The paragraph below is from a press release about a GPS’ing service parents can subscribe to. When would you need this service? How about when your kids are — Walking to school solo. Sure, you only live a few blocks from school, but letting your kids make the journey alone seems terrifying. Freedom is important, but before saying yes, show them how to send you a Glympse. You can ensure they make no stops or detours, and have peace of mind whether you are at home waiting for them, or at the office unable to concentrate until you know…
Author: lskenazy
A tradition for 50 years, the “powder puff” girls tackle football game in Jupiter, Florida, is being canceled for the first time thanks to—what else?—safety concerns. Dan Frank, Jupiter High School’s principal, said “Student safety is my first priority.” The girls’ short practice time and borrowed safety equipment, he said, “put our students at risk.” After all: A girl broke her leg a few years ago. Maybe the school should get rid of its stairs, while they’re at it. It’s not that the principal didn’t have some whiz-bang alternatives up his sleeve like… bobbing for apples. The Associated Press reports:…
. Have you heard of Chariot? I just got two letters about the new service, which is basically “Uber for Women.” The deal? No male drivers, no male passengers over 13. Both of the folks who brought it to my attention made great points: Dear Free-Range Kids: There will soon be a new alternative to Uber called Chariot, a car service for women and children, driven solely by women. But they have this rule: all male riders must be under 13. Look out, bar mitzvah boys! Along with your personalized copy of the prayer book, you get a predator license.…
This is a great article in the Washington Post by Allison Slater Tate that clearly lays out the real threat of giving our kids a way for us to get in touch with them all the time. It drives parents crazy with worry. Now any time we CAN’T reach them, we worst-first: Why isn’t he answering? Where has she gone (or been taken)??? That is exactly what Pope Francis was warning the world about when he said that caring for kids does not mean watching or being with them constantly. Once we are omnipresent, not only does the child never…
Tovah Klein is author of How Toddlers Thrive (Simon & Schuster, 2014), available online & in stores. She’s also director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development, and has been for over 20 years — she knows her stuff. I get her RSS feed and it is often so interesting, I find myself reading the whole thing, even though my kids are far from toddlers. That’s what happened the other day, and I asked if I could reprint her answer to this mom of a 4-year-old’s pressing question: “My son is very social and loves to be outside. He…
Please watch this 2-minute reverie on parenting, tweens and how many Hershey’s products two people can consume in one sitting, and then give me your reaction (because mine was visceral): The spot shows a girl preternaturally sad because even though her (pathetic, doofus) dad is at home with her, he is tied up with a Skype call from work. I just can’t imagine a kid as self-sufficient as this pixie pining for daddy-time during the work day. And I resent the fact that she resents her dad being busy. Just because he works from home doesn’t mean he’s her companion,…
Here’s a question for you, folks: Last weekend, the weather was amazing up here, in Montreal. We went to the park. While the kids were playing, we got to talking with another set of parents. After a while, my oldest, 5 ½, asked if she could go home by herself. We were almost done with the conversation, the park is 200m (600 ft) from home, and the backdoor was not locked, so she could get in the house. We said yes. She took the sidewalk (I like her to cross the street at intersections when she is by herself), and…
An article on how to get your kids to play outside would have seemed like an Onion headline back when…well, back anytime before The Onion. I was a bookworm and I still spent a ton of time outside. My kids, not so much. If you want to get your own offspring outdoors for any reason — including simply allowing you some peace at your computer — here are some wise tips from Angela Hanscom, founder of TimberNook and author of the new book: “Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children.” Three Ways to…
My friend Julie Gunlock lives just outside of DC. She’s a great mom AND the author of a book I love, From Cupcakes to Chemicals: How the Culture of Alarmism Makes Us Afraid of Everything and How to Fight Back. Well, just recently she found herself fighting back a particularly stubborn misconception. She’d let her kids, 9, 7 and 5, wait in the car for 15 minutes while she ran into the store to get dinner. She emerged to find an FBI agent flashing his badge and insisting, “M’am, you can’t do that” because “kids get snatched all the time.”…
This amazing video was screened at the US Play Coalition conference by Kent Callison, director of communications and marketing at GameTime, creators of playground equipment (including the wildly popular Expression Swing). Kudos to Unilever, for making such a powerful commercial about kids, prison, and freedom. https://www.youtube.com/embed/q2f76pgNap4 This is a video that should be shown at schools cutting back on recess, as well as throughout communities where the playgrounds are often empty. We certainly don’t mean to imprison our kids, but when we worry that anytime our kids are outside, unsupervised, they are in danger from predators and/or the police (see…