By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 8 minutes

Surprise! Free Play is Safer than Sports or Hanging out at Home

This post is reprinted (and gently edited) from a surprising article on LinkedIn that showed that free play is safer than sports -- the adult-organized kind -- or even hanging...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

New Study Finds Intensive Parenting is Best…Or Does It?

Is it intensive parenting to text your young adult kids a few times a week and offer some advice on things like finances? The New York Times says yes. I...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 4 minutes

How to Make Your Teen into a Capable Young Adult

Want to make your teen into a capable young adult? Who doesn't! The key may lie in remembering that teens have always BEEN capable young adults, ready to pitch in....
By Let Grow

Read Time: 9 minutes

Can YOUR Kids Play Outside for FIVE HOURS?

This absorbing, longer-than-usual, and perhaps envy-inducing essay was originally published on Terms of Endearment, a newsletter by Sarah Menkedick about motherhood, travel, art, home education, Mexico, and living a more...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 4 minutes

Let Kids, 12 & 9, Stay in Hotel Room Alone?

Wow -- there are 101 responses and counting to this question on our Raising Independent Kids Facebook group. A mom named Michelle asks: Question about leaving kids alone at a...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 2 minutes

Darkness at Noon: Schools Will Close for Solar Eclipse

Even as the Canadian Paediatric Society just declared we have to stop overprotecting kids, take a look (but not directly!) at what's happening in Toronto. This is one of several...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

KIDS NEED MORE “RISKY PLAY” SAYS CANADIAN PEDIATRICS SOCIETY!

Kids need to climb trees, jump off things, and ride their bikes fast. Says who? Says the Canadian Paediatric Society, that's who. They may spell "pediatric" wrong, but they get...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

My Son Goes to the Grocery Alone and Bakes a Lot. He’s 11 and On The Spectrum.

We love independence stories! This one comes from Adriane Thompson in Surprise, Arizona. ("Where do you live?" "Surprise, Arizona." "I'm not that surprised.") Adriane works for a company that helps...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

Isadora Duncan on Why Kids Need Unsupervised Time

You might not know her name, but her influence is clear in today's dance scene, especially in popular shows like Dancing with the Stars. Isadora Duncan is known as the...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

Charles Brewer’s Quest to Save Play — By Banning Cars

Kids running around and playing outside till the streetlights came on. That was Charles Brewer’s childhood -- and dream. To make it happen in modern day America, the entrepreneur developed...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

What’s the Actual Risk of Your Child Being Kidnapped?

Kidnapping remains one of the top 3 fears of American parents despite its (thank God!) rarity. One way to fight that outsized fear is to watch the video below. Then,...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 4 minutes

How to Fight the Anxiety that Makes You Want to Hover

Did you know that January is Mental Wellness Awareness Month! Woo hoo! How can you celebrate? Get mentally well! That can be a challenge, especially in an era that can...