Hi Readers! Here’s a brilliant note from a gal named Ann: Dear Free-Range Kids. Here’s a Liberty Mutual ad with the tag line “Do the right thing.” The situation is a mom picking up her two kids from soccer. They’re late and need to get to the airport. But another kid is still sitting on the bench waiting for his dad. It’s almost dusk and the kid is probably 10-12. Should the mom leave him ALONE at the field? Or should she forgo getting to the airport to make sure that the kid isn’t unattended. Guess what the “right thing”…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Get a load of this — little kids in Australia have been found guilty of violating graffiti laws with their chalk drawings on a sidewalk outside a cafe. This might not be such a Free-Range issue except for this: Mayor Ben Stennett visited the cafe yesterday as anger mounted. Almost 200 people have signed a petition to support the drawings, which [cafe owner] Ms White is happy to erase each day. “The mayor said they would like to issue us a permit but can’t because it raises health and safety issues, in case somebody fell over a child…
Hi Readers: I seethed along with this one. — L. SMILE FOR THE MISSING PERSONS FILE! by Ellen Braun She was all of five feet tall with a charming smile and her weapon of choice was a digital camera. So how did this mother of two ruin my afternoon? It happened in the magnificent state of Vermont. I was relishing the crisp fresh air of the Green Mountain State when my enjoyment was abruptly shattered. No, this woman did not insult me, nor did she hit me over the head. Here’s the story: Ms. Camera and I were waiting at…
Hi Readers — What’s wrong with this commercial for the campaign, “Let’s Move” ? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6utraKblMw] Well, first of all, it assumes it is OUR JOB, as parents, to keep coming up with one-minute exercises that will some how magically take the place of an entire CHILDHOOD spent running around. Secondly, it doesn’t even remotely suggest that maybe kids can entertain themselves or be active of their own accord. Thirdly, all this “moving” lasts about a minute. So if you want your kids to move for even half a measly hour a day, you have to come up with 29 more…
Readers: This is a topic we have visited before, but it continues to grow as an “issue.” Today in my inbox I got this notice from “Safe Kids,” urging people to call 911 whenever they see a kid in a car, and using this tragic story as its rationale — the story of a mom who forgot her child in the car for 10 hours. Seems to me there is a rather huge difference between accidentally forgetting your child in the car, and deliberately choosing to leave him there for a short while while you run an errand. But the…
Readers, I saw this the other day — a back brace that allows you to carry your child on your back literally up to age 7 and 60 pounds — and had been too stunned to sum up my feelings…till now. But here they are: This is embarrassing. I’m sure the carrier may be helpful to the parents of some special needs children. Perhaps it is helpful in some strange situations, like climbing out of a crevice with your sleepy second grader after you’ve cut off your arm. But the idea that it is HELPFUL to carry a child capable…
Hi Readers! Yes, a little more perspective: Dear Free-Range Kids: Less than 24 hours ago I was in Honduras on a service trip. We did a medical clinic in a small rural community, and were passing out vitamins and Tylenol to many of the residents. We were giving vitamins to a young girl who looked about 10 but said she was 14. Making small talk, we asked her if she liked school. She said she had stopped going to school when her mother died so she could take care of her brothers and sisters. She…
Hi Readers! You’ll love this! — L Dear Free-Range Kids: This isn’t so much a camp story as it is an “independence” story. My son was by nature very timid and could have easily have been crippled by this nature had I allowed it. Instead, I kicked my kids out of the house on every nice day and made them find something to do rather than sit inside. Many a summer night saw my backyard filled with up to a dozen neighborhood kids in sleeping bags under the stars and unsupervised. Shockingly, they were never once kidnapped or molested. …
Hi Folks! This video was sent in with a comment that says it all: In the US, a 15-year-old can’t wait outside for a parent to pick them up, a 10-year-old can’t walk to school alone. In the UK, a 14-year-old can’t babysit a toddler … and in Nepal these kids are using a wire over a river to get to school everyday! — Kate Parker Adams The video will remind long-time readers of a similar trek made by school kids in South America who also used a zip line (over a river) to get to school. And it’ll remind…
Hi Readers — Gosh, there have been so many interesting letters lately! Here’s one that has me so proud for the writer. It is so difficult to break old habits, and harder still when those are based on FEAR. But as she discovered: When we deal with the real world, instead of the dreadful illusion we have of it, the world is OURS. All props to her for being so brave! — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: At the age of 34 I have just started taking classes at night without having a ride home from a relative. ( I’m mildly…