Hi Folks! In a doctor’s waiting room the other day I happened to pick up one of the parenting mags and, as a sidebar to an article on sports injuries, it ran these tips: Go Ahead and Gulp Even slight dehydration decreases a child’s strength and decision-making skills on the field, which can lead to injuries. Use these tips to help your little athlete get enough water: 1 – Your child should drink 16 ounces of water two hours before a practice or game. 2- Then he should drink another 8 ounces for every 15 minutes he’s participating — even…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Folks — Here’s another little story that reminds us how Worst-First thinking has become de rigeur when it comes to kids in the company of adults: A young Teach for America teacher took a student out for a hamburger and was immediately reprimanded by the school. Yes, rules are rules, and he probably should have signed a lot of forms first, but sometimes — weirdly enough — a moment comes up that is not pre-scheduled and pre-approved and pre-notarized. It’s what we used to call “spontaneity.” (Now we call it “actionable.”) So off he and the kid went, got…
Hi Readers! Here we go again — officials overreacting as if this makes them smart and proactive (rather than…overreacting). L. . Dear Free-Range Kids: My daughter’s third grade friend brought his pocket knife to school on accident. It was just in his pants’ pocket from the weekend. An hour after school was dismissed, he and his friends were still playing on school grounds and he showed his knife to them. . One of them was a girl and because the blade was pointing her direction, she decided he was “brandishing it” and went to tell her mom, who told the…
Hi Folks! Coming soon: the latest gadget EVERY parent (who is suffering from crippling anxiety that will only get worse if they buy things like this) will need! The “Exmobaby” is a onesie that monitors your baby’s vital signs. As its website says: Each and every garment in the Exmobaby line includes sensor technology that monitors baby’s vital signs and movement. The fully integrated capabilities built in to the clothing and apparel deliver wireless communication and evaluation of baby’s condition throughout the day as well as during critical night time sleep. Parents of newborns receive text messages (SMS) and email…
Hi Folks! Love this column, which ran in The Post-Star in Glens Falls, NY. I think you’ll see why. – L. Reading, Writing and Looming Fears by Ken Tingley The Warrensburg Central School District is saving its children from the clutches of voters. Swear to God. Its board of education voted unanimously against a county proposal to use one of the school’s facilities for the April 24 presidential primary. The reason? Too dangerous. You would have thought the new voting machines contained plutonium. Or all Warrensburg voters are packing heat. Or perhaps there is concern over some insidious political agenda…
Hi Readers! I am thrilled to present to you a post by David Pimentel, a professor of law and author of a scholarly article on how to keep overprotective parenting from becoming the law. As he writes in his abstract: …the powerful influence of media has sensationalized the risks to children, skewing popular perceptions of the genuine risks children face and of what constitutes a reasonable or appropriate response to such risks. Consequently, individuals who do not buy into Intensive Parenting norms, including those from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, may be subjecting themselves to criminal prosecution for child neglect…
Hi Readers: This just in from the Safe Routes folks! – L. Double Your Impact—Act Now on Key Senate and House Transportation Votes Next Tuesday both the US House and Senate may vote on new transportation bills that could destroy transit, bicycling and walking funding, including the popular Safe Routes to School program, which is now getting kids moving safely again at over 12,000 schools around the US! A national coalition of groups including the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and many, many others, are asking you to help to make streets safer for kids. This vote will…
Hi Readers! By now, you probably have seen the shocking video (below) of 7-year-old Brittney Baxter fighting off a would-be kidnapper in the toy aisle of the Bremen, Ga., Walmart. What you may not realize is that this is a scene you will be seeing forever — replayed on the news and then re-imagined on “Law & Order” (though the show will change the name of the store, or maybe the guy will be kidnapping twins). Then you will see it playing again in your very own brain when you wonder to yourself, “Is it safe to let my child…
Hi Readers! Down in Australia I’m sort of happy to say a tempest is brewing over whether it is up to parents or police to decide when a child is “old enough” to walk around outside. According to this story on the home page of the Sydney Morning Herald: Officers told a Hornsby mother it was ”inappropriate” for her 10-year-old daughter to catch a bus unaccompanied, and warned a Manly father whose seven-year-old son walked alone to a local shop that while they would not alert DOCS [Dept. of Community Services], they would file a report. Really? File a report…
Hi Folks! In the midst of all the usual nuttiness, let’s celebrate a nice little moment, courtesy of a mom of four in Nebraska. You’ll note, she takes a lot of precautions because this was a first. Eventually, she won’t need them and neither will her kids because they’ll all be more confident and competent, which is pretty much the Free-Range goal! — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: Just wanted to send a little note about our own personal Free Range Success story. Our family recently moved from the Northern Virginia/DC suburbs to a small suburb of Omaha, Nebraska. It is…