The mayor of Ithaca has declared the city to be a “free range kids city.” Mayor Svante Myrick says he believes in the power of play, and Ithaca’s proclamation supports parents who give their kids unsupervised, unstructured play time.
This hour, we discuss the free-range parenting movement and how unstructured play can impact child development. We also talk about the barriers to free-range play and how parents can overcome them. Our guests:
- Erick Stephens, parent engagement specialist for the Healthi Kids initiative at Common Ground Health and father of four
- Emily Rittenberg, parenting educator for Nurture: Family Education & Guidance and mother of two
- Rusty Keeler, co-founder of the Just Play Project
