Hi Readers! After hearing me on NPR on Tuesday talking about the fact that the crime rate is lower now…
From the SafeKids.org page of advice to parents of kids ages 5-9: “Never leave your child alone in a car,…
And here and now it is, with host Robin Young! (And if that doesn’t work, try this: http://www.hereandnow.org/) — Lenore…
Hi Readers! A Minneapolis paper is doing a story on Free-Range Kids and needs to find a local parent who…
Hi Readers — I’m thinking of starting a new feature, Free-Range Kids Outrage of the Month (Or Maybe Even Week).…
Hi, Free-Rangers: Here’s a really thought-provoking (okay, outrage-provoking) guest blog from Rick Woldenberg, a businessman in Illinois who believes in…
Summer beckons, with its eternal promise of freedom. Unless you are Harry Wilder. Harry is a 19-year-old British student who…
In the 1940s, women were working in factories, doing all the jobs men did — and earning their own keep. After the war, they were suddenly told: What on earth are you doing here? The outside world is too dangerous for you, you sweet, silly creatures! We’re only saying this for your own good. You can’t make it out here. Go home!
Which sounds remarkably like what we are telling kids today. Kids who, just a generation ago, were perfectly capable of making their way in the outside world — babysitting, playing in the park, walking to school — are now being told: What on earth are you doing our here? The world is too dangerous for you, you sweet, silly creatures! We’re only saying this for your own good. Go home! (Or, alternatively, “Go to soccer practice, which we will drive you to and pick you up from.”)
Hi Folks! Here’s a short, sweet post by Seattle reporter Denise Gonzalez-Walker, who did something radical: She met her neighbors.…
The other night I gave a book talk — second in my life — at the Barnes & Noble in…