Hi Readers — Yes, I know, most of us congregate here because we believe that kids don’t need quite as much bubblewrap as our society deems fit. But if you or someone you know believes that to let your children walk to school, or wait in the car while you get a gallon of milk, or sell Girl Scout cookies door to door means you will probably never see them again, a TV producer is waiting! Mostly, she wants someone to be the yin to my yang. If you’re interested, or know someone who is, email me at Lskenazy@gmail.com . Put “TV” in the subject line, and I will forward your info to the producer. Thanks! — Lenore
28 Responses to TV Producer Seeking ANTI “Free Range Kids” Parents!!
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Being the yin to Lenore Skenazy’s yang? That’s an intimidating thought!
Must be FOX news…
Why don’t they just interview Nancy Grace?
Can I nominate other people? Pleeeease???
Umm, why is she having trouble finding such a person? They are LEGION in any suburb. All she has to do is hang out near the nearby elementary school and wait for a parent in Dodge Caravan to pull up to the sidewalk to discharge her precious cargo.
That is, until someone reports the producer for hanging around a school zone without a background check…
Go to any normal parenting site and the ‘just too dangerous’ legions will flock to her.
Is the TV producer sure she doesn’t need anyone else to back up Lenore’s yang? I would volunteer to tell stories of how shockingly I abuse my children by letting them run around the neighborhood and bike to school.
Nancy Grace aside, the bubble wrap parents tend towards the left side of the political spectrum… You find far more kids playing in the neighborhoods in Middle America than on the coasts.
No kidding Amy. My 9 year old is currently outside playing with a friend on the tire swing in our front yard within feet from a *gasp* street. It is almost dark too. She also walks to school (with a friend) and they often bike around town together. I, too, am horribly abusive and an atrocious mother.
My wife and I let our two older kids (4 and 6) walk to their friends houses by themselves. Every day! And no one has been abducted yet.
Steven Rushing – I think that might be more a trend of local culture than political inclination. The coastal regions tend to be more densly packed, as well, probably leading to a greater proportion of the (obviously very few) incidents of child abduction or whatever the parental nightmare of the week is coming from those areas. Someone living in a perfectly respectable suburb not too far from, say, LA, is probably inclined to think that their children are at a greater risk than those living in a similar town in the central states, just because that’s where so many of the bad stories seem to come from.
Most of the kids I know that were helicoptered hailed from deeply conservative families. If I had to make a (completely random, instinctive) guess, I’d think it’s probably middle class, suburban, moderatly well educated folks that shelter their kids the most, and at least where I’m from those folks tend to be pretty politically neutral (although being from Canada, that’s probably considered pretty far left on an American scale 🙂 ) Obviously that’s a gut feeling and I don’t have any facts at all to back it up, so…thoughts anyone?
As far as I can tell, hovering occurs in families across the political spectrum. The only thing they have in common is being “middle class, suburban, moderately well educated folks” . I think a lot of people in that group are bored and don’t have enough real worries.
As to finding a hoverer to interview: I’ll just send my son to the store by himself and have him get the names of all the people who ask him where his mother is. Truly, I’ve had to go to the extreme of telling the store employee who knows us best that he is now sometimes shopping alone, so she’ll know what to say the next time he gets “turned in” by another customer. We were joking about posting his picture at customer service: “This boy is allowed to shop here alone.”
Definitely across the political spectrum. I live in the Midwest, in a city of about a quarter million. To me, this is a smallish city. I grew up in Denver, have lived in San Francisco and Seattle. The very conservative folks who populate the small towns that are on the lakeshore and also to the east of us are terrified of our city. They completely hover over their kids, don’t want them getting to be friends with the kids of other, less conservative religious backgrounds… and this goes to absolute extremes. I teach at the state University here, and have taught at a satellite campus in one of these small towns. I’ve had students who were seniors (in COLLEGE) whose dads wouldn’t let them drive into the city on their own for classes at the downtown campus. Seriously. Dad drove the 20 year old college junior to campus, parked, and waited just outside the classroom.
We also have a shuttle bus that goes from the main campus to the downtown campus. You cannot screw up on this bus, unless you get off too early, in which case another shuttle will be by in under 10 minutes. I have met parents who only allowed their kid to go to this school if they swore to NEVER take the shuttle. Mom and Dad would come every weekend to take the kid shopping, as the bus was the only way to the major grocery store, about 10 miles off campus.
Many many many students, young women, who’s parents insisted that, after an evening class, they call Mom or Dad and keep up a conversation until they were locked in their dorm room. As one astute young woman said, “Aren’t we always told to be aware of our surroundings, especially at night, which means staying off cell phones?” Ummmm… yeah.
*sigh*
The only commonality… devout religious beliefs of an extremely conservative nature.
