Hi Folks! Love this essay by Bree Ervin, from her blog Think Banned Thoughts. I think a lot of them, too! – L WHAT I WANTED TO SAY by Bree Erwin The world isn’t a safe place, therefore we cannot let our children out of our sight even for a moment or something terrible might happen. This is the echo of the fear-mongering media and the people who buy into it. It’s true, the world is not a safe place. It never has been, it never will be. We cannot childproof it. However the world is AT LEAST AS safe…
Author: lskenazy
Readers: If you take a look at the 300+ comments on the Anderson Live Facebook page about my “I Won’t Supervise Your Kids” class in Central Park — the one where I invite kids ages 8-18 to gather and figure out how to play (a lost skill!) while I go sip a latte — you get a pretty stark look at the way many Americans think about the world today. I.e., kids are never safe. Parents should never let their kids be on their own for a second because they are surrounded by danger. And if it’s not a pedophile…
Hi Folks — A school in Australia is banning balls for the 15 minutes before and after school because, according to The Age newspaper, a toddler was hit by a ball. Of course I feel bad for the toddler. But I feel far worse for the 600 kids at this school, Black Rock Primary, in Melbourne. It might seem like, “Well, we’re only talking about controlling the chaos during the busiest time, when all the kids are gathered and it’s so crowded.” But that is the CRUCIAL time for playing. Fifteen minutes after school, if a game hasn’t started, the…
Hi Folks! Here you go. Just the tip of the media iceberg. — L (who will some day learn how to embed videos that don’t come from YouTube)
Hey Folks — A national TV show taping here in NYC needs Free-Range Parents to come on tomorrow morning and talk about why Free-Ranging is not nuts/crazy/super-dangerous/the worst idea ever, etc. etc. If you are around and want to do this (it’s over by 10 a.m., in midtown)– fantastic. Please drop an email to: Christie Bear christiembear@gmail.com . Thanks! – L
Hi Folks! My “I Won’t Supervise Your Kids” class begins today (Weds., Sept. 12) at 3:45 in Central Park. We’ll meet at 85th and Fifth Avenue. Any parents present will sign a waiver, “I don’t expect anyone — much less Lenore — to supervise my kids.” And then they leave, and so do I, and the fun begins. Make up a game! Learn something new. Make new friends. You know — do the kind of stuff parents got to do when THEY were kids, before everyone got so scared for kids every time they leave the house! (A misplaced fear…
Hi Readers! A fellow Free-Ranger seeks your counsel! – L. . Dear Free-Range Kids: I have a question that maybe you can pose to your readers. What age can kids begin to walk to and from school alone, and whose decision should it be? Here’s the background. We live in a very safe, idyllic suburb. Our town (Temecula) was recently named the “2nd safest city in America” by a Business Insider survey that rated FBI crime stats. Most of the kids who go to our local elementary schools live right in the neighborhood where the schools are located, and…
Folks — The idea that a 10-year-old is not allowed to read at the library without a guardian is nauseating to me, and not just because I spent my formative years at the Wilmette Public Library (reading the Harvard Lampoon). I can’t imagine my mom having to spend her whole weekend at the library just because she happened to have a reader for a child. Alternatively, I can’t imagine NOT spending my afternoons at the library because my mom had other things to do besides bodyguarding me in the reference room. And yet, that “No One Alone Under Age 10″…
Hi Folks! After years of trying to figure out how to get kids back outside, playing together — an effort that led to “Take Our Children to the Park …And Leave Them There Day,” not to mention many a blog post extolling the benefits of free-play — I’ve finally decided that maybe the answer is the one that parents look for instinctively: A bona fide class. Hence, “I Won’t Supervise Your Kids,” a new, 8-week, $350 after-school “class” starting this Wednesday, Sept. 12, in New York City’s Central Park. (Details here.) I’m charging for the class to make me a…
Hi Folks — This story comes to us from Australia, where the federal government is telling child protective workers to consider — and classify — kids who “often” hurt themselves as at a “high risk of neglect.” “Accident-prone children might be the victims of poor parental supervision,” is how AdelaideNow sums the reasoning up. Thus, anyone treating (or seeing?) bruised or clumsy kids is told to assess the role that parental supervision — or lack thereof — played, even in minor accidents. The theory behind this isn’t bad. It’s true that severely neglected children, especially young ones, may be…