Hi Readers! I was on Dr. Drew last night, as you can see, below. I like this clip and I very much liked the other lady he had on, Lisa Bloom. But what you won’t see here is the clip that played before my introduction. It was of the two Iowa girls who have been missing for two months. And what you won’t see that came AFTER this clip: an interview with the girls’ distraught aunt, who says she thinks they were quite possibly abducted into the “white slave” trade. And then came a caller who had been abducted as…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — Many folks tell me they’d LIKE to go Free-Range, but aren’t sure how exactly to start. Here’s one mom who took the first (baby) step that some of you might want to try. Good luck! – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I think this might be the fourth or fifth time I’ve written you, so please do not think I’m stalking you, but I want you to know how Free-Range is just in my mind all the time and how much your blog has helped me. Yesterday I was playing in the sandbox in the backyard with my…
Hi Folks — Here’s what the “stranger danger” lectures kids are getting at school looks like to a girl with the X-ray vision of Superman and the snark of a middle school brainiac. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I live in Edison, New Jersey. It’s a town with a large population, but for the most part people know each other pretty well. In elementary school, one of the parents told the school nurse I wasn’t wearing a jacket and the nurse called my parents and threatened to call DYFS, although the coat was in my backpack. This last…
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…
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…