Free Range Kids

I'm adding this almost two month after I read this book, but wanted to add some thoughts to remember it by.

I'm generally pretty skeptical about parenting books, but was pleasantly surprised by this one. I had been intrigued about it upon reading the genesis of the book, how the author let her 10 year old son ride the subway by himself and how she got all kinds of attention, mostly negative, from the press for it. Rather than offer formulaic ways to raise kids, the book advocates that children need independence and opportunities to make decisions (that matter) in order to grow and become responsible people. She notes how many of the supposed dangers that parents go to extreme measures to protect their children from, are not statistically speaking all that risky. What's worse, many of the protective measures have negative repercussions. For instance, she points out that letting kids walk to school is generally quite safe (as safe as it's ever been) but with so many parents driving kids to school, kids are missing out on good exercise, getting to know their neighborhood, and most ironic of is that around half all of pedestrian accidents for kids walking to school involve cars being driven by parents driving their kids to school!

She also points out how many of the risks are exaggerated, surprise, surprise, by companies trying to sell products. (In this regard, this book makes a great complement to the book Consuming Kids).

Clearly, parents needs to take steps to keep their kids safe, but this book makes a compelling case that we're going a few steps too far.