Traveling with (Virtual) Mom

Summer beckons, with its eternal promise of freedom. Unless you are Harry Wilder. Harry is a 19-year-old British student who plans to travel across Australia, Thailand and South Africa this season…with a GPS tracking device called the “Traakit” in his pocket. The Traakit will let his mom pinpoint his location to within 15 feet and [...]

Kids are the New ’50s Housewives (Stuck at Home “For Their Own Good”)

In the 1940s, women were working in factories, doing all the jobs men did — and earning their own keep. After the war, they were suddenly told: What on earth are you doing here? The outside world is too dangerous for you, you sweet, silly creatures! We’re only saying this for your own good. You can’t make it out here. Go home!

Which sounds remarkably like what we are telling kids today. Kids who, just a generation ago, were perfectly capable of making their way in the outside world — babysitting, playing in the park, walking to school — are now being told: What on earth are you doing our here? The world is too dangerous for you, you sweet, silly creatures! We’re only saying this for your own good. Go home! (Or, alternatively, “Go to soccer practice, which we will drive you to and pick you up from.”)

Why One Mom Lets Her Son Walk to the Bus Stop Now

Hi Folks! Here’s a short, sweet post by Seattle reporter Denise Gonzalez-Walker, who did something radical: She met her neighbors. It changed the way she’s raising her son: By Denise Gonzalez-Walker   I recently finished a temporary job that gave me new perspective on the Free-Range philosophy. Working as a U.S. Census canvasser, I went door-to-door [...]

“Free-Range Kids” Book Talk

The other night I gave a book talk — second in my life — at the Barnes & Noble in Park Slope, Brooklyn. If you’d like to hear some of the highlights, here you go. Two little videos of me doing my Free-Range thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEKlZO6xXWg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ivK-VwShHE Meantime, a very happy three-day weekend to all! — Lenore

The Crime of “CSI”

It’s nice when science takes the time to confirm one’s own sneaking (or even not so sneaking) suspicions. In this case: That TV crime shows are driving us crazy with fear. In a report titled, “CSI: Mayo Clinic,” Mayo psychiatrist Timothy Lineberry and his team studied two sets of data: One, a list of crimes, [...]

Feisty Mom Comes Out Swinging — A Lovely Read

When my daughters turn eight, they’ll get their first Swiss Army knives, and not the tiny ones with a nail file and some scissors, but real ones, big enough to gut a fish with.

A Girl Knocks on a Stranger’s Door

Have you heard of Common Cents? It’s a non-profit organization based in my burg, New York City, that encourages school children to “harvest” the pennies in their neighborhoods—that is, the pennies most of us have sitting in a jar that just keeps getting heavier and heavier. Cool idea, right? The kids put notes under the [...]

Yes, more media!

Quick alert (before everyone goes, “Enough already!”): As mentioned right below here, I’ll be on Nightline tonight talking about dumb baby safety products (that is, dumb safety products, not safety products for dumb babies). But — news flash!  I’ll be talking about them again on Good Morning America the next day. (Saturday.) That’s it. Have [...]

“Nightline” goes Free-Range Friday night!

Well, with a couple of caveats, that is. First of all, the segment could be postponed indefinitely, should any “real” news develop. Secondly, the piece is about a Free-Range tangent,  the whole issue I call the “Kiddie Safety Industrial Complex” –  that is, the multi-billion dollar  industry that has given us superstores full of baby products that didn’t even [...]

Toddler gets picked up by stranger…

…and ends up a journalistic superstar! (Albeit several years later.) Susan Toepfer, former editor of  Quick & Simple, OK, and the juicy bits of  People turns out to have been…a Free-Range Kid! So Free-Range that she and her friends got picked up by a stranger when she toddled off (literally) with some friends.  Read all about it at [...]