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Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children The Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry (2009)

by Lenore Skenazy(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0470471948 (ISBN13: 9780470471944)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Jossey-Bass

review 1: You know that manic friend you really like, but after 20 minutes with her you just want a glass of wine and a nap? That's what reading Lenore Skenazy's endless parenthetical witticisms felt like to me. She's smart and funny to be sure, but interrupted her own thoughts so often she even joked about it with more asides like "Right. Where were we? Oh yes!"Writing style aside, I can appreciate many of her observations, but the book felt gimmicky and judgmental instead of thoughtful. There were "free-ranger" challenges at the end of each chapter as if parents need a cute label for themselves if they adopt her philosophy. And the recurring "Real World" sections with anecdotes were often odd choices. One of these was about an orphan who was taken from a group home by a supposed r... moreelative, abused, and forced to pan handle. He ran away with another kid and found odd jobs where he was also mistreated, but he lived. None of us doubt that children often find ways to survive in horrifying circumstances, but this story seemed a strange choice for a book that is supposed to help parents asses risk more realistically and lovingly encourage more independence. Hastily chosen filler is all I can think. This book just wasn't for me. Too much ranting and skewering, not enough thoughtful analysis and information about an important topic. There was a fair amount of topical overlap with Parenting Without Borders, which I strongly preferred.Last thought. She kept repeating the statistics as they served her best, like the odds of being kidnapped AND murdered by a stranger. Sure, the numbers look better when you exclude kids who were simply kidnapped and abused for a while, but I happen to think they should be considered too. I agree with her reasoning that being over protective carries it's own risks, of course, but how about dedicating a few more pages to helping parents teach their kids how to stay safe without instilling unnecessary fear? The only thing she's got is "tell them not to go off with a stranger" as far as I could tell.
review 2: This book was amazing. Funny how the "world's worst mom" wrote the best parenting book I've read (and I read a lot of them). One of the lovely things about this book it doesn't matter what your parenting style is...this book will still work for you. With that said, it's only kind of a parenting book. People that don't have kids should read it too. The goal of this book was to examine our generations perceptive of "safe" and it takes the whole community to change not just parents to make a large difference in our culture. less

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