I put Lenore Skenazy's Free Range Kids blog in my reader a few weeks ago, since I aspire to give my kids the freedom they need to become capable adults.
And it is a good blog with some good ideas. I like it for those things.
But I think I might have to remove it from my reader because of the high proportion of preposterous blood-boiling stories like this one.
I thought when I started reading FRK I would feel encouraged by other like-minded parents to do things like let my ten-year-old walk to the library by himself, and teach my kids to make independent trips on the city bus, and make decisions with his own money, and that sort of thing.
Instead I think it is making me MORE worried -- not about kidnappers or accidents, but about police/CPS intervention. Because of all the "can you believe this" stories of people calling the police on each other. Yuck.
I'll give it a few more days and then maybe move it into another folder so I don't read it automatically every single morning. It's really too bad, because I agree with most of what's written there in terms of the importance of kids to have freedom. But reading it may be counterproductive for me.
Lenore does make an effort to put up encouraging stories of kids who do great things as well, but I agree, the horror stories are pretty discouraging.
Posted by: Kate | 21 January 2011 at 03:29 PM
Ack. Makes me want to... I don't know what I want to do. Stay as far out of the view of CPS as possible.
Posted by: MrsDarwin | 25 January 2011 at 10:23 AM