What is it that the authorities do not understand about what it means to be human? Humans cannot be perfect. Humans cannot see all. And yet, in cases like this — a 4 year old with autism wandering away from the home without his mom’s knowledge — we seem so ready, even EAGER to blame the parent. The story, as reported by KETV 7 in Omaha, is simply this: The child wandered off. When his mom realized he was missing, she went out to search for him. Meantime: 911 dispatchers received a call around 8:15 p.m. Thursday about a child…
Author: lskenazy
It’s spring. Time to let the kids have some of the freedom we all enjoyed. Study after study shows that kids NEED free time and independence for the sake of their bodies, minds, spirit. Here’s how one mom — and her child — took the leap: I live in Park Slope, a largely residential but very urban neighborhood in Brooklyn. I have a 6-year-old daughter, and my husband and I have been disagreeing about when to let her out and about by herself. She takes the bus to school, but we haven’t come to any agreement about when…
This story comes to us from a reader named Steve who boils it down thusly: Three kids are standing outside their house. When a stranger gets out of his car, running toward them and yelling, they run inside, probably afraid of the guy acting crazy. Nevertheless, the stranger follows the kids into the house, still yelling. Did the kids not know to lock the door? Had they not been taught the perils of home invasions? Did the out-of-control stranger break through the door? Whatever the case, the situation was life-threatening, but not in the way one would…
Meet my friends on the registry, Josh Gravens and Galen Baughman: I wrote about my brunch in The New York Daily News. Here’s to laws that actually do what they’re supposed to — protect kids — nstead of ruining the lives of people who do not pose a threat to them. — L .
. Like everyone else, I wish that the suicidal Germanwings pilot had been stopped from boarding the plane. I even think it makes sense for Europe to copy our “two people in the cockpit at all times” rule. Nonetheless, I love this essay by Stacey Gordon on her blog Xray Vision about the impossibility of predicting and preventing every tragedy. SHOULDACOULDAWOULDA, by Stacey Gordon After every tragedy that involves numerous casualties has been analyzed from every conceivable angle; after it has been Monday morning quarterbacked to death by the 24 hours news cycle, a mantra is born. It is always…
British parents in Cheshire are on notice: Let your kids play a “mature” videogame and this will not go unnoticed by the state. This new level of micromanagement comes to us from SpikedOnline writer Nancy McDermott, who says, “Amazing how abuse has been defined down to patents making a banal decision others don’t agree with.” The story? ITV reports: Parents have been told by headteachers [the British word for “principals’] that they will be reported to police and social services for neglect if they allow their children to play over-18 computer games, according to the Sunday Times. The newspaper reported…
Occupational therapist Angela Hanscom is founder of the New England nature-based program TimberNook, and author of a bunch of fascinating articles, including “Why So Many Kids Can’t Sit Still in School Today.” Her latest piece is about how we’re inadvertently depriving children of the opportunity to learn how to use their muscles, which leads them to a strange new kind of body-incompetence. This essay appears on Valerie Strauss’ blog in The Washington Post. Why Kids Are Getting More Aggressive on the Playground, by Angela Hanscom Tag — a simple game of tag. Seems innocent enough. But is it? Not according…
One of the reasons many of us end up supervising our kids so much today is that when we DO watch our kids’ every messy interaction, we see so much more than our own parents ever saw, and are shocked and dismayed. So we stay closer to monitor more, which means we see MORE frustrating-but-normal interactions and are even MORE dismayed. It becomes a vicious circle — we can’t leave them alone because when we’re with them we think, “Boy, if we weren’t here, they could never handle this stuff by themselves!” We forget that when we were young, we…
This past Sunday I held a “Sex Offender Brunch.” Doesn’t everyone? A few days later a reporter from Salon called me up to ask about it. So here’s an excerpt from what I told her. And here’s my piece in the NY Daily News also about the brunch. (This story is lasting as long as the leftovers!) Note: However interesting my remarks may be, the reader comment by “Zoomie” (a person I don’t know) is moreso. How did you arrive at taking up reform of the sex offender registry as a cause? Well, I’m interested in keeping kids safe and…
This story is sickeningly sad, but the original verdict made it intensely worse. A reader writes: Marta Corvi was grateful when the Juarez family in Dallas, Georgia, told her she could live with them until she found a job. All she had to do in exchange was cook, clean, and watch their 5 year old, Sophia Juarez. One day in June of 2012, Corvi brought her granddaughter Mia, also age 5, over for a sleepover. The girls giggled, played and woke up early the next, rainy morning eager to start all over. They asked if they could swim and Marta…