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He enjoys Sinatra, dry martinis at dusk, free-range parenting and baseball while disliking football, basketball, rock, pop, denim, video games, Planned Parenthood and public-service announcements at airports.

My style, which revolves around limiting kids' independence only to the extent necessary to protect them from risks that are both serious and fairly likely to materialize, is now known as "free-range parenting" in the United States, despite the fact that much of the world—including the majority in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, France, and Israel—just calls it "parenting."

Or do I practice free-range parenting?

“Oh, everything’s fine. She’s not with me right now. Letting kids do things by themselves is called free-range parenting. So we can learn to make good choices.”

A movement for “free-range parenting” has pushed back against this culture of obsessive supervision, which also criminalizes the dilemmas faced by single parents, two-career parents, and parents who don’t earn enough to pay for constant childcare.