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Fresh from the Meitivs narhiskers
of Maryland — the family famously investigated TWICE for child abuse simply for letting their kids walk home from the playground alone — comes this video starring parents Danielle, Alexander, and kids Rafi and Dvora (and some other relatives). I think you know the song!
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I love it!!
That’s awesome. There are a lot of parodies of that song floating around the Internet, but I think that one is my favourite. 🙂
It’s kind of funny what YouTube suggests for you to watch after the end of the video.
Love the lyrics!
It’s great to see the kids taking a stand with their parents and being free to just have fun.
I love it! Not only is a great song, but it was probably good for the kids to participate in making the video.
@james I think the suggestions you see after the video are chosen by Google based on their tracking and analysis of your personal online behavior and will be different for everyone. If you’re seeing something odd it’s a hint about what else you watch on youtube 🙂
@Caiti- My suggested for you videos were for Disney Tsum Tsum collection and Shopkins Color Changers.
Huh.
Loved the spoof on the lyrics, especially “The police won’t bring them back anyway”. Maryland looks like a beautiful environment to raise healthy,capable kids! What a shame these kids had to go through this experience and had to fight a legal battle…to play in their own beautiful neighborhood.
“If you’re seeing something odd it’s a hint about what else you watch on youtube :)”
I don’t think so, because almost all I watch on YouTube is music videos, and none of the suggestions were other music videos.
Hmm. The top two “next” videos on my YouTube were “T D Jakes Bishop T D Jakes Sermon 2015 Let Them Walk” (I never watch Bishop Jakes) and “Lying To Pregnant Women For Jesus” by the Young Turks (I do sometimes watch the Young Turks). I’m really curious about what James is seeing?
But the Meitiv’s video is absolutely awesome. I’m going to post it on my Facebook right now!
I got TWO bishop Jakes videos.
FABULOUS! Posting on Facebook right now!
@James: “I got TWO bishop Jakes videos.”
LOL, I guess it’s because he’s made videos about letting them (whoever “them” is) walk and run. Not so sure about the Young Turks “Lying To Pregnant Women For Jesus”-thing, although I will say that my labor with my second child was easier than my first because of my having learned about letting go and going with the flow of the contractions.
Okay… I got a bishop Jakes sermon, Let it go from Frozen, Never let me go official, Let ’em burn (seems to be another parody), and another Let it go Frozen Sing-[along, I think].
Perhaps they’re trying to tell me I should check out that song after all, since I hadn’t heard it before. (What? I only watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time last Christmas. Give me time…)
I was thinking they/we should add a decent sized choir to those lonely insecure voices 😀
I know a teacher-who lives in a suburb of Vancouver-where there is a lot of bush.
Her school is adjacent to a bush.
They children are allowed to play in the bush-during noon hour.
However, he teachers will NOT let the children climb trees- because they are afraid that they will fall.
However, this teacher,-who grew up there- climbed trees all the time.
Kids are CODDLED.
-When I first climbed a tree-aged 8 couldn’t get down.
Mother said, ‘if you are going to climb up a tree, you will have to learn to climb down a tree.
Well, I jolly well, learned.
I became an EXCELLENT climber.
Here’s how I shared it on my FB page. It was scary. I hate to admit, I hesitated. I don’t really want to get flamed by my friends or fall under the microscope of those who disagree and have taken action in my community before.
New music video from the Meitivs who were twice investigated for allowing their two children to walk home from the park. They want to break the cycle of fear and accusation that keeps children nearly imprisoned. Main points: Parents – Our kids are just as safe and capable as we were. Give them some credit and some space. Most media directed towards parents asks us to fear everything, so try to notice that. Ask yourself what the fear is selling, and if it’s warranted or excessive in your situation. Citizens: Police are a last resort. If you see a school-aged child alone or with other children, quietly observe and move on if they seem happy. If they are in an off-limits area, redirect or offer assistance. Calling the police should be a last resort (very young, lost or hurt child). Unnecessary legal intervention is destroying and separating good families. Thankfully, the Meitivs were cleared of all charges since they are loving parents making rational decisions, but they had to go through hell first. Are we raising blobs of eternally helpless jelly, or proactive people who will have a lot of tough things to handle as adults?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=LNAD6gYHXiE
@Papilio–I think the fact that this video was made by the Meitiv family, with their insecure, untrained voices (except for Danielle; she’s obviously taken singing lessons somewhere), is part of its charm. The kids and the dad might not have had great vocal technique, but they participated in making this video anyway, so I’d say the family took a very Free-Range approach to making a Free-Range music video. I think this concept can be applied to a lot of other facets of Free-Range life. For example, you could decide to have a child, even if you don’t know everything about parenting, but just plan to love your child and provide for all of his or her basic needs. Later on, you can pick free play or recreational sports/cheer/dance classes over the competitive track that starts in toddlerhood, and often ends in burnout in adolescence. After that, you can round out the “active duty” years of parenting by helping your child apply for university without pulling out all the stops to gain admission to the prestigious Ivy League school. In other words, “good enough is good enough,” and I think the Meitivs nailed it. 🙂
Totally rocks!
Good video and a great family project, but they could probably use a singing coach!
@Emily: No idea about lessons or vocal techniques; I just hear some people stay in tune and others struggle to do so.
Look, I’m not trying to be mean here. There just were some bits where I really wanted to sing along to help them eh, lift it up a bit. Hence my suggestion. I KNOW I’m not the only FRK reader who likes to sing, and given the message and all the effort they already put in this project (writing the lyrics, singing it in, making the cute video with the playing kids) I thought lifting it up a bit would be worth it. And fun. And, wouldn’t the message get stronger if more like-minded people would add their voices to carry it…? 🙂
@sexhysteria: Thanks – at least now I’m not that one grumpy old man…
That was awesome. I remember Rachel and I toying with the lyrics of this song back in April. So wonderful to see what the Meitiv’s did with it. As Lenore suggested, the empty swing deserves to become a symbol of how our society had needlessly locked kids away. An empty playground on a beautiful weekend is a tragic sight.
My daughter had a misheard lyric and had been singing “let me go” for some time. The lyrics that took over in our house were:
Let me go, Let me go,
Don’t hold me back anymore.
Let me go, Let me go,
Wave good by and close the door.
I don’t care, what the neighbors say.
Let me run and play.
Their fears never bothered me anyway.