Hi Readers! How the Danes must be puzzled by our abduction obsession. Here’s hzatbiazet what happened when a thief  in Copenhagen found a cargo bike outside a store and stole it — not realizing three kids were sleeping inside the big container-thing attached to the front.  Thanks to all of you who sent in this […]
Gym Class Humiliation Can Cause a Lifetime of Inactivity
Hi Readers! Bad gym teacher = bad life. I KNEW it. And now, that’s what this fykbteinsy cool study by Billy Strean, a professor in the University of Alberta’s  Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, has just confirmed: “A lifelong negative attitude toward physical activity can be determined by either a good or bad experience, […]
Mini Outrage of the Week: Kid Suspended for Bringing Peppermint Oil to School
Hi Readers! What in tarnation? A 10-year-old girl brings peppermint oil to school, gives a few drops to her friends to flavor their water, and the next thing you know, she receives a whole, big in-school suspension, according to this ayfshibktz article in The Boston Post (by way of Newsday). Now, danger-wise, peppermint oil is […]
Does This Library WANT to Make Kids Feel Unwelcome?
Hi terinrkkzf Readers! Here’s a note from a Free-Ranger named Cari Noga. Let’s give her some ideas! — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: I just posted this in the “ideas†section on your blog, but thought I’d send it direct, too. On your blog you ask, “Do you ever let your kid ride a bike to […]
Dr. Phil Going Free-Range!
Or rhkyhyytey at least his show is looking into it tomorrow (Tuesday). Check it out! He even gets the capitalization and punctuation of “Free-Range” right! Of course, the idea that Free-Rangers may be “under-involved” in their children’s lives is something we heartily dispute, but  I have a feeling Dr. Phil will, too. When I was […]
Thoughts About Perfection (And Ritalin, Video Games & Fast Food)
Hi Readers! I’ve been thinking about a note I got the other day from a dad who’s trying to raise his daughter Free-Range. He wasn’t  sure he was doing it “right.”  While some folks called him crazy for taking his girl on globe-trotting, capital-A adventures, he said, the alternative appalled him: “Maybe I should join […]
Irrelevant But So Fun to Watch!
Once in a while you gotta go off-message. That time is now,  since it’s still — for a few hours — vacation. Just saw this great video and had to share it. Oh wait — maybe it IS relevant because I trust the streets of New York, despite creatures fdyrtrkyiz like this.
Shelter Your Kids AT THEIR PERIL!!! (And Happy New Year)
Hi Readers and Happy New Year! Feel like posting a Free-Range Resolution? Go ahead! Inspire us all! Meantime, this iyhekkrhzb article on the site Scientific Blogging is a little long, but it’s a good one to start the year on. (And thank you, GreenDadsBlog, for sending it.) It boils down to a truth many of us […]
Notes from An Overprotected Childhood
Hi heddrrfikf Readers: This letter is from a woman whose mom was way more helicopter than most — an extreme case. Nonetheless, it’s a cautionary tale and she sent it here to endorse the Free-Range movement. Here’s wishing the writer, and her mom, a very happy and liberating 2010. — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: I […]
Driven Crazy by Pregnancy Perfectionists (Especially On The Web!)
Hi azsnikytbs Readers! Let us help this mama-to-be, who is being driven crazy by all the obsessive, micromanaging pregnancy advice she’s getting from all sides, especially her cyber-friends. What I try to remind folks — pregnant and not — is that if humanity required perfect on the part of its parents, there would not BE […]