Hi Readers! Thanks to one of you recommending this film — “Indictment: The McMartin Trial” — my husband and I just watched it today (a mere decade and a half after it came out, on HBO). Now all I can say is: Put it at the top of your Netflix cue. As Wikipedia puts it so pithily: A defense lawyer (played by James Woods) defends an average American family from shocking allegations of child abuse and Satanic rituals. After six years and $16 million, the trial ends with the dismissal of all charges. Along the way, we watch pedophile panic…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — Just had to share the story I heard yesterday when I went to get some blood drawn. (I’m fine.) The phlebotomist and I started chatting and somehow she ended up telling me that three weeks ago her 6-year-old son badly burned himself when he accidentally spilled a bowl of soup into his lap. His dad rushed him to the hospital — they got there at 10 at night. And there they waited for three hours, the boy crying and crying. “My husband is not very loud,” explained the phlebotomist, meaning, her husband is not very assertive. So…
Hi Readers — I got this question yesterday and it is one that comes up from time to time. I’ll give you my answer, but the author would like to have yours, too. Here goes: . Dear Free-Range Kids: I have a question for you. Or a scenario. Every morning — ok most mornings — I get up at 5:30 and go to a boot camp in a park one city block from my house for one hour. My husband and the kids (almost 7 and 9) sleep through this 99.9% of the time. But right now my husband is…
Hi Readers — Just got this letter from a new mom in a town that prides itself on health, humanity, even hippie-ness…up to a point, I guess. Her name is Esmeralda, she’s an artist, and I don’t think what she is going through is unique: Dear Free-Range Kids: I thought of you recently when I took my baby Wesley to the doc. There were some hyperfear tactics that they were already trying to push on me. It was startling! I felt like I was being subjected the equivalent of subliminal advertising. My husband, Hunter, is a light smoker, and does…
Hi Readers! Here’s a guest post from the very funny Thelma Adams. You may know her as the film critic for Us Magazine and, before that, the New York Post. But TODAY St. Martins Press/Thomas Dunne Books is publishing her novel, Playdate! Here she ponders a Free-Range Childhood. — L. Free-Range Children by Thelma Adams I didn’t grow up Free-Range. We lived on a San Diego cul-de-sac surrounded by hilly miles of sidewalk going pretty much nowhere. Civilization — the Woolworth’s! — was a car ride away. Until the very first day one of my friends got a driver’s license,…
Readers: Here is a note from the young woman who wrote the petition in the post below this. Dear Free-Range Kids: While I am thrilled with the response my petition has gotten, I have decided to suspend it indefinitely. This morning there was a student suicide at my school. In light of that tragedy, I have no desire to give my school any more publicity. Thanks. This is beyond sad. — L.
Hi Readers: I’m so proud of this high school student — for what she’s doing and also all her clear thinking. The points she makes about her school’s no-touching rule could be made about most Zero Tolerance laws. Be prepared to cheer! — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I am a senior at a a small New England high school. A few days ago, the administration implemented a new rule: No physical contact at any time. The only appropriate touch, we are told, is a handshake. Presumably, this is to thin out the kissing couples who clog up the halls. I…
Hi Readers! Here’s a note about something that went right. but it could have gone even, uh, righter. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I had my first half-way Free-Range encounter with another parent the other day. I was at the ice rink with my toddlers, watching the kids on the ice from a bench near the front door. A man with a young boy, 4-ish, approaches the bench and sort of looks us over. The dad then tells the boy to stay here and wait, but is looking at me strangely. Then he goes to the desk maybe 10 feet…
Hi Readers — I touched (ha ha — so to speak!) upon this issue in my Golden Helicopter Awards: The fact that the British Musicians Union has told its members (ha ha again) not to lay (ha ha) a finger on any child they are giving music lessons. Most cheeringly, England’s Education Secretary, Michael Grove, has called these restrictions daffy. Here’s some of his wisdom, via The Telegraph: It plays to a culture of fear among both adults and children, reinforcing the message that any adult who touches a child is somehow guilty of inappropriate contact,” he said. “If we…
Hi Readers — Sent by one of you, from a Facebook exchange: KM: Today I toured a “preschool” that makes the kids (4/5 year olds) nap for 2 hours everyday. Lights out, kids laying on cots in the dark for two hours! WTF! AND it cost $140/week. MGK: Um, kids should never be left in the dark at any daycare. Sadly predators will take any chance. KM: There was a teacher in there flipping through a magazine. The place was really small and the doors locked. MGK: Even worse. One teacher, alone in the dark with a child/children and the…