Quote of the Day (Even Though Quotee is Dead)

Here’s what Gertrude Stein had to say even BEFORE the Internet and parenting books and product warning labels and cable news. Even before Twitter! “Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” True that!

Over the Moon Over “Over the Hedge”

Hey Readers! Check out today’s “Over the Hedge” comic — so wonderful on every level (even though reading it makes my tongue hurt). Thank you, oh Michael Fry and T Lewis!

For The (Lobotomized) New Parent Who Has Everything

Hi Folks and look! It’s the Itzbeen Baby Care Timer! How long has it been since you changed your baby? Don’t go by smell or wailing — so old hat. Simply check your batttery operated,  pocket-size “Itzbeen.” It’ll tell you how long! Speaking of which: How long since you fed the little bugger? Don’t listen [...]

The Bicycle/Three Sleeping Children Thief

Hi Readers! How the Danes must be puzzled by our abduction obsession. Here’s what happened when a thief  in Copenhagen found a cargo bike outside a store and stole it — not realizing three kids were sleeping inside the big container-thing attached to the front.  Thanks to all of you who sent in this bizarre [...]

Gym Class Humiliation Can Cause a Lifetime of Inactivity

Hi Readers! Bad gym teacher = bad life. I KNEW it. And now, that’s what this cool study by Billy Strean, a professor in the University of Alberta’s  Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, has just confirmed: “A lifelong negative attitude toward physical activity can be determined by either a good or bad experience, based [...]

Mini Outrage of the Week: Kid Suspended for Bringing Peppermint Oil to School

Hi Readers! What in tarnation? A 10-year-old girl brings peppermint oil to school, gives a few drops to her friends to flavor their water, and the next thing you know, she receives a whole, big in-school suspension, according to this article in The Boston Post (by way of Newsday). Now, danger-wise, peppermint oil is right [...]

Does This Library WANT to Make Kids Feel Unwelcome?

Hi Readers! Here’s a note from a Free-Ranger named Cari Noga. Let’s give her some ideas! — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: I just posted this in the “ideas” section on your blog, but thought I’d send it direct, too. On your blog you ask, “Do you ever let your kid ride a bike to the [...]

Dr. Phil Going Free-Range!

Or at least his show is looking into it tomorrow (Tuesday). Check it out! He even gets the capitalization and punctuation of “Free-Range” right! Of course, the idea that Free-Rangers may be “under-involved” in their children’s lives is something we heartily dispute, but  I have a feeling Dr. Phil will, too. When I was on [...]

Thoughts About Perfection (And Ritalin, Video Games & Fast Food)

Hi Readers! I’ve been thinking about a note I got the other day from a dad who’s trying to raise his daughter Free-Range. He wasn’t  sure he was doing it “right.”  While some folks called him crazy for taking his girl on globe-trotting, capital-A adventures, he said, the alternative appalled him: “Maybe I should join [...]

Irrelevant But So Fun to Watch!

Once in a while you gotta go off-message. That time is now,  since it’s still — for a few hours — vacation. Just saw this great video and had to share it. Oh wait — maybe it IS relevant because I trust the streets of New York, despite creatures like this.