Hi Readers — Boy, your letters keep blowing me away. Here’s another one that made me think — and fume. It reminds me of a great essay by Spiked Online contributor Nancy McDermott (Spiked is sort of Britain’s Slate) about how this generation of parents treats every childrearing decision as a Nobel-worthy research project. McDermott calls it the “tyranny of scientific parenting.” I’m sure it’ll sound familiar to any of us who’ve ever said, “Aw, let’s not sweat it. ” Read on! Dear FRK: I am a first time mom of a four month old son. I wouldn’t think…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Here’s a boiled down excerpt from a book I loved, Ada Calhoun’s “Instinctive Parenting: Trusting Ourselves to Raise Good Kids.” Ada was the founding editor at Babble.com and the more she read about parental doubts — is this the right way to raise kids or is that? — the more she realized: All that really matters is food, shelter and love. Not the “right” equipment, or the “right” phrases, or the “right” sleeping solution, or “stimulation,” or all the rest. She’s so sensible — and funny, too! Here’s her blog and here’s her take on: The Truth About…
Hi Readers — As usual, I’m sitting here wondering whether it’s “lucky” to live in such a first world country. Check out these two notes I just got: Dear Free-Range Kids: I am a writing from Estonia, it’s a small country in Europe. I came a cross your blog through babble.com and a quick flip through your posts left me a bit astonished. I mean, you seem to be sane and a thoughtful lady, but has rest of the America gone insane? 🙂 Around here, we have no problems with children playing in the parks by themselves, going to school…
Hi Readers — I am hearing so much about “Can I ever EVER leave my child in the car?” lately that I thought I’d share this note that just came in from a sane and loving mom. Voila: Dear Free-Range Kids: I thought of you today as I was standing in Papa Murphy’s waiting for my pizza. You see I had left my 8-year-old son and his 4-year-old brother in our van. I had the keys. They were about 20 feet from me and I could clearly see them through the big Papa Murphy’s windows. You came to mind as…
Hi Readers! This note from a teacher interested me so much — and not just because I really hate bottled water. (Always have. It’s a waste of plastic, and a waste of fuel, in that it gets transported from Fiji or wherever, by boat and truck. And in a country with clean tap water, it’s a waste of money! Especially because so many brands, including Dasani and Aquafina, are just re-filtered tap water anyway!) But anyway — the letter interests me not just because it has to do with over-coddling, but also because of insidious privatizing: The triumph of bottled…
Hi Readers — Here’s a little rant from Down Under, on a rainy day: Dear Free-Range Kids: In keeping with Free-Range tradition, my two girls aged 7 and 5 walk to school. Okay, I confess, the school is at the end of our block — they don’t even have to cross a road to get there, and it’s only about 200 yards away! Today, it was pouring with rain. While climbing in the car and doing a quick school drop-and-run might work in normal families, I have three other (younger) children, so I made the executive decision that the girls…
Hi Readers! Friday night I was on CNN with Rick Sanchez, talking about how Take Our Kids to the Park & Leave Them There Day went. (Just fine, thanks!) The affable anchor then lamented the fact that he and his family live in a lovely suburb of Atlanta, but the playgrounds are always EMPTY. And then — he had a great idea of how to fill them again. How? Put a cop in the park! (“Ah, but what if the cop is a kidnapper?” asked my smart aleck 12-year-old who is getting used to the way most Americans think.) Anyway,…
Hi Readers — Two things: First, this being Memorial Day Weekend, I am taking a three-day break! I’ll be back in the saddle on Tuesday, but until then, talk amongst yourselves. Second, here’s a little thought-provoking note I got the other day that should provide plenty of discussion around the picnic table. (And if you’re reading this in Australia: Sorry! Brrrrr!) It’s been a great and wild ride since announcing “Take Our Children to the Park…” Day. If you’re near a TV tonight, I’m on CNN at around 8:45 Eastern Time, discussing it. Here are my opeds about it in…
Hi Readers! As you know, one of the reasons many folks are too scared to let their kids go outside and play, or walk to school, or breathe without a bodyguard, is that they assume “times are different” — and worse. Here’s what a lady wrote to her local California paper yesterday: What fantasy world does Lenore live in where kids can play in a park unattended? I live in a very nice neighborhood in Whittier and I won’t let my 10 year old granddaughter go get the Daily News off the driveway without me watching her. In fact, in…
Hi Readers — Just talking to a reporter who wondered: Are there any photos of “Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day”? If you have some, and if you’d like to see them in the newspaper, or even here on the blog, could you please send them to me at freerangepics@gmail.com? As I told the reporter: “But the parents weren’t THERE! So how could they take pictures?” But maybe, somehow, somewhere, some pictures were snapped. And if not — there’s always next year. Thanks! — L.