Or maybe you picked up Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation and read about how kids need to return to a play-based childhood or else fall off the mental health cliff. Perhaps you saw the surgeon general's report about how kids are utterly miserable-or his newer report about how parents are utterly miserable.
Kids are having less fun growing up oversupervised, and parents are having less fun constantly supervising them. Both generations desperately need freedom. And it turns out that when adults step back, kids step up.
I co-founded Let Grow, where we believe today's kids are smarter and stronger than our culture gives them credit for. We are making it easy, normal, and legal to give kids the independence they need to grow into capable, confident, and happy adults.
If you are ready to start raising free-range kids, here are some goods to make it as easy as falling off a log (something else you should let your kids do). Note: You don't actually have to buy anything to make this happen. Just open the door! But in the interests of capitalism, here are some freedomenabling goods.
FOR KIDS
WALKIE-TALKIE A walkie-talkie is the poor man's iPhone, but better. It lets kids reach you and vice versa―nothing more. Yes, they'll be home for dinner. Thanks for checking in, kids. Now go find a dead body or something.
A LET GROW 'KIDS LICENSE'
This story is from the February 2025 edition of Reason magazine.
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This story is from the February 2025 edition of Reason magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
THE REAL THREAT IS AN ISOLATED CHINA
DECOUPLING FROM TRADE WILL MAKE THE U.S. POORER AND CHINA MORE TOTALITARIAN.
Against Our Own Best Souls'
SISTER HELEN PREJEAN ON HERLIFE ASA WITNESS ON DEATH ROW
'THE POLITICS HAVE COME TO US'
HOW A CHRISTIAN CHARITY IN EL PASO ENDED UP AT WAR WITH THE TEXAS GOVERNMENT FOR HELPING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
MATERIEL LOSS
HOW THE U.S. MILITARY BUSTS ITS BUDGET ON WASTEFUL, CARELESS, AND UNNECESSARY 'SELF-LICKING ICE CREAM CONES'
'NOT A SUICIDE PACT'
HOW A 1949 SUPREME COURT DISSENT GAVE BIRTH TO A MEME THAT SUBVERTS FREE SPEECH AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
HOW MUSK CAN HELP TRUMP CUT TRILLIONS
DURING PRESIDENT DONALD Trump’s first term in office, the national debt increased by $8 trillion—due, in large part, to huge spending hikes that Congress passed and Trump signed.
THE IMPROBABLE RISE OF MAGA-MUSK
IS ELON MUSK A REACTIONARY WITHA DEFECTIVE BULLSHIT METER OR THE BEST PART OF THE SECOND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION?
A Free-Range Family
RIGHT NOW, CHILDHOOD is intensely meh. Maybe you read the recent report in The Journal of Pediatrics that said that as kids' independence and free play have gone down, their anxiety and depression have been going up.
Educulture Wars
THE CULTURE WAR is costing school districts billions, according to a report released in October 2024 by the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. The report surveyed superintendents at 467 school districts nationwide about extra expenditures they undertook because of increased conflict over culture war issues such as critical race theory, book chal- lenges, gender-related debates, and other politicized topics. The report estimates that such fights cost school districts around $3.2 billion during the 2023-2024 school year.
Q&A Penny Lane
PENNY LANE'S NEW Netflix documentary, Confessions of a Good Samaritan, delves into her life-changing decision to donate a kidney to a stranger. Known for her thoughtful and provocative storytelling, Lane has explored human connection and empathy in films such as Hail Satan? and The Pain of Others. Last October she spoke with Reason's Nick Gillespie and shared her emotional, physical, and philosophical experience with anonymous kidney donation and the challenges that came with it.
