Hey Free-Rangers! Here’s a cool idea I got from the gal who runs the blog Mommy Wizdom. She said: Why not post a Free-Range Challenge and have folks write in to say how it went? Sounds good to me! So here’s Free-Range Challenge #1, based on a comment that just came into this site. A reader wrote: I live in a typical residential subdivision with my seven-year-old son. I honestly cannot remember ever seeing any kids riding their bikes or walking around the neighborhood in the 3+ years we’ve been living here. Everyone stays on their own…
Author: lskenazy
If you needed more proof that our society is a little wacky when it comes to kids and safety, get a load of this: A North Carolina off-duty fireman SHOT A DAD RIDING HIS BIKE WITH HIS THREE-YEAR-OLD IN A BIKE SEAT because the fireman thought the road was too busy for this kind of fun. He said he found the situation “unsafe.” Guess in a way he was right about that. Here’s the story, sent in separately by a couple of Free-Range readers, Gyula Voros and Robert Freeman-Day, who found it on BoingBoing. You’ll be happy to hear that bike helmets…
English school boys are suddenly being forced to switch from old-fashioned ties to clip-ons. What overactive overprotective notion is behind this development, sent in by reader Gregory Sutter? The BBC explains: In May the Schoolwear Association, the trade body for the school uniform industry, said 10 schools a week in the UK were switching, because of fears of ties getting caught in equipment or strangling pupils. It’s about time someone put those fiendish neckties in their place! I just hope the authorities mandate adult supervision at tie-donning time, as kids could all too easily puncture their windpipes with…
Gotta thank Amy Bronee, host of the show Real Parenting on C-FAX in Canada for alerting me to this story in the National Post: Minding your marshmallows Katherine Dedyna, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, July 24, 2009 There’s no such thing as being too careful when it comes to kids and camping – even for hyper-vigilant parents. But peril can take unexpected forms – including the seemingly innocuous marshmallow, if improperly handled. For maximum health and safety, one B.C. doctor offers his wish-list of marshmallow-roasting techniques for 21st-century campfire kids: 1. Apply hand sanitizer before selecting marshmallow. 2. Sterilize the…
Sometimes, when I try to explain how frenzied we have become about the real but extremely rare crime of childhood abduction, I compare our era to that of 1692 Salem. There was no way — back then, back there — to convince the average person: Don’t you see you’re being swept up on a wave of mass hysteria? History will judge you as totally mad! (Though eventually, I suppose, that’ll be great for tourism.) Folks in and around Salem were convinced that witches were everywhere casting spells. In the end, 150 people were tried as witches and 19 hanged, all…
Now I know how Al Gore felt. Well, at least about playing to TV. Remember how he was caught rolling his eyes during one of the Presidential debates, and that sealed his fate — for some folks, anyway — as a hopelessly smug know-it-all? I rolled my eyes on TV today, too. Wish I hadn’t, because I don’t mean to be a know-it-all. But I’ve done my research and I do know some. The show was “Fox & Friends,” where I’d gone to debate the idea of Free-Range Kids with a nice lady who believes that children are being snatched…
Here’s a piece about the wonderfulness of sidewalks — a great place for kids to play, meet, walk, chalk, ride. BUT! In the sweet town this lady is writing from — Bangor, Maine — she has gotten complaints from drivers: Kids shouldn’t be on sidewalks! They’re too close to the road! Excuse me? Where SHOULD kids be? Inside playing Halo 3? — Lenore
I’ll be on Fox & Friends tomorrow morning, defending Free-Range Kids as a sane, safe, happy, healthy way to raise children with some moxie! But maybe I won’t call it “moxie,” for fear of sounding 389 years old. Maybe I’ll say it’s a way to raise children with some solid “self-esteem” — which is also true. (As I like to say there’s a reason it’s CALLED “self” esteem…not “parent-assisted” esteem.) — Lenore
Seven of the little rascals. Together, in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Going door to door, trying to gin up some cash with the cold stuff. Read all about it here. One brilliant neighbor realized how incredibly dangerous this was. After all, it was teaching children all sorts of terrible lessons like: Get to know the folks on your block. Be independent. Have adventures. So, naturally — like everyone who sees any child doing anything without an adult these days — he called the cops. In the cop’s defense — just barely — I will say that when he…
Hi! Lenore here, feeling it is time to weigh in on the Montana mom case still causing a commenting frenzy. This is the case where a mom named Bridget let her 12-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend, both experienced babysitters, take their siblings, age 3, 7 and 8, to the mall. After a morning of shopping and lunch, the group went to Macy’s. The 12-year-olds tried on some shirts while the other three waited in the handbag department — the 3-year-old now in a stroller. When the 12-year-olds returned a few minutes later, all five of them were scooped up…