One zeitbedkse of you sent in a photo from a park you recently visited that sure sounds fun safe! In case the picture is too small to read, here are some of the rules: For your enjoyment, please obey the following rules or you may cause injury to yourself or others. *ADULT SUPERVISION IS REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES. *No bicycles, roller skates and skateboards in play area. *Inspect play area before starting to lay and remove litter. CAUTION! *Pushing and running may cause injury. *Throwing sand or other objects may cause injury. *Metal pieces may be hot if exposed to…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — weren’t we just talking about the bizarre belief that anyone photographing children is somehow putting them at risk? And creepy to boot? Here’s what happened in Springfield, Mass, by reporter Conor Berry, at The Republican: A 32-year-old city resident was arrested for allegedly stomping on the face of a college student who was taking pictures at a Liberty Heights park on Tuesday afternoon. Victoria M. Torres, of 211 William St., was taken into custody for assaulting a 22-year-old student who was taking snapshots for a “photography class project” near the water park in Van Horn Park, Springfield…
Readers — This is the article by Frank Furedi that I referred to yesterday. I won’t print the ENTIRE thing here, as that’s sort of bad blogging ethics. But I will print a goodly chunk because it is so spot on. Furedi is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. This ran in The Independent. Boldface mine: How Much Independence Should Children Have? By Frank Furedi In 2001, when I published my book Paranoid Parenting, I was genuinely surprised to discover that virtually all experiences associated with childhood came…
Readers — This article explains everything I am always trying to say … but better. It’s by Frank Furedi — have you heard of him? I wrote about his book, “Paranoid Parenting,” in 2001 — seven years before I sent my son on his solo subway ride. Furedi gets how paranoia for our kids directly leads to us giving the authorities more and more sway in our lives, because they are “saving” kids from the ever-present threat of everything, but most of all from predators. Which brings us to sex offender mania. Last week I was at the national Reform…
Here’s a bit of what happened (which is not all that fascinating), as explained by reporter Liz Duffy: Around 8:30 Monday morning, Portland police responded to a call about a man dressed in a trench coat who walked into Grant High School with a “police-style baton.” Two squad cars and a conversation with a site supervisor later, police found that the man, in fact, was a staff member of a superhero-themed summer camp with Trackers Earth and the baton he was wielding was foam. Read the rest here. And remember, hard as it is to believe: Sometimes a man near…
This note comes to us from Reilly Capps, who was a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow. Hi Free-Range Kids: It’s Reilly, I wrote you about crazy drop-off procedures at my niece’s school. This is about the new ability of Amber Alerts to come to your phone, which you’ve talked about before. It’s disconcerting, and in some cases, unnecessary. Thursday night around 9:45 p.m., the cell phones of thousands of Coloradans blared a warning sound. It was louder and more insistent than a normal ringtone — more like the sound of the “test of the emergency broadcast system” on TV. BABY…
Readers — I love this reassuring piece about the tyranny of “must do before it’s too late!” advice when it comes to parenting. And here I’ll repeat my favorite anecdote about that topic. What age was GEORGE GERSHWIN when he got his first piano? Twelve! Not that you have to be a genius to start learning a skill later than some peers. My point is the opposite. And that’s this music teacher’s point, too, in taking on the belief that there is just a small window of time to start learning X, or all bets are off. – L THE…
From my son Morry, from America’s favorite news source: WASHINGTON—Challenging commonly held misperceptions, the U.S. Department of Justice published a report this week revealing that the vast majority of UFO abductions are perpetrated by aliens a person knows rather than extraterrestrials unfamiliar to victims. “The popular notion of UFO abductions is of a person being beamed up into the sky by strange, hostile beings from Sirius or Andromeda, but the reality is that most of these abductions are committed by an extraterrestrial acquaintance the victim trusts and feels comfortable around,” DOJ spokesman Devin Shane said. Isn’t that what we’ve been…
From my mailbox: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’ve been living outside of the US for about 10 years now and am shocked at the increasing persecution of parents back home. We live in Switzerland and have a child about to enter Kindergarten. Funny thing is, the parents have been instructed that they can walk the child to class for the first two weeks but after that, the child needs to go on his or her own – how else will they learn to become self-sufficient?! In line with that thinking, the neighborhoods take responsibility for the children -…
Readers — This gets my goat! Dear Free-Range Kids: A friend of mine is looking for a pool where she can take 3 kids (age 4mos, 3yo, 5.5yo). The 5yo has just gotten confident in jumping from the edge, swimming to the side, hauling herself out, and doing it all over again (the swim lessons are working). The infant can’t even sit up by herself. The middle child is of the kamikaze sort.Well, with the increasing skills, the crew is outgrowing the local wading pools (depth of 1 1/2 feet, size of a NY kitchen).She’s polling FB friends: “Where…