Free Them Kids
Posted by Cottontimer on 16 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Parenting
…and maybe in the process, we’d free the parents too.
From new blog Free Range Kids created by Lenore Skenazy, the author of Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone.
Is there some snow on the ground by you? If so, do yourself a favor and go eat a handful. Have your kid eat some, too.
Then wait to see if you die. If you don’t — and you won’t — you will be joyously liberated from the latest WATCH OUT YOUR KID COULD DIE FROM DOING A NORMAL KID THING warning, this one about germs in snow.
I’ll tell you what makes me cringe: kids jumping in puddles. That’s right. You don’t have any idea what kind of liquid is in those puddles!!
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Yeah … I’m with you on that. Except I do the laundry and those damn clay stains NEVER come out!
mdmhvonpa, Not sure I follow your train of thought here but I also find mud stains to be very difficult to get out even if we wash the clothes right away with stain spray. Grrr.
I read the article and LOVED it. But I still don’t think I could allow a 9-year-old to catch the subway in NY by his or her self!
However, by the age of 11 or so, I do feel that children should be capable of travelling by themselves when it’s a relatively enclosed form of travel — trains, planes. There’s more structure, less space for things to go wrong. It’s a great way of easing into independant travel. And look at me! travelling round the world by myself since 1994…
Rosie, You are definitely a jetsetter! I might be ok with non-stop plane rides but trains are a little frightening what with the doors opening and closing at every stop.
And this all depends on the kid, of course. I remember taking the subway on my own in high school but no earlier.
hey I played in puddles in the cities of India and turned out ok. Well, the frequency was like once in a year or something (we lived out in the countryside and went to city occasionally)!
Alright, I most likely am a TB, Hep carrier…but it builds our immune system! hehehehe… my mom’s bigger concern was the dirtying of clothes, cause she could never get the stains out!
I remember taking the bus in Hyderabad (India) when I was 9, but with a big group of friends (some of who were 18+ years old, and parents knew them well), and was during off-peak hours. But on my own, I took the buses in Rome (when I was 12+). But mom and dad really “trained” us well! It went over a few months of transitioning from going with parents and being on my own!
My mom recently shared that for a while she would follow us without our knowledge to make sure we were practicing safe techniques that they taught us!! we never knew!! heheheh I just love my parents!
smitha, I do not understand the appeal of puddle jumping. And funnily enough, Stephen doesn’t either! I have also trained him well. HahAHa
heheh yeah..looking back, I don’t get what was so exciting about the whole jumping in the puddle thing. Maybe we (we = sis & I) thought “oh, small swimming pool! go jump!” or if it was just a way to test our parents’ patience (do exactly the opposite of what they say). But we went past that phase quickly and didn’t jump through too many puddles after that!