Just got this encouraging post, from a mom who is going to let her grade school daughter walk to school this fall. How did the mom get comfortable with this idea? Simple! She thought about her ACTUAL NEIGHBORHOOD — not the neighborhoods we see on crime shows and the TV news, crawling with creeps. The one she actually LIVES IN. That’s why one of the Free-Range Babysteps I suggest in my book is to turn off the TV and take a walk around the block. Connect with the people there — you’ll feel safer and happier, and so will your…
Author: lskenazy
Nice post about, yes, old-fashioned childhood on a blog called “Eco Bling.” My favorite paragraph: Ask yourselves this summer: Do kids really need to watch a full length film in the backseat of a car!? How will they ever learn how many chapters of any given Beverly Cleary book or MAD magazine they can get through without puking? This sort of thing has to be learned on the job. Happy summer! — Lenore (who — bragging rights here — has actually written for Mad.)
Great 2007 article about a $22 million campaign by the Australian government alerting parents to the ostensible dangers their kids face on line. An intrepid Sydney Morning Herald reporter, Michael Duffy, tried to find out what dangers, exactly, kids were being saved from. Well…there was that ONE arrest of a guy, he found. And another 55 charges were filed against others (mostly folks downloading kiddie porn). That’s over a two-year period. Nonetheless, “Talking leads to stalking,” warned the campaign. And, “Playing leads to straying.” All of which is a great way to make parents feel terrified about a “stranger danger”…
Hi Readers — Here’s a seasonal little post from Judy Gruen, the award-winning author of three humor books, including The Women’s Daily Irony Supplement. She has also just won an award for her humor columns on Aish.com from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Read more of her work on judygruen.com. By JUDY GRUEN In most ways I’m a classic Jewish mother. If I’m cold, I tell my kids to put on sweaters. I make chicken soup on Friday nights. (It’s good and good for you!) I worry more than I should. But I depart from the stereotypes in one…
Readers: Here’s a lovely essay from Chris Byrne, editor of the on-line magazine, TimetoPlayMag.com. Enjoy! BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE I grew up before the concept of “Free Range Kids.” No, not when the earth’s crust had cooled just enough to support single-cell life forms. It was in the 1960s and ‘70s, thank you very much. My brothers and I had lots of freedom — so did all the neighborhood kids — and of course we did things the adults didn’t know about. One summer, things went horribly wrong when we tried to cremate a parakeet. (Too much cloth wrapping. And gasoline.)…
Hi Readers! In the next few weeks, we hope to expand the Free-Range Kids site to provide more. More what? Well, that’s what we’d like to know. For sure we want to come up with a way for Free-Range parents to find each other, so we’re working on that. We also want to provide some helpful lists you can consult and add to: Lists of great Free-Range-themed books, movies and games. But — what else? What else would you like to see on this site that isn’t here yet? Do you want to be able to upload home videos of…
Readers: This article makes me so angry, I’d love us all to start thinking what we can do to change a society where danger-hallucinating authorities persecute and prosecute those of us still sane. Suggestions welcome. This piece originally appeared in Brain, Child. By Bridget Kevane On Saturday, June 16, 2007, I was charged with endangering the welfare of my children, a criminal charge that, in the city where I live, Bozeman, Montana, can lead to imprisonment in the county jail. The Montana Code 46-16-130(3) states that a parent can be charged with this offense if she “knowingly endangers the child’s…
Enjoy this. Lots of great signs warning of the obvious gathered by a group called The Manifesto Club and reprinted in England’s Daily Mail. These signs remind us that Britian is in some ways more advanced than the U.S. when it comes to worrying about non-worrisome things. Remember: It is England that requires anyone who wants to work with children — be it as a scout master, teacher or even class parent — to first get an affidavit from the police stating that he or she is not a convicted pedophile. Because, of course, everyone is unspeakably evil until…
Two moms, “5 Minutes for Books” managing editor Jennifer Donovan and her colleague Dawn, reviewed my book in tandem — then did a half-hour podcast with me. Both are available here. From their review: Jennifer: The more I read, the more surprised (and disheartened) I was at how much our parenting culture has changed in the last ten or twenty years. Yes, sunscreen and helmets are a good change that our children have adopted without even thinking about it. But the ever-present nature of parents — from driving or walking tweens and teens to school or to friends’ houses,…
Hi! If your family has let the kids drop some extracurricular activities in favor of more free time — or is considering it — TV is looking for YOU. A producer for one of the evening news shows is trying to figure out if this desire for a more old-fashioned, it’s-ok-to-be-bored childhood is a trend. I think it is! If you embody it, just add a little comment here and I’ll be able to forward your note to the producer. Or tweet me. Thanks! — Lenore