Today’s guest blogger is Beth Harpaz, author of the funny new book about raising teenagers: 13 Is the New 18 — and other things my children taught me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their mother. by Beth Harpaz Recently I got together with a friend and mentioned that the night before, I’d been up late cleaning my teenager’s room because I couldn’t stand the mess. When he got home, he was upset and insisted he would have cleaned it himself. My friend wasn’t interested in that part of the…
Author: cagefreekids
I’m so old I remember back when Halloween was supposed to scare the kids. Now it’s got a lot of parents shaking in their schlocky costumes, terrified that if they let their kids go trick or treating those kids may meet a fate far worse than too many Mary Janes. (€œThe candy everyone wishes was something else.€ That should be its slogan.) Parents worry their kids will be abducted, of course, or seduced inside for some Satanic rite. They worry the kids will come home with a big, shiny apple and fail to notice the big, razor-sized gash in its…
By Leonard Cassuto Note to readers: Cassuto is an English professor at Fordham University and Author of the just released, “Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories.” Today’s hyper-vigilant parenting is haunted by a figure behind the curtain: the serial killer. He’s the boogeyman that slinks through every parent’s nightmares, the predator on the prowl, looking for unattended children. But how real is the serial killer? Yes, serial killers really exist in the world. But they also exist in the entertainment world—where they’re much more real. Hannibal Lecter is the most famous serial killer ever, but he’s imaginary.…
So in England a woman named Susie Dent publishes a book, “Words of the Year,” every, well, year. The latest edition just came out and in addition to winners like “boytox” (Botox for men) and “momnesia,” defined as “a mother’s forgetfulness in the first year after a child’s birth,” (which isn’t nearly long enough), you will find “free range kid.” Here’s the definition: free range kid – a child given lots of free time during the day to do whatever she or he chooses, rather than having a rigid schedule of tennis lessons, extra maths etc. The term was coined…
The old joke — never that funny, actually — is about a rich lady who takes her grown son on a vacation to Florida. When she gets to the hotel, she lavishly tips the bellhop to pull her son out of the limo and carry him upstairs. “Can’t your son walk?” the bellhop asks. “Of course he can!” says the mother. “But thank God, he doesn’t have to.” Now fast forward to the bus stop of a typical American suburb. The time is 3:30 p.m. and a couple of cars sit idling. (Let’s not even get into the Al Gore…
Thanks for taking a look at this site. As you’ll see as you poke around, this is the place for thinking about whether we have gone a little overboard in trying to protect our kids. As I say on Dr. Phil’s show, we overestimate the dangers out there, and have forgotten how competent young people are. This starts at an awfully young age. I was at Babies R Us today and found knee pads for babies. Knee pads! Since when did crawling become so extremely dangerous you needed padding? At Free Range Kids we are trying to figure out how…
Not that I want this to be a Great Depression. I hope it’s not. But if it is, I see kids emerging from their dens when their X-Boxes break and their parents can’t afford to replace them. I see kids dropping out of travel soccer, when their parents can’t afford the gas. I see kids figuring out how to retool their bikes and skates and maybe even their MP3 players when their parents can’t immediately buy them the newest, niftiest models. In other words, I see fancy toys and vacations and enrichment classes falling away. And the only thing left…
Now that school’s back in session — which, by the way, is how absolutely every parenting article that runs in September must begin, by law — but anyway, now that school’s back in session, you may be wondering: Dare my children walk there? Without me holding their hands and screaming at cars making left turns, I mean? And the answer is probably yes. With some caveats. The biggest caveat is that you first have to teach your children how to walk anyplace safely. That means teaching them about looking both ways, about walking “defensively,” and about the fact that they…
By Denise Gonzalez-Walker DJ, my 10 year-old, stood in the middle of his classmates, rigid and then sinking quickly to the soft grass. His eyes rolled back as he fell and he let out a sharp whimper. Sitting with a small group of moms, I watched the game from one side of the playfield. By the end, all the kids were happily writhing around on the grass. “Have you ever thought about enrolling DJ in acting classes?” the mom next to me asked out of the blue. Her own daughter, DJ’s classmate, was deeply involved in acting and performed in…
That’s what they think in England, as you shall see. Our guest blogger today is Sarah Ebner. She edits School Gate ( www.timesonline.co.uk/schoolgate ), a blog about all aspects of education for the London Times. She’s always interested to hear from other parents. Contact her at sarah.ebner@timesonline.co.uk By Sarah Ebner When I was gently persuaded to become co-chair of my son’s pre-school, I didn’t expect a police check. The position wouldn’t mean working with the 3- and 4-year-olds, but liaising with the head teacher, treasurer and other staff about issues such as budgets and salaries. It sounded so easy, but…