Moms, dads, we need more free-range kids

I knew it wouldn't be long before Bad Mommy and Bad Daddy were back in the news. The parents from Silver Spring, Md., clearly can't stop.

"For the second time in four months, police picked up the children of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv on Sunday as they were walking home alone from a park that's nearly a mile from their house," according to news reports.

"This time, instead of bringing the children home, police took them directly to Child Protective Services."

I'm not waiting any longer to say what's on my mind:

Thank you, Meitivs!

We need more parents like you, boldly raising "free-range kids."

Years ago, we had a different phrase for this now controversial parenting style. We called it Normal Childhood.

Bicycle helmets, socket covers, tamper-resistant aspirin bottles?

What?

For a funny and timely summary of the issue, read my colleague Jeff Strickler's recent piece which noted that, by today's safety standards, no baby boomer should be alive. (tinyurl.com/oc5go9k.)

In a news release last Monday, the Montgomery County Police Department said the officer who responded to a concerned caller saw a homeless man "eyeing" the children, ages 10 and 6.

Come on! Eyeing their granola bar, maybe. Want to worry about our children's physical safety? Then keep an eye on Uncle Joe. The sad truth is that the lion's share of harm to our precious kids comes from someone they know.

If you haven't sat through Journalism 101, how would you possibly know that ours is primarily a man-bites-dog profession? The rarer it is, the bigger we play it.

The likelihood of being killed in a school shooting? One in 2 million.

Classic stranger abductions? About 115 children a year nationwide, according to the National Safe Kids Campaign, from which two-thirds are recovered safely.

The ones who don't return nab the headlines and steal your sleep.

The big story that you don't hear is that smoke alarms, car seats and bike helmets have cut injuries among children ages 14 and younger by nearly 50 percent over the past 20 years.

In other words, our pampered and exceedingly fortunate middle-class Western kids never have been safer in countless ways.

And more unwittingly endangered in another.

Danielle Meitiv is the first parent I know of to verbalize the theory I've long held. In response to the uproar over her free-range actions, she spoke of her distaste for how parents today "imprison our children inside and wonder why they're obese and have no focus."

I, too, have connected these dots. We calm ourselves by thinking that if we keep them inside, in front of the TV or computer screen, no harm will come to them.

And now 10 percent of preschoolers and 16 percent of school-age children are obese, and adult-onset diabetes is called Type 2, because so many who have it are young.

That's not even the worst of it.

By trying so hard to protect our kids, we're cheating them of the coolest part of being a kid. Skinned knees, wind in their face, the exhilaration of independence.

"We want them to explore and seek adventure," said Erin Petersen. "That's how they learn and grow."

That sentiment is especially poignant because Petersen coordinates Family Safety Programs and Safe Kids Minnesota for the Minnesota Safety Council.

She works all day to get the word out that simple safety precautions can prevent the horrors of car crashes, suffocation, drowning, poisoning, burns — among the most common causes of childhood injury and death.

Safe Kids is eager to help parents do that, with dozens of age-specific guidelines on its website (www.safekids.org).

She emphasizes how important it is to keep environments safe for kids, and to always consider a child's developmental level and readiness for different activities.

If you're nervous about letting your preteen ride his or her bike or walk to a friend's house, for example, take a few test runs together.

"Boy, it sure makes them feel good when they can accomplish that," Petersen said. "It's huge for their confidence."

Petersen, herself a mother, said safety experts are shifting their thinking to acknowledge this fact.

"But get out and swim."

So we hold our breath a little as the 10-year-old under our roof heads to school on her bike, a route that includes crossing a busy street. In her mind, it's the most logical idea in the world. It's spring now, in case we hadn't noticed.

She wears a helmet. She knows to cross at the traffic light. She believes that the world is a safe and exciting place.

It would be unfair of us to stop her.

gail.rosenblum@startribune.com