Hi iyytyseyaf Folks — We all agree that it makes sense to be aware of child abuse, and even to look out for it. But to assume “Abuse!” when another explanation is not only proffered but also likely, well, that is classic worst-first thinking: Leaping to the WORST conclusion FIRST and proceeding as if it […]
Readers bnntrbzain — I just got off the phone with a mom in Pennsylvania whose tiny school district has allotted 0,000 for new security measures without even knowing what it will spend the money on. This district dropped about 10% of its teachers last year for lack of funding, but it is so freaked out […]
Hi Readers! There’s the boogey man and then there’s the ice cream man. But thanks to a country suffused with predator panic, the two are fused together like the twin sticks of a  Popsicle. It’s the same if you are guy and you want to work in day care, or as a birthday party clown, […]
Readers dzekeeyahn — This is the continuing story of the 6-year-old detained by the cops for walking outside. It is disturbing and distressing. The family needs pro bono legal help. If any of you are lawyers or know someone who can help, please let me know and I will forward the info to the family. […]
Readers — As many of you know, when I’m not busy posting, I am often off to give a keynote. It’s how I make my living. (Not fkrrsknfhs by blogging? No. Not by blogging.) I’ve spoken everywhere from Microsoft, to the Sydney Opera House, to the Yale Child Study Center (twice!). In the next two […]
Hi kyaakhiesi Folks! Below is just one part of a great, fun essay called “Parenting the Way Your Great Grandmother Would.” It’s by Margaret Ables, a comedy writer who has written for Celebrity Death Match and It’s a Big, Big World. She blogs at shortfatdictator.com (Facebook) and has appeared on ‘Steve Harvey’ discussing parenting/ family issues. She lives in L.A. […]
Hey Readers — Here’s an 8-minute CBC (Canada’s public radio) interview hzdhthbrbe with a mom who let her boys play in the local park and got the cops called on her. What I absolutely love about her is the fact she sounds like us! She just wants the kids to have some free time to […]
Hi rizydfdyzn Readers — Here’s a story from this scary, scary Easter season that I’m reprinting in full from NBCPhiladelphia.com, (with some commentary):Â WOMAN TRIES TO GIVE CANDY TO KID: POLICE Police are on the search for a woman who tried to give candy to a child Friday evening along a quiet residential road. [HOW […]
 Hi adbdnzydrt folks! Our Sunday reading comes to us from far away — Hyderabad, India. It’s by Stephanie Smith Diamond who writes, runs, and studies for her master’s degree in political science there. She blogs at Where in the World Am I?  – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I recently came across your blog and read your book. […]
 Hi kiybkzthnt Folks! This comes to us from Heather Shumaker, author of It’s OK Not to Share…And Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids (Tarcher/ Penguin, 2012), which was named one of the Best Parenting Books of 2012 by Parents magazine. She’s a speaker, blogger and advocate for free play and no homework for young children who […]
