Outrage of the Week: Mom Arrested for Letting Kids Go to the Mall

Readers: This article makes me so angry, I’d love us all to start thinking what we can do to change a society where danger-hallucinating authorities persecute and prosecute those of us still sane. Suggestions welcome.  This piece originally appeared in Brain, Child. 
By Bridget Kevane
On Saturday, June 16, 2007, I was charged with endangering the welfare [...]

CAUTION: Sand Presents Uneven Surface!

Enjoy this. Lots of great signs warning of the obvious gathered by a group called The Manifesto Club and reprinted in England’s Daily Mail. These signs remind us that Britian is in some ways more advanced than the U.S. when it comes to worrying about non-worrisome things.
Remember: It is  England that requires anyone who wants to work with children — be [...]

“5 Minutes for Books” Reviews Free-Range…And Is Shocked!

Two moms,  ”5 Minutes for Books” managing editor Jennifer Donovan and her colleague Dawn, reviewed my book in tandem — then did a half-hour podcast with me. Both are available here.  From their review:
Jennifer: The more I read, the more surprised (and disheartened) I was at how much our parenting culture has changed in the last ten [...]

Network TV News Show Seeks Families Going “Free-Range”-ish

Hi! If your family has let the kids drop some extracurricular activities in favor of more free time — or is considering it – TV is looking for YOU. A producer for one of the evening news shows is trying to figure out if this desire for a more old-fashioned, it’s-ok-to-be-bored childhood is a trend. I think [...]

Welcome Viewers of “The View!”

Hi, View fans –
I’m so thrilled The View is airing a rerun of my visit with “the gals” today! It was a thrill to be on the show,  of course (and, let’s be honest: scary). But how I loved hearing  Barbara Walters say my book made her feel less guilty about not having spent every single second [...]

Are We Too Obsessed with Our Kids?

The public bought the idea that they were essentially a danger to their own kids and had better pay money for advice, that they’d better try really hard to do a good job, and they’d still inevitably fail. (Even though, as Lepore points out, kids are actually safer now than ever. In 1850, more than one baby in five died before its first year, by 1920 that had dropped to one in 20, and today infant mortality is at one in 200.)

Sunrise, Sunset — Grammar School Style

Readers, I hope you’ll allow me a weepy moment. New York City schools get out late. For us,  graduation was Wednesday. That’s when I wrote this, which I also posted on  the Huffington Post New York page :
10 AM. In an hour my younger son graduates from grammar school. He’s the “boy who took the subway [...]

Free-Range Kids Outrage of the Week: 10-year-old Forbidden to Cross Parking Lot

Would you believe they have charged some intern to walk him across the parking lot?! Geesh people. He’s TEN!

CNN or C.A.N. — Child Abduction Network?

One reason Americans are so extremely terrified about child abductions is that whenever we turn on the TV or computer, there’s another one. As if these horrific crimes are happening 24/7, when actually the media is only too happy to fly across the country — or world — to set up camp wherever a cute, white girl [...]

Huffington Post and Free-Range Kids

Perfect together, here, on their new “New York” page.