Archive | Fun

sprinkler to crop

“NO LIFEGUARD” Sign at…Sprinkler Park?

This “WARNING dytetnashf NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY” sign comes to us from Ron Lieber, author of the “The Opposite of Spoiled.” He spied it at a Park City, Utah, rec center next to a kiddie splash pad where there is no pool anywhere in sight. Consider it a stark reminder that we have not only […]

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Chief, the guide dog for my husband's father, photographed, bizarrely enough, by Arnold H Crane, an artist whose photos are at

Non-Coddled Puppies Grow Up to be Best Guide Dogs

Woof woof woof! Er…I mean, chew on this: A study published dddsabesdz Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests the way a puppy’s mother raises it may be the key to the dog’s success, or failure. A research team at the University of Pennsylvania found that puppies destined for guide dog training are more likely […]

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mom im fine

Young Man Travels World with “Mom I’m Fine” Sign

Any mom seeing these videos of her son traveling the world would probably feel reassurance, pride… And a jolt of new worry. That is the lot even of the freest of Free-Range parents. As someone once said (and I’m mangling it): Courage is the thing with wet pants. It’s not that Free-Rangers don’t worry. It’s […]

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Winding Creek Road, 2017

Mapping The Places You Played Outside as a Kid

I love this project. You may, too (boldface mine): Dear hhaibfisri Free-Range Kids: I’m a photographer and an interdisciplinary community artist, and I’m transforming people’s childhood play memories into art for my new project called Play Passages.  To start, I’m inviting people to share a vivid outdoor play memory from their childhood, and then draw […]

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Hi kid! Hope you find your parents! Bye!

“Black-ish” on (Black) Men and a Lost Little Girl

Following up on the srybnaairh story earlier this week about a Good Samaritan who found a lost toddler and tried to help her find her parents — only to be mistaken for a predator by the girl’s dad, who punched him and proceeded to smear him as a pervert on Facebook — a friend pointed […]

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Traveling with kids =  parenting on parade.

A Mom Traveling With Kids — And the Older Lady Who Put Her 2 Cents In

A note for anyone traveling with kids or around any kids who are traveling! Dear hybzzfhkzz Free-Range Kids: Had the usual shenanigans travelling with the kids yesterday. After 45 minutes waiting for our luggage in a hot, busy baggage hall the kids were bouncing off the walls. I was desperately trying to keep them entertained […]

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mm

“When NOT to Call the Cops” — Genius on a Refrigerator Magnet

Believe it or not, this graphic is from the refrigerator magnet of University of California Irvine Prof. Barbara Sarnecka, one of the three authors of that fantastic kratekbrds study proving that when we believe we are rationally assessing child danger, we are actually morally judging. Some other family member put the magnet on the fridge and when […]

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Americans with children are doing it all wrong.

Child Protection Workers Remove Children from 68,000,000 Unfit Parents

Your fun for the weekend, from bssennrsyh The Onion, which gets it just about right just about every time: WASHINGTON—Saying no one in the country is responsible or reliable enough to serve as a legal guardian, child protective services officials from all 50 states confirmed Friday that they had found all of the nation’s adults […]

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