Parenting

Civil Liberties

Here Are 10 Outrageous 'Zero Tolerance' Follies of 2014

Here are 10 of the most infamous "zero tolerance" punishments handed down to kids-and even some adults-this year.

Lenore Skenazy | 12.29.2014 9:30 AM

Free-Range Kids

CPS Threatens Dad: Let Your Kids Play Outside and We'll Take Them Away

Lenore Skenazy | 12.23.2014 9:45 AM

Culture

150-Year-Old Christmas Tradition Cancelled for 'Safety' Concerns

Lenore Skenazy | 12.18.2014 2:20 PM

Free-Range Kids

Kid Suspended for Bringing an Empty Shell Casing to School

Lenore Skenazy | 12.16.2014 9:10 AM

Culture

New York City Welds Playground Equipment So It Doesn't Move

Lenore Skenazy | 12.10.2014 11:06 AM

Civil Liberties

New Law Lets Courts Decide If You Are a Sensitive Enough Parent

Lenore Skenazy | 12.8.2014 9:30 AM

Culture

Pedophile Panic at the Salvation Army: No Teen Boys Allowed, Too Dangerous

Lenore Skenazy | 12.2.2014 2:45 PM

Culture

U.S. Abortion Rate Reaches Lowest Level Since Early '70s

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 12.1.2014 11:30 AM

Free-Range Kids

Beware of Non-Existent Threat, Warns Consumer Protection Czar

Lenore Skenazy | 11.26.2014 9:10 AM

Civil Liberties

School Considered Canceling Nutcracker Trip To Protect Kids from Christmas Tree Exposure

Lenore Skenazy | 11.23.2014 3:15 PM

Free-Range Kids

Dirty Needle in the Halloween Candy? Nobody Panic

Lenore Skenazy | 11.21.2014 9:15 AM

Civil Liberties

Schools to Parents: Pick Up Your Kids from the Bus Or We'll Sic Child Services on You

Robby Soave | 11.20.2014 11:13 AM

Civil Liberties

Middle Schoolers Suspended for Pretending to Smoke Candy

Lenore Skenazy | 11.18.2014 9:45 AM

Politics

Kids Terrified As Cops Enter School With Guns Drawn—But It Was a Practice Drill

Lenore Skenazy | 11.17.2014 8:45 AM

Nanny State

Baby Becomes Briefly Underweight, Mom Loses Custody for Five Months

Religious beliefs against feeding your child animal products? That apparently counts as child abuse in Florida.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 11.14.2014 3:30 PM

Civil Liberties

Bureaucrats Bulldoze Beloved Playground for Special Needs Kids

Lenore Skenazy | 11.13.2014 9:15 AM

Free-Range Kids

Law Says One Thing, Child Services Says Another: Don't Let Your Kid Outside

Lenore Skenazy | 11.7.2014 9:05 AM

Civil Liberties

Student Suspended for Slicing Apple During Healthy Snacks Presentation

Lenore Skenazy | 11.3.2014 10:25 AM

Culture

School: 'Halloween Snacks Shall Contain No More Than 8 Grams of Total Fat'

Lenore Skenazy | 10.31.2014 10:01 AM

Civil Liberties

Mom Demands Law to Force Kids to Wear Bright Clothes

Lenore Skenazy | 10.28.2014 8:45 AM

Civil Liberties

Man Guilty of Owning Sexy Images of Cartoon Children

Lenore Skenazy | 10.20.2014 3:30 PM

Culture

Trick or Treat or Drugs? Police Panicked About Pot-Laced Halloween Candy

Lenore Skenazy | 10.17.2014 11:45 AM

Free-Range Kids

Sexting Didn't Ruin This Girl's Life, But an Arrest Might Have

Lenore Skenazy | 10.15.2014 10:45 AM

Civil Liberties

School Sics Cops, K-9 Unit on Old Man Looking for Dandelions

Lenore Skenazy | 10.8.2014 1:17 PM

Civil Liberties

Schools Ban Swings Because Everything Is Dangerous

Lenore Skenazy | 10.7.2014 11:30 AM

Civil Liberties

Moms Fed Up with School 'Stranger Danger' Paranoia

Lenore Skenazy | 10.1.2014 3:30 PM

Civil Liberties

Mom Tells Therapist About Briefly Leaving Kids Alone, Shrink Calls Cops

Lenore Skenazy | 9.26.2014 2:50 PM

Policy

Can Pot Smokers Be Good Parents? The Answer May Shock You.

Jacob Sullum | 9.24.2014 3:19 PM

Civil Liberties

School Says Students Need to Hear What Madman's Gunfire Sounds Like

Chillingly fatalistic.

Lenore Skenazy | 9.22.2014 12:48 PM

Policy

As Attention to Surrogacy Surges, State Laws Seem Poised to Get Much Worse

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 9.18.2014 3:15 PM

Free-Range Kids

Are the Parents of a Teen Murderer Guilty of Not Anticipating His Crimes?

Lenore Skenazy | 9.18.2014 12:16 PM

Civil Liberties

The Onion Joins Reason in Bashing the War on Moms

Robby Soave | 9.16.2014 4:53 PM

Civil Liberties

Child Services to Mom Who Did Nothing Wrong: 'Just Don't Let Your Kids Play Outside'

Cops think letting a kid play outside, within view of the house, is a crime.

Lenore Skenazy | 9.15.2014 11:52 AM

Politics

Stop Criminalizing Parenting: Free Range Kids' Lenore Skenazy on Our Irrational Fears over Child Safety

Anthony Fisher and Nick Gillespie | 9.14.2014 9:30 AM

Policy

D.C. Piano Prodigy Misses 10 Days of Public School, Gets Labeled "Truant." Now She's Homeschooled.

Katherine Mangu-Ward | 9.8.2014 2:41 PM

Free-Range Kids

Paramedics Examine Child Who Waited in Car Less Than 5 Minutes

Lenore Skenazy | 9.8.2014 12:24 PM

Free-Range Kids

Hot Cars and Halloween Candies Don't Kill Many Kids

Lenore Skenazy | 9.5.2014 4:15 PM

World

School Bans Dangerous Activity Known as 'Doing A Cartwheel'

Lenore Skenazy | 9.3.2014 2:23 PM

Politics

Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?!

Focus on your own kids and stop criminalizing parenthood

Tyler Koteskey | 9.3.2014 9:00 AM

Free-Range Kids

Federal Agent Thinks Dad Taking Picture of Daughters Is Sex Trafficking

Lenore Skenazy | 9.1.2014 10:00 AM

Civil Liberties

Mom Arrested for (Maybe) Hanging Up on Cop While Her 'Missing' 10-Year-Old Plays at Church

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 8.30.2014 10:20 AM

Free-Range Kids

Helicopter Parents Fight Sanity, Democracy in 'Strangers in the Schools'

If voters come into a school, then they could shoot the children.

Lenore Skenazy | 8.25.2014 12:20 PM

Free-Range Kids

Aurora Theater Should Have Predicted Mass Shooting, Judge Rules

Worst-first thinking promotes constant panic.

Lenore Skenazy | 8.22.2014 10:18 AM

Culture

Poll: Most Americans Want to Criminalize Pre-Teens Playing Unsupervised

"I doubt there has ever been a human culture, anywhere, anytime, that underestimates children's abilities more than we North Americans do today."

Lenore Skenazy | 8.20.2014 11:30 AM

Politics

57 Percent of Americans Say Only Kids Who Win Should Get Trophies

Emily Ekins | 8.19.2014 11:00 AM