This sad story is getting a lot of attention, which is great. A 24-year-old Youngstown, Ohio, mom was working her shift at a pizza parlor when someone alerted the cops to her kids, unsupervised, in their hotel room. When the cops knocked, the 10-year-old explained their mother would be home by 10. The cops then went and arrested the mom. She was thrown in jail. Basically…for being poor. Over at Let Grow I discuss the case, but I’d also highly recommend reading this piece by Let Grow’s legal consultant, Diane Redleaf, asking the authorities to stop mistaking poverty for neglect.…
Author: lskenazy
Let Grow’s annual Think for Yourself Essay Contest asks high school students intriguing questions about the role of free speech and open-mindedness in their everyday lives, including: *When did you speak up — or not — knowing your view might be unpopular? *Was there a time you could have taken offense — but chose not to? *Write a thank you letter to a JERK you learned something from. First Prize is a $5000 scholarship. Three runners-up get $1000 each. For details and to enter, click here and hurry! Essays due March 31,…
To “future-proof” is to design a piece of software, or a subway, or almost anything else expensive and important, with an eye toward the future. You try to build in flexibility for whatever is coming ahead. For instance, when I was a kid, my grandfather still had a giant radio console with an empty square in it: That’s where the TV would go…if they ever invented TV. With the world leaping and tumbling ahead, wouldn’t it be great if we could future-proof our kids? Especially if we did it better than my grandfather’s radio thing? That’s what I discuss over…
For over a decade I’ve been thinking about how we got so scared for our kids — and how our kids got so scared of seemingly normal childhood activities. Enter John Piacentini, a Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA where he runs an entire program — CARES — dedicated to identifying and reversing anxiety in kids. He explained to me how anxiety works, and especially the role of “accommodation of anxiety” — letting kids avoid doing something that we don’t think is dangerous, but they regard with dread. You’ll find my Q&A with the good psychologist over at Let Grow, including…
“Stranger Danger” gets it SO WRONG that even the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is asking adults to stop teaching it to kids — or believing it themselves. Over at Let Grow today I discuss the enduring legacy of the evil stranger trope and what to teach kids instead. And as I point out: We all want kids to be safe, sound and loved. In a country where most molesting is not at the hands of a stranger and childhood anxiety, depression and obesity are spiking, it’s time for the safety OF our kids to give them back…
…turn a budding interest into an adult-led activity. It’s as simple as that. Over at Let Grow, we’ve got some more observations of what turns on a child’s curiosity and the modern way to accidentally turn it off. Click here to read Part 1 of How to Nurture Kids’ Curiosity.
Talk about a perfect analogy. Today at Let Grow, we discuss what happens when kids are raised, according to society’s demands, with adults who never let them fall or fail. And then shoo them off to adulthood. The author, Vanessa Elias, has several sound ideas for how to make the home a little more like the metaphorical woods. Great piece, and a great way to frame why it doesn’t make sense to never let our kids do much other than soccer and homework. Read it by clicking here. Photo from Unsplash by Benjamin Wong
Yet another guy screamed at a mom for letting her kid wait in the car while she ran in to get a gallon of milk — but with a twist: He was a carjacker who’d just stolen her car. The second he noticed the kid in the back seat he sped back to the parking lot, and yelled at the mom to take the boy out. She did — and he drove off again, after threatening to call the police on her. More proof that almost no one, even a criminal, wants your kid. Head over to Let Grow by…
Strange but true, as I write over at Let Grow: The students were evacuated to the football field as Hazmat teams rushed to the scene. The local prosecutor was alerted, so were the police. Responders entered the building and investigated room by room. What calamity beset Haddon Township High School in New Jersey’s Camden County on Friday? A bomb threat? A gas leak? Anthrax? Worse. Dinnerware. Specifically, Fiestaware, the colorful plates that took America by storm during the Depression. A sophomore had brought a quarter-size piece to his science class, because some of the plates were originally glazed with a…
If you check out this thread that’s been burning up Twitter, you will read a story almost as long as the 6-hour ordeal the dad describes, which began when his daughter wanted some baked beans and the father, John Roderick — a.k.a. “Bean Dad” — told her to open a can and heat some up. The problem? Said daughter, age 9, had never used a can-opener…and dad decided not not show her. He was busy with a puzzle. He would wait out the whole time it took for the girl (who must not have access to YouTube) to finally,…