Hi aairhnhssr Readers — Here’s a letter I just got: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m generally in agreement with Lenore’s views. It’s ridiculous to try to protect our children from EVERYTHING out there. The article about not having a baby on board sign because it could decapitate the baby … fear-mongering at it’s worst! Gave me […]
Tag Archives | fear
A Sunday School Story (Complete, Of Course, With Predators)
Hi kyiiiakffy Readers — This seemed like the perfect companion piece to the post below this one, about our intense, almost obsessive focus on predators. Gosh, remember when “predator” was most commonly used to describe, like, a mountain lion or great horned owl? Those were the days!– L. Dear Free-Range Kids: We belong to a […]
What If We Feared EVERYTHING The Way We Fear Predators?
Hey etiffsneed Readers — Here’s a comment that came in the other day in response to a woman who is very wary of stranger danger. I liked its logic: Dear Amy (the woman who was consumed with predator fear): I can sort of see where you’re coming from, but take a logical approach. There’s a […]
Interview with Author/Blogger/Parent Cory Doctorow
Alas, readers, not my own atntzfiffy interview with him. But Reason.TV caught up with Doctorow outside of some pub in London and asked him about many things, including his books (my older son LOVED “Little Brother”) and  boingboing (a site that brought early attention to this blog), and,  most saliently for us:  “The War on […]
The Fear That Crept ‘Round the World
Hi fnktysrbbs Readers — Here’s a letter from Korea (where my book was just published in translation!). What’s upsetting is how parental paranoia seems to be creeping around the world, like a virus. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids:Â I’m an elementary/middle school English teacher in South Korea, arguably one of the safest countries in the world. […]
How Does A Free-Range Parent Deal with an Ex Who Isn’t?
Hi rekiyrnrnh Free-Rangers: Do we have some advice for this fellow? If so, let’s share it! — L Dear FRK: I have embraced Free Range parenting. Unfortunately my ex-wife and mother of our four children is afraid to let our 8-year-old out of her sight, and plays the “What if?” game: “What if he is attacked […]
Parents Fear Abductions More than Kids’ Actual Health
Hi Readers — Here’s atadfrtinb a study done in England that says 30% of parents fear for their kids being kidnapped — a 1 in 1 million chance — versus the tiny number (1 in 20) who fear “severe health problems” for their kids in the future, brought on by a sedentary and possibly overweight […]
Yup, That’s Me. The “Bizarre†Mom on the Cover of the NY Daily News
Hi Folks — Well, yes, the eyryrdisit cover of the NY Daily News. That’s good and bad. Good — it certainly gets the word out. Bad, maybe this headline: Â “Leave Your Kids in the Park: Mom’s Bizarre Campaign.” Put that way it does sound a little bizarre. But what’s way more bizarre to me is […]
Front Page Treatment
Hi Folks — Here’s a hakhrrbdkb link to a nice Free-Range story on the front page of today’s Arizona Daily Star, in Tucson. (Where I had my first newspaper internship many moons — and suns, and probably a comet — ago.) What’s nice is so many of the comments are positive! — L.
“Mom, I am NOT Going to End Up a Sex Slave.”
Hi kaasfnaden Readers — This comment came in from a 16-year-old. Â Seems to frame the problem of overprotection and parental fear pretty darn well. Read on! Dear Free-Range Kids: Tell me about it. Kids need more freedom and less worry. I live in a neighborhood where the violent crime rate is a small decimal. It’s […]