. If to a hammer, everything looks like a nail, to a pediatric surgeon, everything looks like a fall hazard. That’s how we end up with studies like the ones discussed below, which strike fear in the hearts of parents. There’s something sickening about the way we assess everything in terms of risk all the […]
. An honest letter about  a real problem: Kids given lots of freedom but, it seems, no behavior boundaries. Or boundary boundaries, for that matter: Hello nafkyrfrei Lenore. I’m a firm Free-Range mom, though to be honest I don’t give my children the freedom I’d like to, though not for fear of the boogey man, […]
. What a huge victory for common sense, decent parents and a country otherwise gripped by “worst-first thinking” –thinking up the worst case scenario and proceeding as if it’s likely to happen. The New Jersey Supreme Court just ruled that a mom found guilty of child endangerment for letting her sleeping daughter wait in the car […]
. There are two ways to approach a risk: Try to spend your whole life avoiding it, or learn how to deal with it. In Germany, when it comes to kids, the authorities seem to be voting for Option B. Here’s a letter from a mom over there: Dear zkbzbtkbde Free-Range Kids:Â Finally took a photo […]
. “They threw their child against the wall!†That’s what the anonymous caller told Kentucky’s Child Protective Services about Corey Chaney, 25, and April Rogers, 23, the sixth time she called. How horrifying! But not the way you think. While the parents had been reported five times in about as many months for crimes that included […]
. This is the article everyone’s talking about: The izyinabenb Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, on the cover of this month’s Atlantic. It discusses the idea taking root on college campuses that students cannot be exposed to any ideas, words or phrases that discomfort them in any way, even […]
. In response to the other day’s post about a btsskkfeyi mom who let her child wait in the car while she ran an errand — and the guy who video-shamed her, and his Facebook friends who piled on — I got the note below. This is obviously not about a child. But what worries […]
. The Family  Defense Center in Chicago defends families being torn apart by pointless yet devastating Child Protective Services investigations. Families like Natasha’s. Remember her nsiskkkiht story? Natasha let her kids, 11, 9 and 5, play in the park literally across the street from her home, where she could peer out at them every 10 […]
. Here’s the latest “Parents, Please Commence Freaking Out” video. It tneiisskty reminds me of the Joey Salads video, obviously, but also of the parents who had their 6 year old  snatched, blindfolded and led down into a basement where the “kidnapper” threatened to nail him to the wall — all to teach him not […]
. A tbtediddtk question probably many of us have asked: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m a fairly Free-Range parent, becoming more so due to my daily exposure to your blog, including the helpful and insightful comments from your readers. The issue I’m currently struggling with is freedom at the beach. I’m always afraid at the beach […]
