When I was a child, a huge group of neighbourhood kids all got together every weekend at the Lewis’ house down the street where we played day long games of ‘Kick the Can’. I don’t know how it came to be that we all got together at the Lewis’ house - we just did. Kids of all ages played. Parents weren’t around, or if they were they were inside - not interfering with or structuring our play.

We ran. We fell down. We hid in neighbour’s backyards and in their garages. We ran through stranger’s flower gardens. We climbed rusty fences. We cut ourselves. We fought with each other. Punches may have been thrown. We made friends. We lost friends. Bones were broken. We touched worms. We maybe even ate worms. We bled. Sometimes someone would kick a kid instead of the can, by ‘accident’ of course. Big kids looked out for little kids. Names were called. Kids moved away. New kids arrived. We sweated. We gained muscles. We had fun. We got to be kids.

Do kids still have fun? Is it fun being strapped into a car seat going from one activity to the next? Activities where kid-on-kid action isn’t allowed? Where kids don’t even really talk to each other, let alone learn their names? Where kids don’t even have nicknames? Where parents (yes, I am a parent) regard each small achievement that their precious child makes as worthy of a trophy, lest the kid actually comes last? Wait, no, kids aren’t allowed to come last anymore.

I like the idea of free range kids. Embracing the concept fully scares me though, mostly because I am not sure I could handle the glares and questions of the parents who from day one are preparing their toddlers / kids / pre-teens for the law school admission test. What? A weeknight with no violin / dance / computer / skating lesson? I’ve also been programmed (mostly by the media) to think that society is ‘different’ now. Is it really different now, or does it just look different because no one is playing outside anymore? Maybe it’s just that no one is having fun anymore — now that IS scary.

For more on Free Range Kids, visit Lenore Skenazy’s website.

Also interesting is Playborhood, a site started because of the belief that

free, unstructured play (or what we refer to as simply “play”) has virtually vanished from the lives of most children in America (and Canada too!). We are committed to doing whatever we can to bring it back for our children and yours.

At Playborhood.com we will to build a community of parents in the United States, if not the world, that will become more aware of this problem, discuss solutions, and implement the best of those solutions. If you think this is a worthy goal, please help us!