.“ A new app lets folks walking home alert their friends and family until someone among them agrees to “virtually” walk the app-activator home. Somehow this is supposed to make the walker feel safer, because if they drop their phone, or start running from a bee, or veer off course because they smell french fries, […]
. My friend, colleague and hero Peter fibkyadiya Gray, a psychology professor and author of “Free to Learn” (one of my favorite books!), makes the compelling case we often make here: Kids need a chance to play, explore, have fun, mess up, get mad, recover, and simply live some part of their childhood UNSUPERVISED for […]
. Safety ayskysbffe hysteria is everywhere, but nowhere more obvious than in “must read” warnings to parents, like the ones discussed below. A mom named Alisha emailed to say, “As a former paramedic I’m all for safety, but I am frustrated on a daily basis with other people’s perception of what is dangerous.” . Me […]
. There are two ways to approach a risk: Try to spend your whole life avoiding it, or learn how to deal with it. In Germany, when it comes to kids, the authorities seem to be voting for Option B. Here’s a letter from a mom over there: Dear zkbzbtkbde Free-Range Kids:Â Finally took a photo […]
. This is the article everyone’s talking about: The izyinabenb Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, on the cover of this month’s Atlantic. It discusses the idea taking root on college campuses that students cannot be exposed to any ideas, words or phrases that discomfort them in any way, even […]
. Here’s the latest “Parents, Please Commence Freaking Out” video. It tneiisskty reminds me of the Joey Salads video, obviously, but also of the parents who had their 6 year old  snatched, blindfolded and led down into a basement where the “kidnapper” threatened to nail him to the wall — all to teach him not […]
. This perspective brought to us by psychologist Sarah Heavin in Tacoma, WA. Better fnnbznniin Safe Than Sorry? Not if you care about fostering healthy child development, by Sarah Heavin As a forensic child psychologist, I am often hired to evaluate a child for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after an injury. Think: Car accidents, […]
. This is a lovely piece about Free-Range Kids from the CBC (Canada’s public broadcasting station). Couldn’t have said it better myself: . . Note: ihhyknzazr Your child does not HAVE to look like my son Izzy to go Free-Range…even though the kid the CBC found sure does!
. Hey folks — Researchers at the University of California-Irvine are studying how people perceive risk. They need people to take their survey and have asked the Free-Range community to join in. I just  took it myself. It’s basically brief descriptions of situations when a child is left alone. You rate how safe they are. The whole […]
. This is how insurance companies think, blame and change our culture. The paragraph below appears at the top of the  “Effective zfkafbstrs Playground Supervision” page  on the site of West Bend Mutual Insurance. West Bend insures the “businesses that many standard-lines companies shy away from” including, “daycares, fitness centers, swim clubs, summer camps and non-profit organizations.” […]
