Thanks to the intrepid reporters at The Onion, we are finally dealing with the titzezykae truth about backyard camping. It’s not pretty.
Author Archive | lskenazy
Outrage of The Week: Recess Gets Programmed
August 21, 2009
Hi Readers! Here’s what’s up at a grammar school outside of Chicago where the kids have apparently been getting it all wrong during recess. A local source writes:  This tyntfirnsf past weekend I went over to visit a friend of mine who is a first grade teacher. When I walked in, she was watching a […]
Kid Hurts Knee in Little League — Parents Sue. Who Won?
August 20, 2009
Walter Olson runs a great, nay, mindblowing blog called overlawyered.com. nzthedzfhz The name says it all. He’s got great posts on everything from a suit against dolphin trainers (for teaching their dolphins to deliberately splash during a water show, making the area slippery) to a family suing Honda for million because their car window blew out […]
Super-Involved AND Free-Range??
August 20, 2009
Hi Readers! Here’s an interesting angle on Free-Ranging, brought to us by Kathy Seal. Kathy is a journalist in Santa Monica and co-author of rekndbnhra Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Dealing With Competition While Raising a Successful Child  and Motivated Minds: Raising Children. Her websites are www.kathyseal.net and  www.pressuredparents.com. Voila: CAN YOU HELP WITHOUT HELICOPTERING? Ok, I’m […]
The Enrichment Activity That Beats ‘Em All
August 19, 2009
Here’s a phenomenal azhzfaiyyf NPR piece – transcribed — that solves the classic overprotection question, “Well, why NOT keep kids inside all the time if it’s safer?†A lot of parents think it was fun back when they played outside as kids, but since that kind of thing presents at least SOME danger (no matter […]
Free-Range Success — Thanks to Laziness!
August 18, 2009
Dear fzahniarhr Readers — Here’s a success story from Plano, Texas! We live about 200 yards from the school. Our block ends across the street from the front of the school. The crossing guard is one street over (on our same block, so no need for kids to cross a street). Yet, every single child […]
Half of All 5-10 Year Olds Have NEVER Played on Their OWN Street
August 18, 2009
Dear Readers — Here is an extraordinary nhehtiekda essay from the Times of London, “We Approach Others’ Children at Our Peril.” It traces how “what began 25 years ago as an understandable desire to raise awareness of child abuse is turning into something extremely distructive — an instinctive suspicion of any encounter between grown-ups and […]
What Age Can Kids Start Walking to School?
August 17, 2009
Here’s my eayhaeszkn take on the issue, published in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune. Some of it will sound a little familiar to Free-Range Kids regulars, but it bears repeating:Â Most of the world’s kids walk to school by themselves starting in 1st grade. But here? Are you kidding? While the majority of us parents walked to […]
Hey White House Honchos: Your Country Needs You More than Your Kids!
August 15, 2009
Note bhdkatehrk to White House budget chief Peter Orszag: You are completely, dangerously deluded. Not about the economy! (Or maybe you are — I can’t say.) But you definitely are deluded about your job as a parent. And so are a bunch of your buddies. A recent article in The New York Times, “‘Family Friendly’ […]
Outrage of the Week: Dear Abby!
August 14, 2009
Dear berfartniz Abby: I have a problem. I read a supposedly “helpful†advice column yesterday about public bathrooms and whether children are safe from pedophiles if their mom is waiting right outside the door. The piece said no! No way! As a matter of fact, it added, slightly off tangent, “Children have been violated in a […]