Archive | Fun

No Recess Under 32 Degrees? Because Kids Freeze Like Water?

Hi Readers — Got a notice from our school last week: No more recess when it’s freezing outside — 32 degrees Fahrenheit — or when the wind chill takes an above-freezing day and makes it FEEL freezing. Now, as a kid growing up in Chicago, this was my dream policy. (Yes, even as a kid […]

Continue Reading

Thought For The Day

From a reader named Delicate Flower: “The closest my kid has ever come to losing a finger in the Maclaren was while I was trying to install the stupid hinge covers.”

Continue Reading

E-Z Bake Electric Chair! (And other bad toys)

Hi Readers! Perhaps you remember that my one of my other gigs is running the fsekffhfbr humor contest in my favorite news magazine, The Week. Thought you’d like these results — and just in time for Christmas! THE WEEKN CONTEST: BAD TOYS Recently, the ball was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame — really! […]

Continue Reading

Cool, Smart, Free-Range Idea from a Reader

Hi fakbkeknst Folks! In response to the blog post below this one — the one about the kid getting lost on her way home and miraculously NOT being abducted — a reader named Davonia wrote this note. It’s so helpful and straightforward.  Voila: THE “WHAT IF?” GAME! by Davonia The best way I can think […]

Continue Reading

Not Every Kid Gets Driven to the Bus Stop in an SUV

Hi Readers — Sometimes feels as if we’ve lost a little perspective on what constitutes danger, especially when it comes to whether it’s safe for our kids to walk a couple blocks to school. This video should restore it. And then some. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEhPlZwqhpE]

Continue Reading

Can Hearing One Dirty Joke Ruin a Kid?

Hi Readers! Here’s a strange tsfsfrdfdn case. An eighth grade science teacher in Kansas has been fired for creating a “sexually hostile environment.” On the face of it, that sounds like it makes sense. Who wants a teacher harassing the kids – or even other teachers? But here’s what the guy was ostensibly fired for: […]

Continue Reading

OK, Now: When Is BOWLING Perfectly Safe? (Hint: Never.)

Yes, Readers: That was the conclusion over in less-than-jolly, indeed, downright macabre England. According to this beshetkkna article, a  group of safety experts was assigned to assess the sport’s dangers: After two years and £250,000, they found that ten-pin bowling alleys up and down the country could be a ‘very dangerous’ environment for families. They […]

Continue Reading

When Is A Christmas Tree PERFECTLY Safe?

Here’s ihritfdeny when. I thought this article was a joke. Then I thought the tree was. Then I remembered: We are living in 2009. This cone-tree, erected in a public square, has no pine needles to poke an eye out, no branches to clobber anyone, no feature at all to remind us that trees — […]

Continue Reading
"Zits" Explains Why Kids Can't Do Anything Anymore

“Zits” Explains Why Kids Can’t Do Anything Anymore

If Zits comics aren’t cut out and affixed to your refrigerator yet, it’s only because your kids are still young. Otherwise, you couldn’t resist. That’s why I’m glad a reader sent in this one to stick on the collective Free-Range Kids Fridge. For more Zits, click here!      

Continue Reading