Free Range Kids: Support for Sane Parenting
Reading my rss feeds this morning I came across a post on Schneier on Security about Overestimating Threats Against Children that led me to a great op-ed essay by Lenore Skenazy, Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone. Here’s an excerpt:
I left my 9-year-old at Bloomingdale’s (the original one) a couple weeks ago. Last seen, he was in first floor handbags as I sashayed out the door.
[snip]
No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn’t want to lose it. And no, I didn’t trail him, like a mommy private eye. I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn’t do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, “Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I’ll abduct this adorable child instead.”
Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence.
The author has started a website Free Range Kids as a forum for sane parenting. Since the birth of my son, I have a new understanding of how easy it is to overestimate risks when your kids are involved in the equation. This natural protective instinct is… enhanced by the fear mongering in the media. Too often, parent support groups seem to reinforce the quick to worry, slow to think approach in spreading news about the latest threat to our precious ones. So I’m glad to see Skenazy’s essay getting some attention and even happier to see a website focused on making sane choices instead of simply being as safe as possible (although I have started sleeping on the floor since so many Americans die from tragic bed falls).
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