Photo: Lenore Skenazy
In 2008, Lenore Skenazy gave her nine-year-old son, Izzy, a subway map, a MetroCard, $20, and several quarters, left him in midtown Manhattan and let him ride the New York City subway and a bus home … alone! Then she shared the event in her New York Sun column. You can only guess the reaction; Skenazy was called “crazy,” was accused of child abuse and was soon reported nationwide.
For Skenazy, the incident began a conversation on how parents are “swimming in fear soup” raising their children. While “it’s hard not to worry when all we hear about are the dangers posed by bullies, germs, predators, plastic, and the perils of a non-organic grape,” Skenazy tells parents that there is way to “raise safe, self-reliant children without going nuts with worry.” Her Free-Range Kids is a commonsense approach to parenting in these overprotective times.
Keeping with her philosophy, Skenazy is sponsoring the fifth annual “Take Our Children to the Park…and Leave Them There Day” on May 9.
This “Free Range” method of parenting made the news in December when police and state children welfare official investigated Danielle and Alexander Meitiv for let their two children, 10 and 6, walk a mile home through Silver Spring, Maryland, alone. The outcry against the state’s intervention has actually crossed political line with support from Bill Mahr and Fox News Kennedy.
Belmont After School Enrichment Collaborative presents a free talk, “How Did We Get So Afraid For Our Kids; A Hilarious Talk With Free-Range Founder Lenore Skenazy” on Monday, April 27, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School Auditorium.
Sponsored in part by Belmont Savings Bank Foundation.