How to deal with an ex-spouse who is anti-Free Range

A reader of the Free Range Kids blog writes:

Unlike a two-parent household, where neither would seriously consider involving the courts, my ex-spouse thinks nothing of getting a judge to decree that an act of Free-Range parenting puts our children in imminent danger. My ex-wife believes an impersonal judicial system knows how to parent our children better than we do! She actually argued in court that we shouldn’t let our 13-year-old daughter walk to junior high school because it was “too dangerous.” The walk is less than one mile and the only busy road has a traffic light with crosswalk and crossing guard. How is that dangerous for a teenager?!?

I have no good answer for the guy. In my experience, letting an irrational paranoid mom into family court is a bad combination. You cannot expect common sense from the judges.