'Let My Kids Be Kids': After Slight, Mom Pens Permanent Tree Climbing Permission Slip

A Pennsylvania mom has a message for the fun police: get lost.

Julie Holcombe tells Today Parents that her sixth-grade sons were climbing trees recently after meeting up with friends recently near a Yardley middle school in Bucks County, PA, when a school employee told the children they had to stop their activity for fear of a lawsuit.

When Holcombe found out what had happened, she wasn't pleased, and wanted to make sure her sons could climb trees whenever they wanted. So she penned a permission slip for her sons to carry around at all times, just in case.

"My children have permission to climb any tree they so desire," she wrote. "In fact, I encourage it, whenever and wherever they can, for as long as they both shall live. I can think of a few things better than knowing they are spending their time playing outside in the fresh air, taking advantage of the beautiful playground that nature can provide, getting exercise, using their imagination, chatting with their squad of friends, all while climbing a tree."

She called the employee's rationale that the children shouldn't climb trees for fear of a lawsuit "both sad and ridiculous."

"Sad because your first instinct wasn’t to simply feel grateful that you got to witness the joyfulness that comes from such an innocent youthful activity, and ridiculous because it must mean we’ve become such a litigious society that you let your actions be driven by the slim possibility of a negative outcome," she said.

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She asks, from this point forward, that the employee allows her kids to be kids.

"The time they have left to do so is fading painfully fast. Please don’t shorten that time any further."

She finishes it up with some advice: "If this correspondence still doesn’t help calm your nerves about a potential lawsuit, below please find an official permission slip – admissible evidence in any court of law. Feel better? No? Then I suggest you climb a tree. It’s really quite relaxing."

Holcome said, in explaining her permission slip, that she thinks in general parents are too quick to place blame on teachers or school administrators for their children's shortcomings. "With that in mind, I acknowledge that this might be my own overreaction, but I couldn’t help it," she said.

Her permission slip has attracted nationwide attention, with numerous outlets sharing her story.

PHOTO: Patch file photo, not actual image of Holcombe's children.