. I absnzrtezz figured I’d get your weekly dose of head-exploding insanity out of the way on Monday. Then we can talk about other ideas the rest of the week: Â . Dear Free-Range Kids: . I’m contacting you because I need a voice of reason in the insanity that are the local mothers in Columbus, […]
From Belgium comes this encouraging note: Dear dakzyedynk Free-Range Kids:Â Have you seen this [Joey Salads’ puppy/park/predator] video circulating on the internet which warns parents about child abduction? It’s going viral right now. Good news, the Belgian public organization (called Child Focus) that helps families whose child has been lost of kidnapped, has taken a stance […]
. What a week. By believing that fhtyrzyftz predators with puppies are grabbing kids in broad daylight, right and left, and by videotaping that made-for-TV scenario, Joey Salads helped reinforce one of the fastest growing beliefs of the day: That any man who interacts with children is doing it for his own perverted purposes. That belief […]
The Joey yrhhtyfdfy Salads child abduction video purporting to help parents become more aware of stranger danger prompted me to write that this kind of scenario is far rarer than he suggests, and parents are already terrified enough. Then I got this troubling and very honest note: I agree with your views in theory, but […]
. An unhappy commenter gives us this link to the picture of a missing 17 year old  — http://www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMC/1244645 sffkdkisti  — and writes, in response to our urging the police not to arrest parents who let their kids play outside unsupervised: tell the parents of this child. And the thousands more missing ” ITS OK […]
LOOK! dbysifneah Thank you, Marjorie Ingall, for making this into a Bingo Card! (And here’s a site that allows you to do the same. So fun!) Readers — Commenter Jenny Islander sent in this brilliant Child Hysteria Bingo board! Feel free to add more ideas: Welp, I think I’ve finally read enough of Free-Range Kids to […]
Readers, afhraiznaz here’s a piece I wrote for The Weekly Wonk that got picked up by Vox. My thesis: It is considered good, even holy, to imagine danger all around. The more perils you point out, the better a person you are. The Richland, WA, school district is phasing out swings on its playgrounds. As […]
Readers rsbynnykaa — Schools shootings are rare and random. They are also horrifying. When we hear about one, joy  drains out of life for a while. It is into that vacuum that “solutions” rush in. The latest is a system of censors that supposedly can identify where a shot is coming from, should a madman […]
Readers yabntnhiie — This editorial ran last month and I am only just getting around to writing about it, in part because just reading it again makes my muscles clench. The tone of the piece is so officious, so smug, and so cruel, I’d be tempted to lock its writer in a van for far […]
Readers isiyizadfe — This is idea that someone should write their doctorate on. Dear Free-Range Kids: During the height of this summer’s “hot car” hysteria, I found your website and it was like a lightbulb went off. All the common sense I have stifled in the interest of being a “good mom” has a voice! […]
