Hi ebrndifezd Readers! This cautionary note just in: Dear Free-Range Kids: I wish I had been raised Free-Ranged. What parents don’t seem to realize is that when your parents are constantly hovering, it’s like being told No You Can’t every single day. I am sixteen years old. I am sixteen years old, I don’t drink, […]
Mom of Boy Picked Up By Cops for Walking to Soccer TRIUMPHS!
Hi sybanbbrat Readers — Here’s an INSPIRING story about what we can do when life hands us paranoid neighbors, officious cops and maybe a lemon, for good measure. Let’s hear it for Lori LeVar Pierce, the small town mom and teacher we first heard from in 2009 when she let her son walk to soccer […]
Recent Tweets
Hi raiatyfzit Readers! Here are some of my recent Tweets you might enjoy. Have a great weekend! — L *Hey, cool! Comic strip about letting kids go to the park by themselves! (And mom plotzing):Â http://bit.ly/9TOgBE *Poignant, wacky, trite: Parents’ advice to kids going off to college. Actual quotes:Â http://bit.ly/9N3ard *”Want to Win Custody? Become a Helicopter […]
The Most Insane Zero Tolerance Story Yet
Hi dkabyznrny Readers — Here you go. This is from a 25-year-old webmaster who lived n New Hope, PA., when he was 17 and this happened. He later moved to Canada, in part as a result of what this incident revealed to him about America: Dear Free-Range Kids: I actually ran up against zero tolerance […]
Why Big Brother “School Safety” Measures Aren’t Making Schools Safer
Hi rnsehzzyed Folks — Just read this Salon interview with Aaron Kupchik, author of “Homeroom Security: School Discipline in an Age of Fear.” It’s an eye-opening look at the law-and-order mindset at many high schools these days. Â I really loved what Kupchik had to say, especially this comment about the wide-reaching effect of Zero Tolerance […]
Kids! Watch Out! It’s — God Help Us — a Watermelon Seed!
From a Washington eizsterabb Post article on the fact that now only 16% of watermelons sold in grocery stores still have those dastardly demons known as “seeds” (as in “seeds of evil,” Â etc.): The sea change is all in the service of convenience. “People don’t eat watermelon out of hand like they used to. They […]
Stories Needed: How Do Kids Get To/From School in YOUR Town? (Wackiness Appreciated)
Hi Readers! I’m about to write a column on how kids are getting to school — with a plea for more walking or biking, when possible — and for this I need stories of kids get to school in your neighborhood. For instance, I heard from my friend that her nieces are driven by GOLF […]
Artifact from the Free-Range Past: A Circuit City Ad
Hey kydkethedk Readers! Got this cool letter today from a guy named Mike: Hello Free-Rangers:  Remember that Circuit City commercial in the ’90’s where the young boy buys a Walkman, and goes to Circuit City to get his price match? Here it is:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epP3jETf8Og] There are a number of points that this commercial highlights for me that […]
Thinking The Worst First
Hi dyiankazys Readers — Let’s take a vow: Let us vow to see men and women as decent until proven otherwise. Let’s vow to interpret their deeds as non-malicious, until proven otherwise. And let us vow not to assume the worst first. Here’s why: Dear Free-Range Kids: Â You’re always talking about how its a real […]
Amazing Photos of Childhood from the Last Century
Hi Readers — I loved scrolling through these rhidesddab old British photos, some heartwarming, some harrowing. Here at Free-Range Kids we talk a lot about how childhood has changed since when we were growing up. These show how childhood has changed since our parents (and maybe even grandparents?) Â were growing up. Particularly striking was the […]