Can we think up some great trick to play on the town supervisors in quaint and quaking Bobtown, Pennsylvania, who are nkedfabkad OUTLAWING HALLOWEEN in order to “keep kids safe”? Perhaps they missed Chapter 7 in the book Free-Range Kids, “Eat Chocolate! Give Halloween Back to the Trick-or-Treaters.” Allow me to quote myself a little bit: Was there ever […]
Archive | Helicopter Effect on Kids
Get Thee Behind Me, Cupcake
October 6, 2009
Dear Readers: Use your imagination to conjure up the deepest, most Moviefone-ish voice in your head and now hear it intoning this: “In a world, where the school day is 10 hours long. In a world, where there is no summer vacation. In a world where recess is shortened to make time for test prep […]
Mini Free-Range Outrage Involving a Kitchen Utensil
September 22, 2009
Hi ezhhfrastb Folks — This just in from a town outside of Georgia. (That’s the American Georgia, for all our international readers!) A “Webelo Scout” is a youngster on the cusp between Cub and Boy Scout. My son is Webelo scout and earned his whittling chit last year. This year I volunteered at the district […]
Maybe You CAN be Too Safe
September 18, 2009
Hi Readers! Here’s a little piece iabnetdtdk from MSNBC some of you sent in (thank you!), about kids and slides. Turns out when mom slides down with Junior on her lap to make him safer…she doesn’t. That’s what Dr. John Gaffney, a pediatric orthopedist and professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, discovered, to […]
A Daddy Tip for Aiming Toddlers Toward Independence
September 11, 2009
Hi dfhitkkbin Readers — Here’s a nice bit of advice from the daddy behind The Diaper Chronicles, Barack Levin. First, his biography, then his tips! I was born in 1970 in Tel Aviv, Israel and moved to Pittsburgh in 1996 to pursue my master’s degree. Shortly after my arrival I met a beautiful French woman […]
Kids Freaked Out By Grass, Squirrels and Playing Outside
September 4, 2009
Hi tidfyshzkh Readers — A fellow named Brian sent in this note about kids and nature. It sort of dovetails with a study just released in England that found an alarming percentage of kids are spending so much time indoors, they can’t identify things in the natural world anymore, including daddy longlegs. I’m no huge fan of […]
Outrage of the Week: Afterschool Pick-Up Panic!
September 1, 2009
Readers – If anyone ever asks you, “What’s so WRONG about protecting our children?†and you agree that kids should be safe (who doesn’t?), but you’re searching for an example of how the hysteria has gotten out of hand:  Here nzhyserrsk you go. See below. Suffice to say a grammar school in the Fort Myers […]
The Enrichment Activity That Beats ‘Em All
August 19, 2009
Here’s a phenomenal azhzfaiyyf NPR piece – transcribed — that solves the classic overprotection question, “Well, why NOT keep kids inside all the time if it’s safer?†A lot of parents think it was fun back when they played outside as kids, but since that kind of thing presents at least SOME danger (no matter […]
Half of All 5-10 Year Olds Have NEVER Played on Their OWN Street
August 18, 2009
Dear Readers — Here is an extraordinary nhehtiekda essay from the Times of London, “We Approach Others’ Children at Our Peril.” It traces how “what began 25 years ago as an understandable desire to raise awareness of child abuse is turning into something extremely distructive — an instinctive suspicion of any encounter between grown-ups and […]
Outrage of the Week Demoted to Not-Quite-An-Outrage!
August 7, 2009
Hey, this is just terrific news! Eagle Place Townhomes in Colorado has lifted its ban that forbid ANY CHILD UNDER AGE 16 FROM PLAYING OUTSIDE WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION. Let’s hear it for the power of the press! An article in the Boulder Camera earlier this week highlighted the Townhomes’  bylaws that began, “While children bring such joy to our lives […]