Today’s post comes to us from Sally Mills Butzin, the mother half of the mother/daughter writing team behind Best Buddies Birthdays, a guide to homemade, low-tech b-day parties. I agree with everything Sally writes below, and yet must confess that when my kids were young we did all sorts of pricey parties, including one at McDonald’s, one at a children’s theater, and one at a bowling alley. (And if you want to know how these turned out: Flood in McDonald’s playroom meant kids had to slosh through stagnant water to get to ball pit. Missing actress meant the kids had…
Author: lskenazy
Here’s a letter that had me wondering what to do, too: Dear Free-Range Kids: Curious as to how to best handle this. I have no children of my own, but I do have three dogs. My neighbors (row house neighborhood), let their three young children out to play alone, regularly. This is AWESOME. Kids need a little independence these days. . But here’s where the issue comes in. They have also allowed all of the other neighborhood children into their yard. So, what’s going on is their children are outside unsupervised, and then the number of children grow, sometimes over…
The girl is sooo cute. The parents are sooo worried. The message is sooo sickening: Welcome to the world, little one! Let’s get rid of that trust thing RIGHT AWAY. DISTRUST is the name of the game. Start distrusting already! Soon you may have to save yourself from a terrible man. Cookies are good — men with cookies are bad. Remember: Your job is to be cute and DISTRUST! Are these parents really convinced that their child will be lured away? And that when this is attempted, she will have to “save” herself? Aren’t most kids this age pretty supervised?…
When I was at the US Play Coalition conference at Clemson University last month, Kent Callison from the playground manufacturing company GameTime was talking about the importance of videos. He aired the one I posted here about how prisoners get two hours a day of “play” time outside, which is more than most of today’s kids get. Very powerful. As we got to talking, Kent showed me another video that blew me away, this one of two of his daughters on a day at school celebrating the fact, “It’s Okay to be Different.” It sure brought that point home for…
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…
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,…