Child psychologist Tovah Klein visited the special schools in China where kids are given a vast amount of time and space for free play. What she saw blew her away. The kids seemed so much more creative, competent, and curious than the kids she saw here. So today’s wisdom comes from her new book, “Raising […]
The Surgeon General just issued a report announcing something most of us suspected: Parenting is not easy. In fact, it is frazzling folks. To ease the pain – parents are woefully lonely, and about half report overwhelming daily stress vs. 26% of others – General Vivek Murthy endorses measures personal, political, and workplace: more paid […]
The latest parenting insanity is coming from England: Popular TV personality Kirstie Allsopp let her 15-year-old son go on a 3-week train trip around Europe with his 16-year-old buddy — and found herself under investigation by child protective services. Here’s the happy tweet that started it all: Kirstie’s story inspired a lot of folks nostalgically […]
Hi Folks! I wrote this piece for my syndicated column, but am posting it here because it gets at one of the core beliefs not just tearing divorced families further apart, but driving many parents mad with guilt and worry: The idea that kids need a mega-dose of mom to grow up healthy. As we […]
“The Hero’s Journey” is the name we give to the universal journey into risk and fear to achieve something important. All of us grow when tested this way — whether or not we succeed. Those challenges can run the gamut. For one boy, 11, doing his Let Grow Independence Experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico, […]
Folks — This is a topic that sometimes comes up and is indicative of our culture’s worst-first thinking: The idea that anytime anyone takes a picture in public that happens to include kids, the kids are automatically in some sort of danger. The “thought” process seems to be: Someone photographed my kid? HOW DARE THEY? […]
Social media influencer Erin Loechner walked away from a million fans – literally — to live a low-tech and, dare we say it, Free-Range lifestyle. Among other things, this involved a deliberate decision, described below, NOT to track her daughter, even though the 8-year-old was going around the neighborhood, alone. Chasing Slow, Erin’s first book, […]
Honest and searching. That’s how I’d describe this essay by Sybille Bruun, PhD. Sybille conducts research in cognitive science in education at Teachers College (Columbia University) and has had over a decade of experience in New York City’s public and private schools. She’s also the mom of the twin boys above, age 10 — the ones […]
Sometimes a gal’s gotta rant (again), so here goes: Shootings are devastating. Obviously! But I also wonder about the value of LUMPING shootings together and reporting them as such. My Yahoo newsfeed on Monday screamed, “GUN VIOLENCE ERUPTS OVER FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND.” Then, in a country of 333,000,000, it told of three shootings in three […]
It is DELIGHTFUL to play when no one is being a jerk. It is EDUCATIONAL to play when someone is. So: By now you probably know that I recommend schools start a Let Grow Play Club. That’s when a school stays open before or after school for mixed-age, unstructured play in a no-phone-zone. Think of […]
