Lenore Skenazy writes a nationally syndicated column that appears in more than 100 papers through the Creators Syndicate. Her work offers commentary on everything from politics to family life to popular culture phenomena, and include My Dollar Store Addiction and Don't Call Me From Your Car Just Because You're Bored.
Skenazy was formerly a columnist for The New York Sun until it closed in 2008. She was with the New York Daily News for fourteen years before that, but was fired in December 2006.[1] She previously worked for NPR and Mad Magazine. She was featured in the second episode of Bravo's series Tabloid Wars.
She coined the phrase "Free range kids". Skenazy's April 1, 2008 column in The New York Sun described her making the controversial decision to let her 9-year-old son take the New York City subway home alone.[2] It unleashed a flood of reactions ranging from accusations of child abuse to fond memories of first-time subway trips and childhood freedom. The story was covered on The Today Show, Fox News, and MSNBC[3] two days after the column appeared. Eventually newspapers and TV stations around the world covered it, too.
The incident led to the creation of the Free-Range Kids blog[4] and the book, Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry (John Wiley & Sons, April 2009). The subtitle was modified to Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe Self-Reliant Children Without Going Nuts with Worry with the April 2010 paperback edition. [5]
Lenore proposed May 22, 2010 as the first Take Our Children to the Park & Leave Them There Day as a day for children to learn how to play by themselves without constant supervision.
She also co-wrote, with Carol Boswell, Who’s the Blonde that Married What’s-His-Name: The Ultimate Tip of the Tongue Test of Everything You Know You Know…But Can’t Remember Right Now (Penguin Books, June 2009), a trivia quiz book based on the middle-aged ability to remember everything about a person, place or thing ... except its name.[6]
Skenazy is the host of the World's Worst Mom (alternatively as Bubble Wrap Kids in Canada) Reality TV show, by Discovery International TV show. [7]
In all her writing, Skenazy considers herself not a pundit, but a normal, curious, often amused but just as often fed-up mom out to get the facts.
Skenazy is a 1981 graduate of Yale University. She lives in Queens with her husband and two sons.