Life

‘Free Range’ Mom Lenore Skenazy To Advise Forward Readers

By Bintel Brief July 9, 2009

Columnist and humorist Lenore Skenazy will be answering readers’ questions as the Forward’s next Bintel Brief advice columnist.

Skenazy, a former New York Daily News and New York Sun columnist, now writes a syndicated column that appears in more than 100 newspapers. She also runs The Week magazine’s topical humor contest, “hat’s Next?”

She is, perhaps, best known for letting her 9-year-old take the subway by himself, and writing about it last spring. Skenazy then found herself on “The Today Show,” “Dr. Phil” and even the BBC — defending herself as NOT “America’s Worst Mom.” She launched the blog “Free-Range Kids” to explain her parenting philosophy and when this proved popular, she went on to write the book, “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry” (Jossey-Bass).

In June, Penguin published her totally unrelated book, “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” — the first trivia quiz book with questions that are all worded the way Skenazy’s parents used to talk. (for example, “Honey, what’s that Catskills dance movie with the guy in the tight pants and the ugly duckling actress before she had the nose job whose real life dad was the Cabaret guy?”)

Skenazy lives in Manhattan with her husband and their two sons.

If you have a question for the Bintel Brief, e-mail bintelbrief@forward.com. Questions selected for publication are printed anonymously.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO