Awhile back a writer named Lenore Skenazy apparently wrote a piece called something like (I'm quoting this from memory, not really doing my homework here) "Why I Let My 10-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone." I missed it when it aired on NPR, but caught it during the GIANT media storm that followed. People loving it. People thinking she's Satan, or as she was actually called, America's Worst Mom. The basic idea is that we, as a culture, have gone overboard on safety with our kids, are obsessed with it at the expense of childhood.
Within my own group of friends it created a great conversation. Initially, the thought of letting Maxine ride around our city neighborhood alone on her bike filled me with fear and panic, but I began to reevaluate other things. Does she really need to be within my sight range at all times in a safe public space, such as the public library? This thought came along at just the right time. Right when she was transitioning to "big kid," I realized I don't need to be outside watching her when she's outside (she knows her boundaries are the end of the street.) And in the city parks we go to, I don't feel like she needs to be within eyesight anymore. She needs a place to be a kid, ride her bike around, and as long as I know the general area she's in, I'm OK with it.
Anyway, the columnist sparked a movement which seems to be a household term these days among progressive parents, called "Free Range Kids." Thought I'd share her blog with you all, just in case anyone's missed this. It's great parenting food for thought.
Free Range Kids
3 comments:
Ever since you told us about that, we are referring to our kids as "free range children." It's partly been of necessity, but I think some of my attitudes about parenting are a response to all the helicopter parenting that goes on.
When we were kids, we walked a mile down the road to Village School to play - all the time. And thought nothing of it. Parents today would have a cow, I think.
it's weird.
i grew up in a neighborly neighborhood and had LOTS of freedom and a fast green bike...as long as i was home before the streetlights came on. so on the one hand...free range...hell, yah!
on the other hand, i know all the crazy risky crap i did when i was little... edging across rusty railroad trestles,creeping around rickety abandoned barns, dropping down 10 feet into flooded mill foundations....i'd stroke out if i had kids doing the things i did.
I think the suburban audience is a big one for her. I mean, there's a reason that they are safe. I'd be totally fine with kids walking to school alone in your neighborhood, Blythe, but I'm guessing that is frowned upon before adolescence.
Here, in order to walk to the corner store, X would have to walk by a dealer house and a crack house. So I'm not free ranging it in the vicinity any time soon. I make up for it by letting her roam around the science center without me hovering.
S, there's something to be said for a little danger, especially trestles and barns, that sounds cool, or at least more adventurous than plastic playground equipment.
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