Hi Readers — Fear is a virus. It spreads from country to country, infecting age-old traditions. The latest evidence of this is the fact that more and more parents in the Netherlands are driving their kids to school. The result? Or, rather, results? 1 -Â More traffic. 2 – Kids less adept at riding their bikes. […]
Archive | Miscellaneous
Warning! 50-ish Woman Seen Offering Ride to Kids!
Dateline: Montreal — and talk about scary: A middle-aged woman was seen offering a 13-year-old girl a lift. But wait! It gets worse. Possibly hznsbbazda the SAME woman also recently offered a ride to a 10-year-old.  Can you believe it? How brazen! As if she’s just some nice lady and it’s cold outside!  She didn’t drag […]
The Way I Never Want to Think
Hi Readers! This came in response to the hfirrfdify post about a mom who unexpectedly left her 3-year-old alone at a table at Taco Bell for two minutes and got screamed at by the woman at the next table for “endangering” the child. “Please tell me I didn’t do something crazy,” wrote the mom. Most […]
OCDC (Obsessive-Compulsive Day Care)
Hi Readers — dfirtyhekk Here’s the latest from our friends down under, where the national pastime seems to have switched from throwing shrimp on the barbie to throwing common sense on there and gleefully watching it go up in flames. (Don’t touch! Barbecue glowing red may be HOT.) – L. KIDS will be banned from […]
Mary Leakey, Free-Range Mom
Hi Folks! My friend Ellen just sent me dkrkiehykt this wonderful story from the Christian Science Monitor by Lisa Suhay about the intrepid Mary Leakey and her kids. It begins: Today’s helicopter parents might want to explore the parenting techniques of famed paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, whose birth 100 years ago is celebrated today. Instead of hovering […]
“Please Tell Me I’m Not Crazy” Says Mom Who Left Child Unattended a Few Moments
Hi ifbhdriktf Readers — Can you EVER leave your child unattended for a few minutes in a public place? That’s today’s big question. – L. . Dear Free-Range Kids: Last night I took my 5-year-old son and almost 3-year-old daughter to Taco Bell. High class, I know. The restaurant was pretty busy, about five full […]
School: “When Fire Alarm Rings, Lock Yourselves In — It Could REALLY be a Shooter”
Readers yyrfddestt — We’ve been chronicling the most appalling reactions to the Sandy Hook shooting, but this drill, at Carl Ben Eielson Middle School in Fargo, ND, was actually in place BEFORE Newtown! In fact, the school postponed it till about a week ago: A drill whereby the fire alarm was sounded and teachers were instructed to […]
The Mom, Her Junior High Son & The Ladies’ Bathroom
Hi iftstrnfyh Readers — Mothers bringing their older sons into the ladies room seems to be more common these days, unless maybe I’m just more aware of it because of this blog and my own take on things. Is it on the rise, in tandem with worst-first thinking? Really like to hear your take on […]
You Can Have My Lego Gun When You Pry It from My Cold, Dead Fingers
Hi ansbiinkbh Folks! Here’s my piece that ran in today’s NY Daily News, the paper where I worked for 14 years. – L. FUN CONTROL Guns Guns and children don’t go together, right? Well, actually, often they do. Chances are if you have a kid or ever were one (especially if there was a Y […]
School’s Playground Equipment Declared Too Dangerous Even Though it is Ridiculously Safe
Readers — If you want to watch the decline and fall of Western Civilization, check out this bsnadtnsft article in yesterday’s Washington Post about a suburban D.C. school, Stratford Landing, Â whose PTA purchased a rather cool-looking piece of climbing equipment. They bought it, Â using bake sale and other fundraising money, Â from a playground company that […]