Readers — I was going to go out on a high — the happy post below this one, about kids enjoying a New Year’s party together while their parents did the same at another ftkyrsdsya house — when one of you sent in this: “Mom Left Young Kids Alone to Go Clubbing: Police” Young? Her […]
Archive | 2013
What to Do With The Kids When You Go Out on New Year’s Eve
Readers — This may sound insane to some, but to me it sounds beyond fun. Happy New Year! – L Dear Free-Range Kids: In honor of the upcoming holiday, I wanted to share with you my memory of my favorite New Year’s eve growing up. This was in the late 70’s, growing up in a […]
UPDATE! Two Versions of What Happens When We Let Kids Wait in the Car. NEEDED: Someone Who Has Faced Kids-in-Car Charge
************UPDATE:Readers, one of you has just written to say that after leaving her two kids in the car for a short time, she was cited by the cops and now must appear in court on Jan. 15 (despite a visit by CPS that found nothing amiss at home). She would love to talk to someone […]
‘Snow Joke! Teen Sleeps Outside, Nightly, in Minnesota!
Readers — Here’s a story from the Star Tribune to warm you heart! Free-Range-wise, one of the things we like to remind folks is that THIS generation of kids is not suddenly the most delicate in history! They come fully equipped to handle the same challenges kids did for generations. (Though personally I am a […]
Of Kids and Dogs and Allergies and Asthma
Readers — A study discussed in yesterday’s SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle’s website) suggests that kids growing up with dogs may be a little more protected against allergies and asthma, thanks to early exposure to the bacteria the dogs bring in. The bacteria seem to sort of “immunize” the kids. What’s Free-Range about that? Dirt. […]
No Parents Necessary! A Girl, 9, Takes her Little Brother to Visit Santa
Dear Readers — A very merry to you and yours, and hopes that someday soon a story like the one below will just seem NORMAL again. – L Dear Free-Range Kids: My sister from New York just sent me some photos of us growing up in the South Bronx in the late ’40s and early […]
Nancy Nord on Common Sense and Imaginary Dangers
The other day I had lunch with Nancy Nord, a former commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Joining us was one of my personal heroes, Philip Howard. Here’s what Nancy wrote on her blog, Conversations with Consumers, a forum that doggedly points out the difference (and distance) between safety and paranoia. As a gal […]
“You Don’t Deserve to Have Kids!” — A Parking Lot Encounter
Dear Readers — When you live in a society spasming with fear, it is hard not to flinch. That’s why we are here on this blog together. To support each other when the world mistakes our confidence and rationality for neglect and abuse. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I just finished reading Free Range Kids, […]
“A Transgendered Student in the Bathroom is So Confusing, It Opens the Door for Predators”
Readers: Remember the saying, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel?” Now it’s predators. To wit — Dear Free-Range Kids: I hope you don’t mind me sending you a link to a report on NPR this morning about a concerted effort to overthrow a law that affects transgender people. The part that bothered me I […]
How DARE Some Lady Give Cookies to Kids?
Readers — This story from Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins is heartwarming, and enraging. Seems a mom there, Anne Tabat, wanted to thank her kids’ school bus driver. So she baked some cookies and brought them to the bus stop — one for the driver and one for each of the kids on the bus, […]