Comments on: Free Range Children

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:14:21 +0000

Lenore is a great speaker and has some very good videos on Youtube. One of my favorites is:

Parental Fear #62: Will Raw Cookie Dough Kill My Kid?

http://www.youtube.com/watch v=t8kiMKtixAo

Her blog:

is worth reading daily, because it’s growing all the time. The many comments left by site visitors are fascinating and informative!

Let’s hope Lenore’s efforts have started a major movement to erase the irrationality of our culture of fear.

By: Lenore Skenazy

Lenore Skenazy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:55:44 +0000

Hi! It’s Lenore here, author of “Free-Range Kids.” Loved this post, for obvious reasons, and just had to say we are long-time Mental Floss subscribers. My older son’s wardrobe also comes from Mental Floss, and I believe he went to school today in a 98% Chimp t-shirt. So thanks for existing and thanks for championing the idea that children do not need a security detail every time they leave the house! — Lenore

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Okay. Well I am about to turn 13 in June and I have been riding my bike around and around my house for years and around and around my end circle at our house for years. I have begged my mom to let me ride around our neighborhood and she says “It isn’t safe”. I’m like “mom I can here cars from far away and always pull over and I don’t even ride in the middle of the street, just near the grass” and still I here “no”. She has phobia’s. She washes her hands sometimes like 5min.!!!! She let my brother ride his bike around who was a little older than me, but I can’t. She is putting her problems in the judgment of my life. It isn’t really fare. I’m like do you not know I have a father in Heaven. I mean he could have planned every crazy driver to be off the road as I would ride my bike down the street. Then when he tells her on judgment day, how in the world would she feel? She is wasting her life. Yeah she might not die from germs or eating wrongly, but she might as well die from anxiety and stress. God is in control. Even if you put poison in someone’s food, if God had a reason for them to live, they would live. I see all these Godly mothers at my church, who truly do care and truly do share the gospel w/ their kids, but not my mom. My dad is like the only one that does that. Arggg:(:( Please parents, don’t be like my mom!!!!

By: North of Normal Eh!!!

North of Normal Eh!!! — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:27:00 +0000

I am the youngest girl of 6 children and as far back as I can remember I was free go where I wanted when I wanted. This was in Toronto in the 60s (6 YEARS OLD)Interesting***now they have a name for it. I was told to be off the streets by 9 pm but alot of times I did stay out later. Riding street cars and subways half the night(10 cents and transfers) It made me street smart and independ. I know I was lucky but it was Toronto the GOOD then and our doors were never locked. Yes I DID GIVE MY CHILDREN ALOT OF FREEDOM and they have thanked me for it but they were brought up in a small town in the bush. So getting to school or town was a treat, Big difference. IdidThe60s

By: Laura at Wild Parenting

Laura at Wild Parenting — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:48:58 +0000

Great post! I just wrote about this today over on wildparenting.com.

Long live childhood!

By: Brooklynperson

Brooklynperson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:08:10 +0000

Actually, not-too-free-range child of the 70s-80s in a large-ish Midwestern city. I was a girl who was small for her age, and when I was 5 some geezer *had* tried to snatch me on the way to school – this while walking with older children. My guardian was rather protective of me after that. I could go about without supervision or chaperoning once I was 11, but if where I went involved public transportation, I had to call home once I’d arrived and before I left for home again. That was the status quo through the end of high school.

I remember when the NBC affiliate in my town started putting on CNN Headline News in the early morning hours between sign-on and the Today show. 1981, maybe? And a year or so later, CNN was on all night long. No more sign-offs. Those hours had to be filled, so bleeder leaders of every local station that CNN could dig up got on the air. And was repeated. And repeated. Cable came to my city in 1984 and soon there was scary news 24/7. I think the rise of the 24-hour news cycle has affected our perceptions of safety. If the actual US crime rate is at its lowest point since years before I was even born, then what does that say about where our fears are coming from? The effect of these parental fears on this generation of children must be astounding in ways we have yet to quantify.

BTW, I have no children.

By: Blitzen

Blitzen — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:12:50 +0000

Just a note to add:

Tonight I saw a report on my local news (CBC Toronto) regarding back-to-school safety. The answer to the question “How old should children be before you allow them to walk to school by themselves?”, was “Children younger than 9 lack the cognitive skills to deal with certain situations.”

9 years old! A 9-year-old can’t be trusted to get to school by themselves! I agree that in a big city it would be prudent for children to walk to school in pairs or groups, but if a 9-year-old can’t manage to cross the street and find their school by themselves, then something is seriously wrong with them.

By: The Spotted Hare

The Spotted Hare — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:38:30 +0000

You know, I’m commenting to say this: not all hope is lost. I’m only entering high school, in maybe the next week. I grew up in this decade, and I was as free range as everybody else who commented here. So were my neighbors, who would frequently assist me in catching grasshoppers. Don’t mourn too much, there are still quite a few of us left.

By: free cell phones

free cell phones — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:29:17 +0000

I would definitely want Kids to experience the outdoors. When I was growing up, we used to ride our bicycles to other towns, play outside until it was dark and bathe in a nearby creek. In this age of Playstations and Youtube, kids seldom see the sun outside. I pity the children who have never experienced what I had experienced and scold the parents who over-pamper their kids.

By: kbar

kbar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:34:48 +0000

I was born in 1984. I grew up in what seemed like a small town, but I could hardly call it that now. My experiences growing up in that town in central PA were largely shaped by my parents’ growing up in neighboring towns. They were both only children, so they had no choice but to go out and interact with other kids, whether it was as friends or enemies. Whenever we would visit the places they grew up, my siblings and I would be bombarded with stories of the time “I broke my arm falling out of that tree” or “this is where we set up our lemonade stand.” I don’t think it’s a shift in society to blame for what is perceived as different era of childhood; I think it’s simply an issue of parenting and locale. I was never afraid to knock on someone’s door in my neighborhood after I wrecked my bike. My friends and I didn’t think twice about playing with the mentally hanicapped man that rode around on his large tricycle with a basket of toy guns and no ulterior motives. Danger is everywhere. It always has been and it always will be. The trick to having active and independent kids is to teach them to make responsible choices and to not live in fear of what could happen.