Readers — How I love this piece from DGIwire by Louis M. Profeta, an emergency physician practicing in Indianapolis and author of The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God. Once we accept the good doctor’s words, we can let kids spend at least some time playing on their own again, because Jerry Maguire (most likely) isn’t calling. — L Your Kid and My Kid Are Not Playing in the Pros by Dr. Louis Profet I don’t care if your eight year old can throw a baseball through six inches of plywood. He is not going to the pros.…
Author: lskenazy
Readers, you will be SHOCKED to learn that the driver of the car that was “caught on tape” practically abducting a child (or so the media told us) was actually on a nefarious mission to … buy boat parts! So says this Sheriff’s Report, send to us by Mike Smith: Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office Locates Suspect Vehicle – 04/07/14 The Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office reports the suspicious vehicle and driver reported on Ballston Road outside of Sheridan has been identified. The vehicle and driver of the suspicious vehicle reported to the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, March 31st…
Readers — So a 79-year-old sub in New Hampshire (the good ol’ “Live Free or Die” state) was given the choice: De-friend all the students you’ve friended on Facebook or never work in this school system again. She chose the latter. This story is dismaying for a bunch of reasons, the first being that Facebook is like the modern-day town center, where people meet and greet — even people of different ages. Seeing it as the Pedophile Pages is like seeing the outside world as Child Snatch-o-Rama. Also disturbing is the comment one supporter of the rule wrote on Facebook…
Aieee! Note that the superintendent is quoted as saying, “School law MANDATES we investigate whenever anyone in the school feels threatened or uncomfortable with the actions of another student.” Making someone “uncomfortable” is all it takes to warrant an investigation? So if I say, “I like hamburgers” to a student who’s vegan…should I get ready for a 5-hour evaluation? After all, the other kid may feel uncomfortable about my carnivorous ways. Call the cops! Or the thought police! Or Nurse Ratched! Superintendent: “We never know what’s percolating in the mind of children, okay? And when they demonstrate behaviors that raise…
Readers — This story is headlined, “Attempted kidnapping caught on tape!” but…was it? I’m glad the girl is safe but does a slowing car really equal = “kidnap threat”? Unless there’s more to this story than what we see here, it strikes me as bizarre that everyone is acting as if the girl somehow only barely slipped the clutches of a demon. – L Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.comWatch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.comhttp://t.co/ElQxamGFnJ
Readers — You will LOVE this essay, by Bunmi Laditan, author of The Honest Toddler: A Child’s Guide to Parenting. (What a great title!) An excerpt: …Today, parents are being fed the idea that it benefits children to constantly be hand in hand, face to face, “What do you need my precious darling? How can I make your childhood amazing?” You can’t walk through Pinterest without tripping over 100 Indoor Summer Craft Ideas, 200 Inside Activities for Winter, 600 Things To Do With Your Kids In The Summer. 14 Million Pose Ideas For Elf on The Shelf. 12 Billion Tooth…
Readers — It’s weird enough when we are warned that our bumper stickers are busy attracting predators. Now there is a new line of school bus that videos the cars behind it, on the bizarre assumption that these may be driven by predators so unsure of where else to find a child that they are following the big, yellow kiddie dispenser. And that’s not to mention the thumbprint recognition and tracking of the students, as if THEY were predators: A brief glance won’t tell you the new buses are equipped with voice-over-IP communication systems, or that they transmit data…
Readers: Boy makes tree house, neighbor calls cops (!), cops come and draw gun on 11-year-old. That’s according to the young man himself. If all this is as reported, God help us. Or maybe more civil liberties help us: UPDATE: Readers, I have removed the video because it immediately starts playing any time you log onto Free-Range Kids and is loud and annoying. But here is the link: http://bcove.me/yxhs1syj
Hi Readers — Kwasi Enin, a Long Island, NY, high school senior who got into all the Ivies credits his “helicopter parents” for pushing him to excel. So does this mean that helicopter = success and, possibly, Free-Range = failure? Of course I don’t think so. Here’s why. 1 – First is the fact that success can be defined many, many ways, of which “Ivy League acceptance” is just one. But you knew that. 2 – We have no idea where the Free-Range kids are going to college. And even if they all got into Ivies, see #1. 3 -…
Hey Readers — This piece on the Huffington Post is by a mom, Rebecca Cuneo Keenan, who is rarin’ to let her 8-year-old son Free-Range…but can’t: I’ve been reading about helicopter versus free range parenting for years now. I’ve been hearing about how our kids are being raised on back-lit screens and shuttled from one scheduled activity to another. They don’t get the time or space to explore their neighbourhoods by themselves and learn independence in the process. They aren’t active enough and, quite frankly, all this tab keeping is exhausting for everyone. If there was ever a question about…