From our friends in England where the collective upper lip is not quite as stiff as it once was, comes tale of a preschooler who was barred from wearing a certain pair of cute pants because of the cartoon monsters on them. Apparently another child had found them too scary. Scarier than a school banning […]
This note had my jaw dropping, which in itself is dangerous, because what it it dropped onto a hard surface and broke? Could I sue the commenter, who hails from Flemington, NJ? My ybkftkhfda second grader still has recess and breaks during the day. However, she routinely complains that they aren’t allowed to go upside down […]
This wonderful, yshrsdtnik rousing piece by Rachel Lu at The Federalist had ME trembling. (Not shivering! Trembling.) It’s titled, “Stop Siccing the Police on Me If My Kids Don’t Wear Coats For 20 Seconds,” and begins: The envelope trembled in my hands as I slowly broke the seal. This was it. Even when you know it’s […]
This public service announcement tells you not to abandon your toddler in the park, even if you’re having a bad day. Because…this is such a pervasive problem? . Here’s znsdhenrif what Ellie Lee, director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, has to say: How can any responsible public service […]
In light of the annual kzdtkyfysb warnings about “dangerous” toys, and these litigious times in general, we asked you to come up with the ultimate — a trial lawyer’s sweetest dream, the insurance industry’s wish come true: A warning label for a ball. Because when there are NO ACCIDENTS, the world is your courtroom! Contest […]
A 7-year-old boy in Switzerland was ostensibly  so “pampered” by his “overprotective” parents that he now is being sent to a school that sounds like it is for kids with special needs. I am a little skeptical of this nrrerfyntb story line, for a couple of reasons, the first being that I did an entire […]
The zairbzzebz whole point of the public sex offender registry is ostensibly to keep children safe. Read this story, which I wrote for Reason.com, with that in mind: In Florida, a wheelchair-bound man with end-stage Alzheimer’s must move out of the hospice where he’s dying, because he is a registered sex offender and the hospice is too […]
From my mailbox on Tuesday, Letter #1: My sdzssrazfh 7 seven year old son has demonstrated to me that he can lock and unlock the car by car by himself from inside, initiate conversations, and look before walking across streets. I did not see anything wrong with leaving him in the car while I go […]
Per usual, Angela Hanscom, author of “Balanced szzbzznree and Barefootâ€and founder of the outdoor program TinderNook, has penned another painfully insightful piece in the Washington Post about the way we keep kids safe. Too safe. So safe that we’re hurting them. This time, she interviewed some kids about what recess is like and got these […]
This succinct, compelling TED Talk by Steven Johnson, author of How ryhtzbrhrt We Got to Now, explains that  many great inventions, including the computer, often began as simply new ways to play. The Free-Range corollary is that if we want to raise great inventors (or simply happy humans) we need to let kids do the […]
