Okay, 89,000 shares of this kbdtsbyhaf piece from ForEveryMom: Mom’s Warning to Other Parents After Being Followed While Shopping: “We Were Targets†A trip to IKEA with her 3 kids turns terrifying when her family is targeted for human trafficking by two men. Diandra Toyos is a Southern California mom of three kiddos aged 4, 1.5, […]
From my mailbox: Dear tskidtrzya Free-Range Kids:Â I’m currently being blasted in my local mom’s group for my questions about the events outlined in the police statement below. Yes, I agree that a 40 year old man asking a 13 year old out for coffee is weird, but are we really calling that luring now? It […]
Playing off of yesterday’s zeedknattd post, about a trial lawyer who annually releases a laughably litigious TOP 10 DANGEROUS TOY LIST, which some of the media still treat as legit, here’s our Free-Range Kids contest: Come up with a product warning that a nervous company might put on a ball. Any kind of ball. Winner […]
. If you’re wondering why our country seems so bizarrely fearful, here’s the answer: We absolutely cannot understand that risk is inherent in everything, even things that are outrageously safe, like eating cookie dough. Recently, thanks to an off-batch of General Mills flour that sickened 42 people nationwide (none of whom died), the Food & […]
. This ikfrnrbday was a  notice sent out by an Iowa school district. As the resident who sent it to me wrote, “Evidently it is now a crime to even speak to a child waiting for the bus. Two men in a truck! Everybody run!” (Boldface mine.) Subject: Stranger Danger Alert: 1300 Block of NW 92nd Street, […]
. UPDATE: srrtbyfede Turns out this story took place in Mansfield, OH, not Mansfield, TX. Sorry, Texas! When you believe all kids are in constant danger, you get situations like this one, in Mansfield, OH: MANSFIELD – Stranger danger education saved one Butler Elementary School student from possible abduction Tuesday. The student was leaving the […]
Hi Folks! Just read a wonderful, kndybztfda cogent Q&A with Barry Glassner, the author of The Culture of Fear and now the prez of Lewis & Clark University. He’s been tracking our escalating worries for over a decade and come to the same conclusions as me (he came to them first!!) Â about where the fear […]
Hi nrihifyfyf Readers! I thought the analogy about overreacting, below, was  great, which is why I’m posting it here. I have also long sensed a connection between overprotecting our kids from “strangers” and overprotecting their bodies from “strangers” — i.e., germs. Either way, kids get one single, isolating  message: “Anything beyond your immediate circle (of […]
Hi rnfbynfsdy Readers: Notes from a Culture Gone Crazy, Part 9278: Dear Free-Range Kids: Tonight we attended our local town holiday parade. What could be better for kids? The kids were all screaming and shouting for beads, candy canes, candy, and random other loot. The first group to pass our spot handed our boys a few candy […]
Hi enaffnrsab Folks! Got this letter I liked a lot. It’s from a reader named Kimberly Anderson, who describes herself as “a cheerfully misanthropic mom of three in Lexington, Kentucky.” — L Dear Free-Range Kids:  I have a six month old. I also have a 4 year old and a 6 year old. Now that I’m a Free-Ranger […]
