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…
Author: lskenazy
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…
Readers — Here’s an alarming idea with no basis in fact, as far as I can fathom. The idea: Have a picture of little Bobby in his football gear and a “My Son is an Honor Student at Kelley Middle School” bumper sticker? Congratulations, you just told the world and anyone who may want to harm your child, where they can find him. Because otherwise, no predator could ever find a school football player at…a school? Possibly playing football? This smug reporter is suggesting that: 1) Someone is out there who wants to harm your child specifically, for some reason,…
Readers — I love this post by a gal named Karen Perry who came up with this great modern-day challenge after thinking back and realizing: I don’t have ANY memories of my mom ever stepping foot in the park let alone laying down a blanket with a variety of snacks for me to nibble on. She most def was not calling me over from the playground to sit down to eat some cucumber. And she would NEVER ask me to rinse my hands with sanitizing lotion first. So the challenge? Let them rip around for a couple hours and work…
Folks — As odd as this WABC story is — and it’s a doozy — the truly oddest part is that it took place, literally, in “Toad Suck” Arkansas. An Arkansas woman was charged with endangering the welfare of her child for breastfeeding after drinking alcohol in a restaurant. The charge was dropped last week, but the issue of breastfeeding and drinking is still a very real one. Less than an hour outside Little Rock lies the tiny town of Toad Suck, Arkansas, population roughly 300. It’s also home for Tasha Adams, a stay at home mother of three. With…
Yes, it seems to be true, though the facts are a little confusing (as this TV story suggests): A man named Richard Wright was giving out money to strangers and telling them to “Thank God!” if they actually needed the cash, or pass it along if they didn’t. For this he seems to have been scooped up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and taken against his will to a psych ward for evaluation: Even though Wright is being held in the psych ward of Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital, Pierre Bourdages, spokesman for the Halifax Regional Police, confirmed that Wright has…
Readers — This Yelp review of an indoor playground was sent to us by the guy who wrote it, who felt a little guilty, because his kids had been guests at a party there. So he requested I not include his name or the playspace’s. — L. YELP REVIEW:Are you a helicopter parent who has OCD? If so, you will LOVE this place. I was there with my two kids aged 3 and 1.5 for a private party. The staff reprimanded my children and me multiple times. It got to the point where my wife and I just looked at…