Free Range Kids

I'm reading an excellent book called Maphead. It's written by Ken Jennings, longtime Jeopardy! contestant and trivia nerd, and the book is about maps and geography - it turns out I'm not the only one with some affection for this field.

In a section I found really startling, he talks about our cultural shift away from exploring the community around us during the last generation, particular kids. He talks about how:

• 71% of us walked or rode bikes to school as kids, and only 22% of kids today do.
• The radius around home where kids are allowed to play has shrunk to 1/9 of what is was in 1970.
• Between 1981 and 2003, kids' free time dropped by 9 hours per week.
• In 2009, a mom in Mississippi was threatened with child endangerment charges for letting her 10-year-old son walk 1/3 of a mile to soccer practice.
  

Most shocking to me, when contemplating why kids don't wander, "American parents often cite "stranger danger" without seeming aware that only 115 US children are abducted by strangers every year - almost a one-in-a-million occurrence, not something to base a lifestyle on. Yet 82% of US moms cit safety concerns as a reason to bar their kids from even leaving the house."

When mentioning all this to a friend, she told me about a book called "Free Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts With Worry)", and it's on my must-read list. I'm sure you all know me as a cozy homebody, but I played outside with the rest of the kids growing up, and I want that world for Ada and Logan too.