This piece comes to us from Sandy Rozek, communications director with the National Association for Rational Sex Offender Laws. One of Sandy’s primary concerns is implementing effective measures that will aid in reducing the sexual abuse of children. She is especially disturbed when children are threatened with and harmed by the registry, something that purports to help protect them. Reckless threat of registration brings death to son, family By Sandy “They scared him to death.” When Maureen Walgren of Naperville, Illinois, said this, referring to the conversation that school officials and law enforcement had with her 16-year-old honor student son…
Author: lskenazy
Remember, folks, what SEEMS like just a normal amount of supervision now — that is, constant — was not normal until very recently, as this clip from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, reminds us. Elliott, a “boy of 9 or 10,” stays home from school alone for a day. And his sister Gertie, 5, stays home for a short stint while her mom runs an errand. Oh, and moms put MERCURY THERMOMETERS in their kids’ MOUTHS and no one called social services! . .
Passing along this wisdom: I was raped by a classmate when I was 15. There is nothing anyone could have done to prevent it. Obviously by age 15 I was going off places by myself or with friends, as 15-year-olds are supposed to do. And while I believe homeschooling is a valid educational choice, it would be silly to homeschool just to protect your kid from other kids. . You know what would have helped though? Being educated about consent. Learning how to protect myself. Learning when something is serious enough to get an adult involved. . I grew up…
Last night, a mom in Jackson, Miss., let her six-year-old son stay sleeping in the car while she ran into Kroger. While she was inside, it seems that three car thieves stole the vehicle and at some point they ended up shooting the boy, Kingston Frazier, dead. A photo of someone carrying the mom like a rag doll turned my heart to lead. She had fainted with grief. It’s a feeling we all instantly understand, and it may haunt us. I was reading the other day about how empathy, that wonderful human emotion, is also no friend of freedom. Once…
‘Tis the season to celebrate the coming of summer and what was once, the old folks say, a season of free time for kids. Time to ride their bikes, walk to the store, and learn whatever games everyone in the neighborhood was playing, from spit to baseball to Barbie. Without adults. To see how valuable that unstructured, unsupervised time is, read this essay by Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn. But to help bring it back, why not take your kids to your neighborhood park on Saturday at 10 a.m. and leave them there. Or (I know, I know)…
I was scrolling through my Yahoo newsfeed this morning when I suddenly spied this headline: Free Range Parents Are Scapegoats For Parents Scared They Aren’t God. What a fascinating piece on the fact we really want to believe if we only do everything “right” our kids will be safe. The columnist, Cara Valle, begins: “America’s Worst Mom,” as Lenore Skenazy playfully admits to being called, discusses in a recent American Conservative article a pathological paranoia that seems to be gripping American parents. She points to a grossly inflated perception of some dangers our children face. Valle lists some more commonplace…
An admittedly small study in Great Britain has found that many kindergarten-age kids lack the kind of balance, motor skills and reflexes of kids even just six years ago. Reports The Independent: A “concerning” number of today’s four-year-olds are not physically ready to start school, new research has revealed, with children’s mobility levels said to be at an all-time low. Early-years specialists monitoring children of school age found a higher number experience problems with their balance and coordination than previously thought, ultimately affecting their ability to learn in class. Researchers from the University of Loughborough said the increase was partly…
More insight from the real world about trafficking: Dear Free-Range Kids: First, I want to thank you for your crusade! It has inspired me to be a more relaxed mother & help my friends relax a little too. We are all new at this, my son is the oldest & he’s turning 4 next week, so I like to think I set the example a little bit. I want all our kids to actually be able to PLAY together one day, and for all us adults to be able to retreat to another room & be adult…
Mother’s Day is usually about dandelion bouquets and a first scorched effort at French toast. It is focused, in other words, to the moms of young, mommy-smitten kids. This piece comes to us from Deborah L. Jacobs, author most recently of Four Seasons in a Day: Travel, Transitions and Letting Go of the Place We Call Home, from which this essay is adapted. It’s about being the mom of an older kid, and still evaluating your role. You can follow Deborah on Facebook and Twitter. Launching and Leaving, By Deborah L. Jacobs Friends and family who heard that my…
This ad is overwhelming. Maybe it’s already been seen by every person on the planet. But just in case, here it is: I can’t summarize the storyline because it unfolds so wonderfully. But as for its connection to Free-Range Kids, I must paraphrase Prof. Jon Haidt yet again (I found the ad on his Twitter feed): What creates understanding and community is working toward a common goal, rather than focusing on our differences. Unfortunately, on at least one campus he was telling me about, incoming students are lined up in the middle of the gym. Then some administrator reads a…