Suzanne Lucas spent 10 years in corporate human resources, where she hired, fired, managed the numbers, and double-checked with the lawyers. She blogs as the Evil H.R. Lady, and in this post notes how an overblown sense of risk drifts into the workplace. This is the same thing we are seeing in the worlds of school, play and parenting. She was commenting on this Wall Street Journal article by Rachel Feintzeig and Alexandra Berzon: Safety Cops Patrol the Office For High Heels Kyle Bennett and his colleagues recently filled out cards issued by their employer describing the safety risks…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — This is not just a bit of nostalgia. It’s a piece by a transportation writer/city planning thinker trying to figure out how to get kids — and life — back outside. It ran in the magazine Governing, and begins: The Death or Life of a Sidewalk Ballet Are Jane Jacobs’ lively streets disappearing for good? BY ALEX MARSHALL When I first lived in New York City in the late 1980s, I was struck by how the proprietors of the tiny grocery store below my apartment on upper Broadway would hold keys for the children/guests/friends of nearby residents,…
Bill Frezza, host of the Real Clear Radio Hour, sends this to us as a little reminder of what kids are really capable of. Post by David Garcia Rodriguez. You can watch just 30 seconds to get the point. The rest is more of the same…and more proof that the idea today’s kids can’t even walk to school on their own (“He’d have to cross a street!”), or go three aisles over to get the bananas at the grocery (“Anything could happen!”) is just plain bizarre. – L
A shout out to Julie Davidson Meyers for sending this one, via Gawker. Nine-year-old Chris Villavicencio was at New York’s Central Park Zoo with his mom, dad and sister, when — he became lost and wandered the city for two hours, trying to retrace his steps. The boy meandered through Times Square and eventually ended up at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where police officers found him and gave him yogurt. “This was the greatest day of my life, because this was the first day I was at the police station!” Chris, of Union City, N.J., told the Daily News.…
Readers — Yesterday, I listed my three Free-Range wishes. Then Kenny Felder came up with this great idea: It might make an interesting blog if you invited all your readers to submit their 1-3 Free Range wishes. Here are mine.1. I wish more people had the common sense that Lenore Skenazy displays every single day.2. I wish that people who make and enforce laws about danger were required to base them on statistics. You’re allowed to think and feel whatever you want, but before your thoughts and feelings pass into laws and judgments, they have to be based on facts.3.…
Readers — Here’s a story that has been getting attention: Florida mom Nicole Gainey let her 7 year old walk to the park, and on the way, some adults feared for his safety and called the cops. The cops swooped in, scooped up the boy and drove him home. Then they arrested the mom, because there are “sex offenders” all over the place, so apparently the mom deliberately placed her child in danger. I’m grateful that the Huffington Post called yesterday to get my take. From the piece by Caroline Bologna: Lenore Skenazy, who wrote “Free Range Kids” and gives…
Readers, Here is the latest instance of what happens when a country has been brainwashed into believing that any parent who makes a mistake is a menace who deserves her kids taken away. In this case, an Atlanta mom of four kids, ages 1-6, had them wait in the car for all of 16 minutes while she ran into the grocery. One version of the story says the windows were rolled down, which suggests to me there was zero problem. The kids might be sticky — it was 90 — but so was everyone in Atlanta just a generation ago.…
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…
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…