Here’s an idea I wish I thought of …and sort of did: Bracelets kids can wear that explain they are ALLOWED to be outside, they are FREE-RANGE KIDS! They were created by a reader named Pat who was inspired by the Free-Range Kids membership card on the side of my blog (which, in itself, was inspired by a letter TO this blog), but I think they are better, because they ‘re so easy for kids to wear. I do worry that they cost about $10 each, but Pat agreed to put $2 each toward maintenance of my site (monthly bills…
Author: lskenazy
The signs at every playground in my city, New York, say this: Playground rules prohibit adults except in the company of children.” Apparently, any adult who simply wants to sit on a bench and watch kids play could be a creep, so just ban ’em all. The idea that children and adults go naturally together has been replaced by distrust and disgust. There was a case here a few years ago when seven men who always played chess in the park were fined for…wait for it…playing chess in the park. Their chess tables — concrete ones, placed there by the…
Yes, indeed, this was on The Daily Show last night. All hail Jordan Klepper! THE DAILY SHOW 06 03 15 THE KID STAYS IN THE ENCLOSURE FEATURING LENORE SKENAZY from LENORE S. on Vimeo.
A Chicago mom who let her three kids play for half an hour, literally across the street, WHILE SHE PEEKED OUT AT THEM every 10 minutes was found guilty of child neglect. She has lost her job in home health care because, of course, if you look her up, she looks like the last person you’d want around your family. Now her case is being appealed by Chicago’s Family Defense Center. The Center exists to aid parents in just such cases. It was founded by Stanford Law graduate Diane Redleaf in 1984 to fight for the rights of parents to…
Last week’s New York Times had a huge piece by Jan Hoffman on how the sheer number of college students experiencing anxiety is overwhelming the campus mental health centers. Why are young people so very anxious? Anxiety has become emblematic of the current generation of college students, said Dan Jones, the director of counseling and psychological services at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Because of escalating pressures during high school, he and other experts say, students arrive at college preloaded with stress. Accustomed to extreme parental oversight, many seem unable to steer themselves. And with parents so accessible, students…
UPDATE: THE FACEBOOK STORY NOW HAS 124,000 SHARES. FEAR SPREADS FASTER THAN THE SNIFFLES IN A PRE-SCHOOL. . This Facebook post has 13, 000 likes. (Because what’s not to like about a story of a kid sold into sex slavery on her first day of kindergarten?) A reader sent it to me because two friends had just sent it to her. . And they didn’t send it ironically. . My heart was pounding as I read the post, too, in part because I get so frustrated, railing at a world which clearly wants — LOVES — to believe all…
UPDATE: Turns out this story took place in Mansfield, OH, not Mansfield, TX. Sorry, Texas! When you believe all kids are in constant danger, you get situations like this one, in Mansfield, OH: MANSFIELD — Stranger danger education saved one Butler Elementary School student from possible abduction Tuesday. The student was leaving the building after school Tuesday when a man described as wearing a backward ball cap and a scruffy beard came up to them. The student turned and immediately ran back into the building, where they notified staff of a stranger on campus, Clear Fork Valley Local Schools…
. This ad, just brought to my attention though it’s a year old, is completely shocking. I don’t think an ad could be more dystopian. Parents: You will spend your children’s entire childhood chauffeuring them from the day they’re born through their teen years. Enjoy! Kids: You will spend your entire childhood with your feet never touching pavement or grass. You will be confined to a space smaller than a bathroom and delivered like cargo. Your youth will be spent sitting. Your conversations will be eavesdropped. And you will know no sight as intimately as the back of your parent’s…
From Wyoming’s trib.com news comes possibly the dumbest school shooting drill I’ve heard of: Aubrey Truman was swinging on the playground at Worland’s East Side Elementary School about 10 a.m. Thursday when she received the scare of her life. A man in a hooded sweatshirt with a suspicious backpack appeared in the back of the playground. The hood was pulled over his head. The school’s gym teacher, Kevin Heyer, approached the man, tapped him on the shoulder and asked his name. Heyer said the man took off running. At that point, Heyer, who will be retiring from the district this…
Hallelujah! Danielle and Alexander Meitiv have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the Dec. 20 incident when they let their kids walk home from the park in Silver Spring, MD. As Donna St. George in the Washington Post reports: A Maryland couple investigated for neglect after they let their two young children walk home alone from local parks have been cleared in one of two such cases, according to the family’s attorneys and documents. The new Child Protective Services finding, which follows an appeal, comes as the experiences of “free range” parents Danielle and Alexander Meitiv have drawn national attention,…