Hi Readers: This letter is from a woman whose mom was way more helicopter than most — an extreme case. Nonetheless, it’s a cautionary tale and she sent it here to endorse the Free-Range movement. Here’s wishing the writer, and her mom, a very happy and liberating 2010. — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: I really wish that I had a free, happy childhood memory to share, but I don’t. I grew up in the ’80s and my mother was obsessed with keeping my brother and me “safe.” She was a total helicopter mom, even though that term wasn’t used then.…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Let us help this mama-to-be, who is being driven crazy by all the obsessive, micromanaging pregnancy advice she’s getting from all sides, especially her cyber-friends. What I try to remind folks — pregnant and not — is that if humanity required perfect on the part of its parents, there would not BE humanity. It is only in the last generation or so that mothers-to-be have even known exactly which fingernail was being formed during which second of which trimester. Now that we do know, it’s very hard not to worry about it all, but we really don’t have…
Hi Readers — This just in! A lovely story. Be of good cheer — it’s happening! — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: This happened to me the other day. I was talking to a co-worker about how, as a child, my parents would send me to spend my summers with family in America… alone. I was an “UM” (Unaccompanied Minor) on the flights, which meant that a steward(ess) would meet me at the gate, take me to the plane, and plunk me down on my seat. When the plane landed, s/he would get me and walk me to my parents. While…
Hi Readers! This photo montage has been making the rounds. Thought I’d share it, too. I’ve seen it headlined, “Why Boys Need Moms,” and, “Why Boys Need Parents.” (As opposed to the post two below this one: Why Boys Need Lawyers.) Enjoy, but don’t bother to tell us that not all these pix are in good taste. We know. Meantime, if you celebrate Xmas, hope it’s a merry one! Save those boxes for your kids to play with. — Lenore
Hi Readers and gollllly. Here I thought we’d cornered the market on commonsense. But according to the megasite Babble — and its wonderful list of the 50 top mommy bloggers — Free-Range Kids is the “Most Controversial” parenting blog of 2009. If you visit the Babble list, please feel free to click on the “I Like This Blogger” doodad next to our mention. Maybe Free-Range is still a little controversial. But next year it’ll be the most mainstream. — Lenore
….please read this amazing letter to the editor that ran in the Eastern Arizona Courier the other day. So glad it was forwarded to me. Voila: Dear Editor: I am writing this because I am tired of seeing young men’s lives destroyed. Young men, there’s a real danger out there you need to be aware of that can destroy your lives forever. That danger is young girls wanting to be popular by dating older guys. You know the ones, those who want to be known as the girl with the more mature boyfriend. It may even be that her mother…
‘Tis Christmas Carol parody season. Here’s one of mine, below. For more — including “Text My Cell” to Jingle Bells, and “Frosty the Outsourced Snowman” — check out ParentDish.com and Creators.com, my two other gigs! (And I won’t tell you which one has the Tiger Woods Greensleeves song, “Whose Texts Are These?”) — Lenore THE OCTOMOM SONG (TO “O TANNENBAUM”) by Lenore Skenazy O Octomom, O Octomom You hear the patter, pitter Like Jon and Kate You, too, had eight — Except in just one litter It must be hard to keep them fed And patty-caked and put to bed…
Watch out, kids! Drug dealers are coming to your schoolyard to hook you on Strawberry crystal meth Pop Rocks! That’s the rumor going around Texas that has the PTA there so alarmed that it is warning parents to instruct their kids not to eat, well, strawberry-flavored meth. Or grape meth. Or peanut butter meth. (Think of the allergies!) If I were the Texas PTA, I’d trademark the phrase “Meth-busters,” just to try to sound a tiny bit cool. But, of course, I’m not them. I’m someone who read this delightful little piece on Reason.com and realizes what an urban meth,…
Hi Readers! We’ve come a long way since the days when you could buy your kid a chemistry set with radioactive ores. Maybe too long. When science is no more exciting that watching oil and vinegar separate, we end up with bored kids. That means a few years later we end up with an ignorant population, easily conned. We need EXCITING, slightly dangerous science, argues Theodore Gray, author of Theo Gray’s Mad Science — Experiments You Can Do at Home But Probably Shouldn’t. (A title he says is totally accurate.) Here’s his nice essay about how we overemphasize the dangers…
Hi Readers — Got a notice from our school last week: No more recess when it’s freezing outside — 32 degrees Fahrenheit — or when the wind chill takes an above-freezing day and makes it FEEL freezing. Now, as a kid growing up in Chicago, this was my dream policy. (Yes, even as a kid I dreamed of improving public policy. Didn’t you?) How many days were we outside when it was 15 degrees with those famous Windy City winds whipping us around? That’s before kids were fat! We were like coffee stirrers skittering across the blacktop! On the other…