So, in my neck of the midwest, there are lots of kids out playing, riding bikes, going to the store, exploring the parks. Which I love! Which is a large component of deciding to stay here, regardless of the somewhat oppressive political climate. Here, it’s the kids of the liberals who are out roaming. So, the boy will have plenty of company….
It’s easy to find a Non-FR parent, it’s nearly impossible to find one willing to take on Lenore!
I live in a TRULY small town in AR — pop less than 10k — and, trust me, this town is SAFE!! But, you would think some of the “hoods” are in NYC!!! We have a yearly festival — rides on the parking lot of the old empty Wal MArt (we have a new one now!) and it is SAFE — i let my 7th grader go ALONE (with 3 friends) to a small town carnival — God Forbid! I mean, ok, in a “real” city — i KINDA get SOME of it — but puh-lease! My girls have been going to the movie here alone (w friends) since they were in K!!! My daughter has 7th grade friends whose parents wont allow this — in THIS SMALL TOWN!! Yeah — i could nominate SEVERAL parents!!!
the yeek to your yow!
How about you look up ‘dog gone’ from the ‘Why I Rolled My Eyes On FoxNews Today’ post of July 22? No, that would be a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. Let’s at least keep it fair.
And like I said on July 24th:
“Whether we call ourselves liberal or conservative, I think it’s worth remembering that close to half of the country is ‘the other guys’, and they love their children too.”
I don’t think liberals are more over the top safety conscious. It crosses the political divide.
I have an easy way to find one — check your local listings for the “Oprah” show, then during that time knock on neighbor’s houses. If she’s on the boob tube, there’s your guest!
i wish my neighbour was on the net. at grade 3? 4? and 9 years old, she isn’t allowed to walk to or from school alone. Hell, she isn’t allowed to play outside without mom’s supervision. This is the baby of the family too with at least two older siblings in their later teens early twenties. She thinks I’m crazy for allowing my son to walk home from school. I think she’s crazy for not letting her daughter figure life out on her own. My son can go to the 7-11 by himself. Her daughter can’t and its just over a block away! Heaven forbid she has to cross that one busy street by herself!
It’s too bad I love my husband so much, I’d nominate my Mother-in-Law. She believes in just about every ridicules urban legend you could possibly name (hook in the car door, don’t blink your headlights you’ll get shot, etc.) so she thinks I’ve been way too free-range with my kids. My daughter was home-schooled the last 2 years of HS because the classes were too large (50 kids each!) and she was offered a job at my company by one of the directors because he thinks highschoolers need exposure to real world work environments. She did it to earn money to buy herself a car, but carpooled with me only to save on gas. I let her drive by herself every day, the experience was good. She now has her own car, paid for with her own earnings, and she did it without help from Mom and Dad. My MIL can’t understand why we allowed her such free-rein. My Father-in-Law is (secretly) jumping for joy that his granddaughter is so secure with herself.
I have the perfect parent. My brother’s wife doesn’t let their 2 1/2 year old play out in their backyard (with a privacy fence!) supervised or otherwise, and on the rare occasions when she does go outside, the poor kid has to wear socks instead of going barefoot because “the grass irritates her skin.” Sunscreen abounds, even for a short trip to the park, her food is cut up into teeny tiny baby pieces, she’s rocked to sleep STILL…..oh man….my head nearly explodes every time I’m around her.
lol – how to take your image from ‘common-sense’ to ‘uptight’ in 30 seconds flat. no thank you.
i’ve been asked to go on tv and talk about that kind of thing before (the uptight side!), and i won’t.
kids can do whatever they need to do if you show them how and model good behavior.
Well, rocking to sleep is nice! My nieces are still rocked to sleep. Of course, they sleep in hammocks….
i had this same chat just the other weekend with a buddy of mine. the conversation went like this:
THEM: let’s think about this a sec…
if we DO completely restrict our children now, while they are young and impressionable, won’t it be MUCH EASIER when they’re older to have a career where they’re told they must work much harder, much longer, for much less money than they’re worth?
ME: and who wants their children to grow up with the burden of “free thought,” for that matter? plus, what would they think of us as parents if they ending up becoming– gasp– “revolutionary” or “having a passion!”
THEM: if we’re just freakishly safe, we surely wouldn’t need to waste time nurturing petty things, like common sense.
ME: why, even influences could easily be administered by printing out FoxNews transcripts– with our own black highlighter censorship, of course– and passing them under the kids’ bedroom doors… along with whatever meds haven’t been recalled by the FDA that month.
THEM: no doubt! in fact, our homeschool’s going uniforms next week! grey matches everything, right? oh, and we’re able to use the same pattern for the boy and girl!
ME: sounds like a plan to me!
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so maybe one of us could work with your producer? ~j.k.
)))))