Who Will Think of the Children? Reason's Lenore Skenazy, That's Who.

Beloved Reason readers, I ask you: Are your children bothering you right now? Are they interfering with your ability to donate to our Webathon? We are in the final stretch—one day left to make it to $200,000—and we would hate for you to feel like you need to keep an eye on those little (or not so little) buggers every second of every day. So send 'em outside to play (winter? what's that?) so that you can concentrate on figuring out just how much you're going to donate to the cause. 

Feeling a little guilty about letting the spawn fend for themselves? Don't! For justification—and common sense analysis of modern helicopter parenting hysteria—look no further than the shiny new Reason writer Facebook and Twitter just can't get enough of: Lenore Skenazy! The proprietress of Free-Range Kids, she jumped over to Reason this summer to share thrills, chills, and parenting skills with our liberty-minded readers. 

You may remember her from such daily nutpunch highlights as: 

• Mom Jailed Because She Let Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Play in the Park Unsupervised—The mom, Debra Harrell, a low-income black woman, did something totally innocent, that you or I might do: Let her kid play in a safe park outdoors, during the summer, while she worked.
• Another Mom Thrown in Jail for Letting Kids Play at Park
• Mom Arrested for Letting Kid Play in Lego Store While She Shopped
• Kindergartener Pulls Down Pants, Forced to Sign 'Sexual Misconduct' Confession
• Student Suspended for Slicing Apple During Healthy Snacks Presentation
• Bureaucrats Bulldoze Beloved Playground for Special Needs Kids

Not to mention Lenore's sound Reason TV advice to chill out on Halloween: 

And hey, here's an idea: All that money you save by giving your kids a chance to mess around, be bored, and just be kids, instead of schlepping them from one expensive Gymboree birthday parties, travel soccer game, and intensive Mandarin lesson to another—why don't you donate some of it to Reason?

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

From the time I could stand, I was baptized in the fire of combat. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death on the diamond in service to the Shamrocks, my peewee baseball team, was the greatest glory I could achieve in my life.

[userve32]

That makes no sense at all dude.

http://www.Anon-Rocks.tk

[UnCivilServant]

So how many more reason staff writers are left to cycle through in shilling the other reason staff writers?

This pattern of self congratulatory attitude isn't working to change my mind about your poor coding choices with the overlays, people.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This isn't a drive to fund reason.com. This is about spreading the larger message of liberty through multiple media and a swanky new New York City office space.

[UnCivilServant]

Liberty and New York City are like matter and antimatter. Mix the two and boom, you just took a chunk out of upstate (where do you think Lake Ontario came from?)

[Suthenboy]

I grew up on a farm. That meant a lot of hard work. It also meant that when the work was at a stopping point we were told to get lost unless we wanted more work.

We spent our free time running in thousands of acres of woods completely unsupervised. After ten years old we did much of that with GUNS!! We swam in lakes and creeks, built rope swings and forts. We climbed trees. We fished. We hunted. We had mud fights. We rode horses. We camped out for days on end with nothing but a sleeping bag, a gun, and salt and pepper shakers. We ate wild stuff. We smoked cigarettes that we bought with refund money from bottles we picked up. Yeah, back then anyone could buy smokes.

(Imagine a 12 year old boy walking into a store with a sack of empty bottles, leaning his shotgun on the counter and trading the bottles in for a pack of Winston filters. How would that go over today?)

It was fuckin' glorious.

[UnCivilServant]

Were they loose cigarettes?

[Suthenboy]

Nah. Back then they were cheap so no one sold loosies.

They were about 50 cents per pack so everyone would get their own pack.

[Charles Easterly]

Is that you in the picture Suthenboy? If so, what did you name the chicken?

[some guy]

Yours (I am clearly younger than you) was the last generation to experience true freedom. My generation had it better than the current one, but not by much. Our society has decided to institutionalize stereotypes. Everyone under the age of 21 is immature and incapable of making any decision for themselves. They must be protected to the fullest extent of the law regardless of what level of responsibility they have shown. Indeed, even giving them the opportunity to show that they are responsible or independent is classified as abuse.

[creech]

You mean age 26 (or older if you are a "pajama boy.")

[Ted S.]

Feeling a little guilty about letting the spawn fend for themselves?

I have them slaving away in my monocle factory. They're going to work their way up from the bottom.

[some guy]

Do they have to compete with the orphans for your affection too?

[antisocial-ist]

"Are your children bothering you right now? Are they interfering with your ability to donate to our Webathon?"

In a roundabout way yes. Because they still believe in Santa Claus, and that fat bastard is getting a sizeable chunk of my money right now. Have you considered not asking people for money during the time of year they're least likely to have any?

[UnCivilServant]

that fat bastard is getting a sizeable chunk of my money right now.

Don't get them presents from Santa Claus, get them presents from Grandfather Nurgle! Zombie Plague for everyone!

[some guy]

Because they still believe in Santa Claus

That little delusion is easily remedied.

[The Late P Brooks]

Imagine a 12 year old boy walking into a store with a sack of empty bottles, leaning his shotgun on the counter and trading the bottles in for a pack of Winston filters.

*staggers toward fainting couch, slumps to floor*

[creech]

I remember a group of us walking through town with our pellet guns, a bunch of steel leg traps, and a huge string of muskrats. A cop stops us to say "nice haul today boys."

[dave b.]

You may remember her from such daily nutpunch highlights as...

The Troy McClure reference alone is worth $200,000.

[ronaldbarrkem]

My buddy's ex-wife makes $84 /hr on the computer . She has been fired from work for 7 months but last month her payment was $13167 just working on the computer for a few hours.
site here ???? http://www.jobsfish.com