. Parents sifkntyynt who let their boys, aged 7 and 9, Â play on their own for an hour at a family beach will be arraigned later this month on charges of reckless endangerment of a child. Â . Charles Smith and Lindsay Pembleton of Niagara Falls were vacationing with their kids on Cape Cod. The boys […]
. This piece dtkrydhdei in The Nation by Michelle Goldberg proves how easy it is for parents to get labeled abusive, or even have their kids taken away, thanks to overzealous, under-trained, excessively suspicious and persnickety child protective service workers. She begins with a story you’ve read here: HAS CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES GONE TOO FAR? […]
. This is how it’s SUPPOSED to work: Dear hfsbsidfsr Free-Range Kids: I feel very fortunate that we live  in Northern Alberta, Canada, where the kids play outside all day, all year! Last summer, we had the biggest scare of our lives. It was the last day of school and I was resting in my […]
. What a huge victory for common sense, decent parents and a country otherwise gripped by “worst-first thinking” –thinking up the worst case scenario and proceeding as if it’s likely to happen. The New Jersey Supreme Court just ruled that a mom found guilty of child endangerment for letting her sleeping daughter wait in the car […]
. “They threw their child against the wall!†That’s what the anonymous caller told Kentucky’s Child Protective Services about Corey Chaney, 25, and April Rogers, 23, the sixth time she called. How horrifying! But not the way you think. While the parents had been reported five times in about as many months for crimes that included […]
. The Family  Defense Center in Chicago defends families being torn apart by pointless yet devastating Child Protective Services investigations. Families like Natasha’s. Remember her nsiskkkiht story? Natasha let her kids, 11, 9 and 5, play in the park literally across the street from her home, where she could peer out at them every 10 […]
. Here’s how we look to other, less fear-wracked countries. Boldface, mine. (And for contrast, see my yyazyhyzfb piece in yesterday’s New York Post about not expecting kids to walk to school): Dear Free-Range Kids:Â I am from Germany and what I read on your webpage is really shocking for me. How did American parents get […]
. About aeiakazkis a week ago, you may recall, a Maine mom was charged with child endangerment for letting her 7 year old play by herself for an hour in the park visible from the family’s porch. This is a letter by a Free-Ranger to the Police Chief there, who defended the summons as well as the […]
. A 7 year old in Westbrook, Maine, was playing at the park within eyesight of her family’s house. Someone called 911 (of course) and police swooped in. They took the girl to the precinct because, as this bzekdfktke WMTW reporter notes, “Mom WASN’T watching.” You mean, mom didn’t devote her afternoon to sitting at the side of the […]
. This zeebyyddbs piece comes to us from Carlos Morales, a former Child Protective Services investigator, now the supremely disillusioned author of “Legally Kidnapped: The Case Against Child Protective Services.” Carlos is president and founder of Child Protective Services Victim Support, and a legal advocate for family reunification. He lives in Manchester, NH. The second edition of his book is […]
