About two dozen eighth graders at a Chicago magnet school were arrested for cafeteria food fight. I do love the idea of disciplining them for a food fight. Those fights are gross. But fingerprinting? A court date? Whatever happened to making them clean up and then good ol’ study hall for a week? Or have them tutor some younger kids? (Not in food fights. In something else their magnet school has taught them.) — Lenore
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — This comment, from a gal named Elizabeth, puts things in perspective — especially when it comes to the current obsession with never letting go of our kids, ever. Not even for a minute. Literally. Yes, free-range is about empowering children, no doubt. But it’s also about not living in fear and realizing that other human beings can be sources of help, suppors, and understanding. Sometimes, taking a deep breath and realizing that it is infinitely more likely that nothing bad will happen than that it will does make parents’ lives easier in the moment, and it also…
Hi Readers — Allow me to introduce Rob, a dad headed for divorce court tomorrow. He sent this note asking whether I think what he did “proves” he is a bad dad, as claims his ex. I have no idea who he is, why he got a divorce, or anything, really, other than the fact the incident he describes below strikes me as a decent parenting decision. Here goes: Dear Free-Range Kids: I am going to court on Monday morning to request an increase in my child custody from 6 days to 7 days per 2 weeks. Pivotal to my…
Hi htibasiaei Readers! Want to know what happened? Read on! Dear Free-Range Kids: It’s so inspiring to hear that there are others out there who refuse to freak out at every little thing. I am a first time mom to a now 4-month-old and I don’t sterilize his pacifiers when he drops them on the ground, I refuse to ever use a shopping cart cover, and a month ago, I did the unthinkable. I left my baby with a stranger while I used the bathroom at Starbucks. My son and I were about three hours into a road…
Hi Readers! I’m becoming a Cracked addict. (Har har. I’m sure NOBODY ever thought of that before.) Anyway, here are the definitive, “7 Things Good Parents Do (That Screw Up Kids for Life).” I especially endorse the one about teaching kids about “stranger danger.” (The caption is still making me laugh.) Enjoy! — Lenore
Well, no I don’t. Secretly, I think we all love it. So, here’s a great article from CNN of all places (the network some dub the Child-Napping Network), all about how we have to get kids playing outside more, and schools have to give them more run-around time, too, instead of just more test prep. Otherwise the kids are going to end up with all the things I don’t like to dwell on: Obesity, heart disease, etc. The article dubbed kids’ sit-around lifestyle “A Coronary Time Bomb.” And get this: One reason so few kids are outside, according to CNN,…
Hi Readers — Here’s a fantastic article on the Cub Scout-with-a-spork story — the one where a 6-year-old was sentenced to 45 days in reform school for bringing his beloved fork/knife/spoon eating utensil to school. The article, by Mark Steyn (my former colleague when I worked at The New York Sun), goes on to look at other issues of Zero Tolerance, including the girl suspended for bringing a knife to cut a cake, wherein school “spokesapparatchiks seem befuddled when asked why even their most basic human impulses no longer function.” That is exactly the issue: What to do when administrators…
Hi Readers! Here you go! Dear Free-Range Kids: I just had my first child a couple of months ago and within a day had our first experience with extreme safety proponents. I was in the hospital and a friend had come to meet my son. We decided to go on a walk around the ward, just so that I could stretch my legs. I picked up my son and we had a nice stroll around the ward. As we were heading back to my room one of the nurses yelled at me for carrying my baby around. Apparently, in that…
Hi Readers! This is an hour-long lecture I gave at Yale last month, about everything Free-Range. Just thought I’d put it up here. Looking at it has taught me a couple of things, perhaps most saliently: My green jacket is way less cool than I thought it was. Also: Need haircut! Anyway — here you go. (Somehow I couldn’t embed the video itself): http://bit.ly/48NA8h — Lenore
Hi Readers — Let’s help this teen together, shall we? Here is his letter: Dear Free-Range Kids: You probably don’t get too many emails from kids and teens, but being a child with overbearing parents I have some things I’d like to ask. I’m in the middle of reading your book (how sad, a kid reading a book on parenting) and I find it very intriguing. Actually, my parents let me be fairly free in my childhood. The problems I’m facing now are being free enough in my teen years. I can now drive and my social life is returning…