The New York Times columnist Jessica Grose has a plea for all of us adults: Stop Micromanaging Halloween. It’s a trend that’s been growing like the Great Pumpkin ever since from back when *I* was a kid being warned about poison candy. (The number of kids poisoned by a stranger’s candy in all that time? […]
Most parents believe it’s important for kids to develop independence in their elementary school years by doing things “away from direct adult supervision,” according to a new survey by the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. But in a national poll of 1000 parents, the hospital found “a sizeable gap between parent attitudes and actions.” […]
When Henry was 18 he had sex with a 16-year-old he met on a dating app who said he was 18, too. The 16-year-old’s parents found out, called the cops, and Henry was charged with a sex offense. He took a plea: No jail time, in return for seven years on the sex offense registry. […]
This article in the Journal of Pediatrics — Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Wellbeing: Summary of the Evidence — has been getting a ton of attention in the last few days, especially on Twitter, so we are updating our blog post about it. If the article’s title sounds like what we’ve […]
Stunned joy is what most of us felt when we learned that Charlotte Sena, the 9-year-old abducted while riding her bike in upstate New York, has been found and returned to her family — alive. The alleged perp has been seized, bringing the number of active Amber Alerts in the entire USA to…one: Keshawn Williams, […]
What a fantastic study: Research recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that when people are prompted to talk to a stranger, surprising things happen: They start to feel less awkward after doing it a few times. They feel less likely to be rejected. They are more willing to do it in the future. […]
All hail Michaeleen Doucleff! She’s author of the incredibly great, life-hacking, eye-opening book, “Hunt, Gather, Parent.” She and her daughter Rosy traveled the world to witness the parenting practices that have been working for millennia in traditional societies. They watched kids happily hunt, gather, clean up, make food, and help their parents every which way, […]
Today’s Atlantic has a great piece called “The Very Common, Very Harmful Thing Well-Meaning Parents Do.” And what is that common thing? TRACKING. As the article’s subtitle puts it bluntly: “Surveilling your kids will only backfire.” The piece is an excerpt from the new book “Growing Up in Public,” by Devorah Heitner. We caught up […]
At the tippy-top science high school in the Philippines, kids get classes only four days a week. They’ve got every Wednesday off — to spend time at their favorite school club. Lino Salvana is a 10th grade student at the Philippine Science High School Main Campus in Quezon City. (Photo above.) He explained to us […]
It is not a new observation that today’s kids are increasingly in adult-run classes, clubs, sports. Or they’re inside, online, instead of riding bikes, or collecting rocks, or talking to some rando. “While there could be many reasons our kids are suffering, what if the problem was simply this: Kids are growing up so over-protected […]
