Archive | Miscellaneous

Read all about it! (Whether "it" is the actual problem or not.)

How to Turn One Sad Story into an Epidemic

Readers bbrzkfbsdn — Canada’s “Contrarian” explains how the media work (and even how upset parents sometimes behave). Read the whole piece here.-  L Fear-mongering as news: turning sad stories into bogus trends (1)  A teenage girl becomes involved in sexual activity that most grownups, regardless of their own sexual behaviour as teens, find shocking and […]

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And here's Izzy Skenazy, when he took the subway alone. Hmmm.

Parenting Tips from Law & Order SVU

Readers — This McSweeney’s tdftyfhefi post by  Beth Levine and Liz Dancho is soooo good. It’s called “Parenting Tips I Learned from Law & Order: SVU” and includes such advice as: Don’t raise your kids in New York City. They will end up running their own adult website and spending all their money on video games. […]

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If we accommodate every allergy, will there be any acceptable foods left?

Mom of Allergic Student Sues School for Serving Eggs, Milk

Readers: nsiiazsznh I’m sure if my kid were deathly allergic, I would be  a wreck. Even so, I’m pretty positive I would not expect a whole school to stop serving milk and eggs — two staples — just for my child’s sake. This is what Philip Howard talks about in his book, Life Without Lawyers: the […]

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So Maybe I’m a Sap, But…

I couldn’t resist this ad for Procter & Gamble. And I KNOW it seems to show moms constantly picking the kids up instead of kids out there on their own, but its meta-message (besides buy Pampers and Tide) is, “For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger, thank you, Mom.” Let’s remember THAT part! […]

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Add on to this list!

Help Needed: Add to This Funny (but Sad) Poster

Readers — Donald Christensen, a longtime Free-Range supporter, deep thinker about encouragement, and author of the blog Tryathlete.org, came up with a great idea: Let’s make a then-vs.-now poster with all the modern-day things we say to kids to keep them “safe”… that really just depress, demoralize or defeat them. Woo hoo! Now, I realize this […]

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