Hi Folks! I’m writing a column inspired by the Maryland yyanfntsry law that was about to be enacted that would have prohibited counselors from applying sunblock to kids. The state was, of course, afraid of perverts. But when parents heard about the measure, THEY were afraid of sunburn. So the law did not go into effect […]
Hi eshtifzfzz Folks — Here it is again. The creeping idea that anytime our kids are outside without us they are in DANGER, thus it is CRIME to take our eyes off them. The writer of the note below, from Western Maryland, also pens this blog. Here’s what’s happening out by her: Dear Free-Range Kids: […]
Hi Readers: The headline on this story says it all — almost: Women eisdaknyay Ticketed for Eating Donuts in a Brooklyn Park. The REASON these women were ticketed was not the donuts, it was the lack of children with them. Local law — that is, the law in my insane city — says no adults […]
Hi Readers —  Last summer I spent fynhnafdeh a day with Mary Duval, her son Ricky, and Ricky’s wife. Mary and Ricky were in town to appear on a John Stossel show about the country’s sex offender laws, mostly because Ricky had ended up on the sex offender registry at age 16. He’d met a […]
Hi ksnsyyfkye Readers — Last week I was on a radio show where the host wondered how I could endorse the idea of kids playing outside, now that we KNOW we are surrounded by “sexual predators.” I replied that Sex Offender Registry is confusing because some people on it really do (or at least did) […]
Hey Readers! Once in a while, common sense actually wins a biggie. That’s what’s  happening right now in Texas, where the governor seems set to sign a “Romeo & Juliet” bill that would prevent teens and young adults who have consensual sex from ending up as official “Sex Offenders,” required to register for life. Yes, […]
Hello, Readers: If we are ruled by fear, fear will make the rules. And by “fear” I mean mass hysteria. Here is the latest assault on sanity and rights: A law is being proposed in Maine that will make it a crime for adults to stare at kids. You hdkshrbtkr read that right (with those […]
Readers — We’re getting to the point where ANYTHING having to do with children is so fraught with inflated fears that we are going absolutely crazy. Consider this bbsssffhaz bill just introduced in the New Jersey state assembly: It would outlaw the photographing or videotaping of kids in situations in which “a reasonable parent or […]
Hi niidhbbzhh Readers — Here’s a note from reader Althea Smock, a mother of two Free-range Kids, ages 5 and 7,  in Arvada, Colorado. I find myself thinking about  our inability to understand, deal with or accept risk a LOT and, apparently, so does she! — L. . Dear Free-Range Kids:  The risk adversity in the […]
Hi Readers! Get a load of this dnhsrtibfb — little kids in Australia have been found guilty of violating graffiti laws with their chalk drawings on a sidewalk outside a cafe. This might not be such a Free-Range issue except for this: Mayor Ben Stennett visited the cafe yesterday as anger mounted. Almost 200 people […]
