Hey Readers — How is it that one country can train its young people to be safe, smart and responsible bicyclists, while other countries — like mine — train its young people to climb in the car and eat Goldfish? As Sarah Goodyear writes in The Atlantic Cities: “Dutch children are expected to learn and follow the rules of the road, because starting in secondary school — at age 12 — they are expected to be able to ride their bikes on their own to school, sometimes as far as nine or 10 miles.” This 3-minute video, featured on Goodyear’s…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — At the request of the woman who wrote to me about her husband landing on the Sex Offender List for 25 years for putting a $5 tip down a 17-year-old’s shirt, I have taken down her post. I share her concern that some of the comments were painful. We all agree, I’m sure, that we do not want sex offenders preying on children. But I hope we all agree, too, that there is a difference between tormenting a child and being a Class A jerk for a minute or two. Putting the latter on the sex offender registry…
Hi Folks — We all agree that it makes sense to be aware of child abuse, and even to look out for it. But to assume “Abuse!” when another explanation is not only proffered but also likely, well, that is classic worst-first thinking: Leaping to the WORST conclusion FIRST and proceeding as if it simply must be the case. That’s what happened in this Star Tribune story by Abby Simons. (Any relation to the late Howard Simons of the Washington Post?) — L. The baby fell — and then the Plymouth parents’ real pain began by Abby Simons Little…
Readers — I just got off the phone with a mom in Pennsylvania whose tiny school district has allotted 0,000 for new security measures without even knowing what it will spend the money on. This district dropped about 10% of its teachers last year for lack of funding, but it is so freaked out by Sandy Hook that it is happy to throw cash at security companies. Here we witness a classic case of fear freezing the brain. When we’re scared we demand a solution NOW! This MINUTE! Without thinking about which measures — if any — make the most…
Hi Readers! There’s the boogey man and then there’s the ice cream man. But thanks to a country suffused with predator panic, the two are fused together like the twin sticks of a Popsicle. It’s the same if you are guy and you want to work in day care, or as a birthday party clown, or even as a Cub Scout leader: everyone gives you the extra once over. God forbid an adult male likes being around kids! In our society, we’ve been conditioned into distrusting that. Hence, this zinsynheek latest proposal: Earning the right to sell ice cream or…
Readers — This is the continuing story of the 6-year-old detained by the cops for walking outside. It is disturbing and distressing. The family needs pro bono legal help. If any of you are lawyers or know someone who can help, please let me know and I will forward the info to the family. Remember: I am posting this story NOT because it is common and we should all worry about being hounded by CPS if we let our kids go outside. I am posting it in utter outrage at the idea that a child on her own could be…
Readers — As many of you know, when I’m not busy posting, I am often off to give a keynote. It’s how I make my living. (Not by blogging? No. Not by blogging.) I’ve spoken everywhere from Microsoft, to the Sydney Opera House, to the Yale Child Study Center (twice!). In the next two months I’m off to conferences in Edmonton,Charlotte, Chicago, and Toronto. And in June? Bulgaria! (I do hope to see you there.) Audiences love the lectures and they laugh a ton. (See below below.) But they also seem to leave changed — less afraid, more hopeful, more…
Hi Folks! Below is just one part of a great, fun essay called “Parenting the Way Your Great Grandmother Would.” It’s by Margaret Ables, a comedy writer who has written for Celebrity Death Match and It’s a Big, Big World. She blogs at shortfatdictator.com (Facebook) and has appeared on ‘Steve Harvey’ discussing parenting/ family issues. She lives in L.A. with her husband and 3 kids under 5. – L SUPERVISING MY CHILDREN AS IF A RABID BEAR WERE LOOSE AT ALL TIMES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD by Margaret Ables When my father was a young boy growing up in Brooklyn he…
Hey Readers — Here’s an 8-minute CBC (Canada’s public radio) interview with a mom who let her boys play in the local park and got the cops called on her. What I absolutely love about her is the fact she sounds like us! She just wants the kids to have some free time to play. Apparently the nervous onlooker called the police after overhearing one of the kids say he was thirsty, and the other one reminded him, “Mom doesn’t want us back for another half hour.” The onlooker smelled ABUSE! But as the mom oh-so-beautifully explained to the radio…
Hi Readers — Here’s a story from this scary, scary Easter season that I’m reprinting in full from NBCPhiladelphia.com, (with some commentary): WOMAN TRIES TO GIVE CANDY TO KID: POLICE Police are on the search for a woman who tried to give candy to a child Friday evening along a quiet residential road. [HOW DARE SHE?] A neighbor on Berkshire Road in Erial, N.J. approached the woman after she offered candy to a 7-year-old boy around 6:30 pm., according to Gloucester Township Police. [WHAT A PERVERT! OR…WHAT A NICE LADY. BUT STILL.] The neighbor told the kid to go…