Dear Readers — Here is an extraordinary 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 unrelated children.” This fear has lead not only to parents locking their children indoors — as indicated by the statistic in my headline (from England) — it is also changing the very relationship between children and grown-ups. As notes the article, by Jenni Russell, this generation…
Author: lskenazy
Here’s my 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: 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 school, today only 10 percent to 15 percent of kids do. How come? The usual reason parents give is, “Times have changed,” and that’s true. Surprisingly, they have changed for the better. Nationally, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures, we are back to the…
Note 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’ White House Is Less So for Aides,” featured honcho after hand-wringing honcho bemoaning how hard it is to balance the demands of running the country with being a good mom or dad. Orszag — a guy who is, one hopes, trying to figure out how to…
Dear 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 matter of seconds in the play areas of fast food restaurants with the parents RIGHT THERE!” Now when I think about McDonald’s “ball room” it has a whole new meaning. Ick. Signed: Newly Scared of Fast Food Playspaces That Seem Too Small For Most Grown…
Super scary predators. Innocent victims. Great ratings. Anyone else get the sneaking suspicion that Shark Week is just a fish version of Nancy Grace?
Hi Free-Rangers! Daniel Bigler, a pre-school teacher/Children’s Studies major in Spokane, Washington — and the blogger behind Danielsaurus.com — has taken it upon himself to find us some inspiring movies. “The premise,” he says, “is simple. Each week we go out in search of a fresh movie either for or about kids that keeps in line with the philosophy of letting our kids have ‘Free-Range’ childhoods. Movies with strong child characters breaking the rules, venturing out on their own, and living life to its fullest.” Feel free to add your own recommendations, caveats, and anything else, below, as we…
Just shows how much you can learn from Twitter. I just read a Tweet that had this remarkable revelation: When you ask people to review your book — they do! Or some of them do, anyway. So — call me a fruitcake — I’m thinking of doing the same thing for Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry. If any of you happen to have read my book and feel like you’d like to review it on Amazon — as in RIGHT HERE, one simple click away! — I shall not stop you.…
Hi Readers! Here’s a story most of us can relate to, from mom of two Kelli Oliver George, whose funny, addictive blog is Rancid Raves. I LOST MY SON AT THE FAIR, BUT I FOUND HIM — SUPRISINGLY! NOT by Kelli Oliver George I thought about Free-Range Kids long and hard last night when I lost my 3.5-year-old at a huge, dusty county fair with thousands of folks milling around. My baby! Lost! The entire time I hunted for him, I kept repeating to myself what this site has been preaching: the statistics are actually LOW and realistically, he was…
Here is a great quote, lifted from The Week (my favorite magazine*), which lifted it from David Iganatius in The Washington Post. It points out that we have gotten so used to thinking in terms of preparing for the very worst, the very least likely scenarios, that that we don’t realize how overbearing (and often dumb) our safety measures have become. I was thinking the same thing today as I struggled to open the super-tamper-resistent seal on my can of whipped cream. I really was not that worried about someone tampering with my whipped cream. — L This September,…
Kudos to the Kansas City Star and reporters Eric Adler and Emily Van Zandt for their FRONT PAGE article yesterday (sent to use here by many readers — thanks!): “Statistics tell parents that the world is not so dangerous for their children” Listen to this! Despite the trepidation that naturally arises when releasing our kids into the big, bad world, statistics show that for the vast majority of American young people, their world isn’t as dangerous as it’s often made out to be. Tragedies — car crashes, serious sports injuries, childhood suicide, water accidents, to name a few –…