Top all-time · #2097
Lenore Skenazy
Personal blog · freerangekids.comculturewriting
Lenore Skenazy writes Free-Range Kids, a personal blog at freerangekids.com about culture and writing. Since 2013, 38 different Hacker News readers have linked it 45 times, most often “Free-Range Kids – How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-31, and you can follow it by feed.
How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow
Most-linked posts?
- /11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2013-01-23
- Free-Range Kids – How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2021-06-16
- /laws/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-08-23
- How Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-02-02
What Hacker News says?
I think Lenore Skenazy [0] is forming a national group dedicated to facilitating unsupervised play for children, which if you want your kids to not have phones would certainly help them. I've heard anecdotally that one of the reasons phones are appealing is it's a way to break free of being constantly monitored by modern day helicopter parents. Another program I've heard of but don't know much about is wait until 8t…
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on “The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds”Submitted How Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations as a story · 556 points
HN discussionYou could be arrested or your children could be taken away from you. http://www.freerangekids.com/category/child-protective-servi...
Comment linking /category/child-protective-services/
on “We Have Ruined Childhood”Submitted Lego Store Detains Boy, 11, for Being Too Young to Shop Alone as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIt's a rare thing, but it is a thing: https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arreste... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/... https://geekdad.com/2015/01/kids-play-arrested/ https://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrested-s... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parent... I didn't even have to dig to find these, they're from the first page of resul…
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on “We Have Ruined Childhood”Submitted Kids Must Take the Bus or Be Driven Home No Matter How Close They Live as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI wish http://www.freerangekids.com/ were a better website. Plenty of good ideas though. See also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-range_parenting
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on “We Have Ruined Childhood”Submitted Peter Gray: We Have Almost Destroyed Childhood as a story · 3 points
HN discussionParts of the U.S. are providing parents protection against this sort of thing. Texas became the third state after Oklahoma and Utah to pass a free-range parenting bill [1] called the Reasonable Childhood Independence act. So far this movement seems to be led by traditionally "conservative" states, while the most egregious abuses seem to be reported in traditionally "blue" states, like New York and California. It'll…
Comment linking /texas-goes-free-range-reasonable-independence-bill-becomes-law/
on “I stopped to watch kids playing at recess – security was called”Submitted UK Man Found Not GUILTY of Sex Offense Must Give Cops 24h Notice Before Sex as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe laws vary a lot so check what applies for you http://www.freerangekids.com/laws/
Comment linking /laws/
on “Lessons learned from a failing local mall”Submitted What Tracking Does to the Parent-Child Relationship as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSee also "Free-range Kids" https://www.freerangekids.com/
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on “Kids need freedom, too”Submitted Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations as a story · 2 points
HN discussionParents today are overprotective (this includes me!) and don't realize that it actually damages their kids. I was 5-years-old when my parents would just drop me off to the kindergarten and then I was on my own pretty much the whole day after kindergarten finishes in the afternoon. I would go to different classes kilometers away, crossing roads, etc. and it was common practice. I don't think kids get injured less tod…
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on “Kids need freedom, too”Submitted Free-Range Kids – How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow as a story · 1 points
HN discussionNo not that. Do anything to me, anything but being ridiculed by social media! This has helped me become a better parent. http://www.freerangekids.com/
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on “The Anti-Helicopter Parent’s Plea: Let Kids Play”hy·per·bo·le: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. My example is not in any way exaggerated and it is meant to be taken literary. >The reason you know about the one or two instances of cops being called because a ten year old is walking on their own is because it is rare and hence newsworthy. People have been convicted of crimes for leaving their 8 year olds "unsupervised" because of bus…
Comment linking /eureka-breakthrough-study-explains-why-we-arrest-parents-for-putting-kids-in-nearly-non-existent-danger/
on “Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world”Free Range Kids is a good resource for helping parents feel like good parents when they fight the urge to hover and over-protect. http://www.freerangekids.com/
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on “Our Newfound Fear of Risk”Not sure how these might be causally related to this: https://www.freerangekids.com/short-sweet-how-we-got-to-heli... I.e., decline of deviance might be causing helicopter parenting; or helicopter parenting might be causing the decline of deviance; or they may be reinforcing each other.
Comment linking /short-sweet-how-we-got-to-helicopter-parenting/
on “The decline of deviance”Had to dig around for this but it is quite illuminating: https://www.freerangekids.com/how-children-lost-the-right-to...
Comment linking /how-children-lost-the-right-to-roam-in-just-4-generations/
on “The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment”Lenore Skenazy (Free Range Kids) blogged about this. [1] A commenter linked to a podcast with the school Principal. [2] [1] http://www.freerangekids.com/unsafe-playground-happier-safer... [2] http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20140127-0909-free_play...
Comment linking /unsafe-playground-happier-safer-kids/
on “School ditches rules and loses bullies”Well, to begin with, find a state where laws are more relaxed: http://www.freerangekids.com/laws/ Moral judgements from people in your community can be bad enough, but it's a whole different ball game when you run the risk of getting arrested!
Comment linking /laws/
on “Why Do We Judge Parents for Putting Kids at Perceived But Unreal Risk?”I'm surprised they made no mention of http://www.freerangekids.com/ or (owner/blogger) Lenore Skenazy, both of which typically come up in such discussions.
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on “Why Do We Judge Parents for Putting Kids at Perceived But Unreal Risk?”> This is a news story and a controversy because it's a weird thing that happened. This kind of thing has been going on for decades now, e.g. Florida mom arrested after allowing 7-year-old son to walk to park alone (2014): https://fox4kc.com/news/florida-mom-arrested-after-allowing-... Maryland family under investigation for letting their kids walk home alone (2015): https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/contests…
Comment linking /mom-arrested-for-letting-child-10-shop-alone-at-lego-store/
on “Mom jailed for letting 10-year-old walk alone to town”Relevant: http://www.freerangekids.com/
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on “How Fact-Free Parenting Policies Rob Kids' Independence”Only problem is, most "sex offenders that molest kids" are 18-year-olds busted for bonking their 16-year-old girlfriends. Or, increasingly, taking a piss in the park, streaking a football game, or something equally daft. http://www.freerangekids.com/why-are-we-putting-kids-as-youn...
Comment linking /why-are-we-putting-kids-as-young-as-ten-on-the-sex-offender-registry-for-years/
on “End Mass Incarceration Now”The CPS boogeyman was hyperbole, yes. Few freerange parents get charged with anything, but a few do still have to deal with investigations or charges by local police. Is it isolated? Yes. But it happens. Even if police don't get involved, you get flak/judgement from neighbors and nosy busy bodies butting into your business and trying to parent your kid(s). That happens a lot more and is something most any free range…
Comment linking /why-do-i-keep-scaring-people-with-stories-of-good-parents-hounded-by-the-authorities/
on “Why are little kids in Japan so independent?”Your description of life for kids in Poland reminds me a lot of my own childhood in Finland -- except that I was on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and there were no bread lines. (Quite few grey blocks of flats though...) I also remember driving through East Germany and visiting East Berlin in the mid-1980s and getting thoroughly freaked out by what a even child could recognize as a monochrome totalitarian dysto…
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on “A Western Kid Living in Communist Poland (2014)”Sure. Just so we are clear though, there is a huge difference between being regarded and treated as a potential pedophile/kidnapper (father at a playground) vs. simply an outsider. http://www.freerangekids.com/thanks-for-assuming-im-a-pedoph...
Comment linking /thanks-for-assuming-im-a-pedophile-just-because-i-was-out-with-my-grandson/
on “Women Who Code (YC S16) helps female engineers level up in their careers”
