i love this book: Free-Range Kids

I recently read this post, where a mother described wanting to give her kids a "1970's summer," with days filled with watching classic tv shows, playing outside, scavenging for whatever food the kids can find, and minimal adult supervision.

Awesome! I love it.

I definitely have helicopter parent tendencies, but I love the idea of kids running wild in the backyard, showing up for dinner covered in dirt and with a slight sunburn. Of spending the day making their own fun with whatever they find. (And this is not just because I want a little time to myself. Well, maybe a little bit.)

I stumbled across the book Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Kids the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry, by Lenore Skenazy. You know, the infamous mother who made the news by allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the subway home by himself.

I have suspected for a while that some of the things we do as parents these days might be a little bit... silly. I don't remember my own parents hovering over us at all times. I remember playing outdoors by myself or with my siblings plenty of times. Riding our bikes around the neighborhood. Kids learn from making mistakes. Pushing the boundaries of what they can do helps kids to define their limits. So why was I constantly calling out safety alerts to my son? Trying to prevent him from scraping his knees? Trying to protect him from his own feelings of frustration, anger, and fear? In effect, preventing him from experiencing the things he needs to experience in order to grow and become a well-adjusted adult?

This book confirms what I had been wondering: today's parents may have gone a wee bit overboard in protecting their children from harm. In a humorous and supportive tone, the author pokes fun at our attitudes toward children (those fragile, delicate things), the ridiculous safety equipment that we purchase (do crawlers really need knee pads?), and provides tips, ranging from baby steps to giant leaps, for loosening the grip we have on our children so that they can actually live a little, and have some fun doing it.

The author's goal is to help us understand what situations are truly dangerous and which are not. For example: running out into the street is dangerous. Walking to school at an appropriate age, when the child shows they have the maturity and skills to do so, is probably not dangerous. Parents can help keep their children safe by teaching them safe behaviors, like not running into the street, rather than putting them on lockdown until they go to college.

Many of the suggestions in this book are geared toward older children, perhaps ages nine and up, but I am finding the general concepts useful in parenting my three-year-old.

Author's Note: The opinions in this book review are solely my own. I received no incentive or compensation for writing this review.