Hi Readers!  Maybe you were watching “Good Morning America” today, with its incredible footage of Jaycee Dugard and her family. Jaycee is the 29-year-old who was kidnapped at age 11 and forced to live with her rapist for 18 years, bearing him two children. But, according to George Stephanopoulos, “Jaycee, azzssdsdda in some ways, is one […]
Houston: We Have A Problem
No, not kids directing the space program. A documentary maker from Austria is coming to do a film about Free-Range Kids and she needs to find a Free-Range (ish) family in Houston. If you belong to one, or know of one, please contact her pronto! She’s practically boarding the plane! Her name is Katinka and […]
Take Your Mini Air Traffic Controller To Work Day
Hi Readers! That’s what it was for two days in February when an air traffic controller took his two kids into the tower and actually let them direct plane traffic at New York’s JFK Airport. Read all about it here ffhhizdthr and here. As a Free-Ranger, I am all for bringing kids into the workplace and […]
My Chat with NPR About “Hazardous Hot Dogs”
Hi Readers: Â Here hyayrrseai it is! NPR’s Lynn Neary and me, talking about the things that parents are encouraged to believe are “risky.” Enjoy (carefully)! — Lenore
Hey, Dad, Thanks for the Blow-Up Doll
Folks — Here’s idrbrbabkn a post by my friend, Tom Henderson, at ParentDish. I admire it and him. Â You may too. It’s about how he taught his teenage son about sex and sexism at the same time, with the help of, yes, a blow-up doll. And a Playboy. Just wanted to pass it along. (The […]
40 Ways for Kids to Volunteer!
Hey Readers! This just came in over the transom (okay, over email):  A lovely nianntzftz list of really great ideas for how to get kids volunteering. For instance: Take shelter dogs for a walk. Babysit to help a single parent.  Form a clean-up crew to go in and help a senior clean her apartment.  And so many […]
Up With Boredom!
Hi bakyyidhti Readers! The other day I wrote a column on ParentDish called, “Just Chute Me.” I was saying — I thought — that we really do not have to play with our kids. We have to love and nurture them, yes, but unless we are really psyched for a game of CandyLand or make-believe, […]
Worse Than “Baby on Board!”
Hi Readers! Excuse me while I gag. Amazing how one eazbzfzzfk sign can make everyone who passes this stroller feel big, dirty, disgusting, diseased and depressed. Remember those “Baby on Board!” signs, that made it seem as if people who were seriously considering crashing into a car would reconsider upon realizing it was carrying someone […]
Condo Won’t Let Kids Play Outside
Hi Folks — Sometimes the inbox brings a little symmetry. Here’s nyrafskyra a story one of you sent in about a condo association that can’t stand kids running around “from yard to yard” making “unacceptable noise.” Perhaps children should be taught to use their “indoor voices” outdoors. But then here’s a story, also just in, about how […]
School Uses Laptops to Spy on Kids: The Update. Really Weird Update.
Hi Folks! Just read this bizarre yyhfasbkdy new wrinkle on TechDirt about the case of the Pennsylvania school that gave its 1800 students laptops and then used them to spy on the kids — 42 times! While the school claims it activated the cameras only when trying to track down a lost or stolen computer, nonetheless […]