Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! Go back to having fun!
But if you want a quick break, here’s a 3-minute clip of me on the Kennedy show on Fox Business a few days ago. I wish I could figure out the embed code (if anyone can, please send), but since I can’t, just click on this. You’ll recognize some of the “Top 11 Worst Free-Range Moments of 2016.” I publicize these stories are not just to get us mad. They are to sow the seeds of change. I can’t think of anyone who wants their loving, rational parenting choices to be second-guessed by overbearing authorities with the power to put us in jail.
Let’s hope that 2017 brings us some cultural and legislative changes that decriminalize normal parenting and normal childhoods (including unchaperoned trips to the library). – L
.
.
7 Comments
One would think that we could all get behind less government involvement in regards to parenting. Some nice guidelines for law enforcement (and for nosey neighbors) would be helpful. This is what neglect is… This is what abuse is… This is what abandonment is… I understand that there are truly times that something is just on the line or almost… but it is so frequently just good parents making personal decisions.
Sowing the seeds of change…if only we could create a cultural shift towards less legislation and policing, and more towards community’s looking out for our vulnerable populations, young and old, and helping each other out when we need it.
Excellent Lenore! What is great about this is that the host of the show did not inquisition you and seem to be onboard with the free range movement. I’m just curious how you would have been treated on MSNBC.
I’m glad government employees can afford to take time off from their truly productive work in maintaining law and order to save children from being abandoned in parking lots.
In 2017 I would like to see a movement where narcissistic helicoptering parents can start getting proper psychotherapy for their psychosis so they no longer program their kids to be afraid of life. And maybe more deprogramming all ’round..
@sexhysteria Probably depends a lot on where you live. I live in city with a highish crime rate and and an understaffed police force. Not to say it won’t happen at some point, but I’ve yet to hear in the news where the governments overreached in regards to parenting. As for children being out on the streets, it seems they’re left alone unless it looks like they’re about to rob somebody or something. Seems in some cities there’s either very little crime so they need something to do or they’re not prioritizing real crime over imagined danger. Sucks that the crime is so bad here, but at least I can see that preventing/investigating that is taking priority over arresting innocent parents.
@lollipoplover: that has a practical modern limit, though – and thankfully -. The community has limited abilities to look after children, to the extent that, rightfully so, strangers are not accepted as dispensers of order or discipline onto children, let alone teens, in public places any longer. The other side of the bargain that keep “community lookout” for kids two generations ago was that parents were willing or consenting to other adults take much more firm actions against their children, including in some cases physical punishment.
Today, if that EVER happened, I wish all lawsuits in the world against an unrelated adult that lays a finger on a child to ‘discipline’ purposes.
So free range parenting needs a framework that does not rely on this expectation other parents could not only help minors in distress, but impose discipline or order in the parents’ behalf.