her body. My heart is pounding as I read the stories. And of course, I am reading the reactions to the case, too. Here’s one woman’s essay, from the website Chicago Now: When I read that a body has been found in Colorado a few miles from where Jessica Ridgeway went missing, I got a lump in my throat. ….This case hits close to home. My tween is 10 years old, just…
Hi Folks! Just spoke at the Wellesley Mothers Forum — really fun. And now comes this nice note. Hope springs! – L Dear Free-Range Kids: I wanted to share with you my Free-Range moment with my fourth grade students. In Ontario, we’re experiencing some political unrest in our schools due to the legislation of Bill 115, which strips teachers of their right to strike or take job action. As a result, teachers are individually deciding NOT to volunteer with extra-curricular activities, especially ones that take place outside of the school hours. I’m not trying to get into a debate about…
Hi Folks! Just another note from the frontiers of where our worst-first thinking is taking us. Now it’s being built into the infrastructure. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: This “child predator hysteria” in America today is getting waaaay out of hand. I recently toured the new YMCA we have here in town and I was surprised, or perhaps not surprised, to find out that this state-of-the-art Y had not two, not three, but FIVE dressing rooms. It was equipped with a men’s dressing room, a women’s dressing room, a boys’ dressing room, a girls’ dressing room and a family…
Hi Readers! Here’s part of a letter to the editor in this week’s New Yorker that I found wonderful. It concerns an article from a few weeks back by Malcolm Gladwell — a long, upsetting piece about Jerry Sandusky and some other child molestors. Gladwell detailed the ways some predators appear to be so kind, caring and even goofy that they worm their way into our hearts and homes. We more than trust them with our kids — we love to have them around. The article was disturbing for two reasons. First of all, it’s awful to think how devious…