Hi Readers — Here’s a guest post from Darell Hammond, founder and CEO of KaBOOM!, a very cool, national nonprofit trying to ensure a playground within walking distance of every child. Hammond is also author of the New York Times bestselling book, KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play. So read this while you send the kids outside! — L THE HIDDEN “PRIVILEGE” OF AN UNPRIVILEGED CHILDHOOD, by DARRELL HAMMOND When I was 19 months old, my father went to unload a truck and never came back. My mother, who was left to care for eight children,…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — I just want to apologize to anyone getting a weird email message from me today. My Yahoo email account was hacked. And just in case Yahoo is reading this: It is impossible to get a hold of you, so let me state my complaints here: 1 – Your new email template is frustrating, and your FAQs don’t answer any of the Qs I happen to have about it. I’m sure I’m not alone. 2 – If anyone using your email service is unfortunate enough to get hacked, there is no way to get help from you. No…
Hi Readers — This just in! A creepy old guy was seen taking pix of some young boy in Idaho. The cops were called! The media alerted! Hearts pounded, rage burbled, all because… Um, a grandpa was photographing his grandson. He left when some crazy lady started yelling at him. Here’s the story. — L
Hi Folks — Here’s good news. The Atlanta mom who was convicted of “vehicular manslaughter” after her 4-year-old wriggled away from her and was killed by a drunk driver, does not have to do jail time. While she could have been sent away for three years, she will instead do a year of probation and perform 40 hours of community service. She also has been offered the option of another trial. The driver, meantime, already did six months in jail and was released in October. He will serve the remained of his five-year sentence on probation, reports the Atlanta Journal…
Hi Readers — This post was sent to me by Mendel Klein, a Brooklyn father and a pediatric occupational therapist who writes about the benefits of letting children fail over at, yes, Let Your Child Fail. — L Leiby’s Law Wouldn’t have Prevented Leiby Kletzky’s Death Here we go again. While Leiby Kletzky’s parents and sisters were still sitting the seven days of shiva, mourning the brutal killing of their son, politicians in our community were already announcing a law in reaction to the terrible tragedy that struck them. No need to guess what the law is called. It’s…
Hi Readers! Ever look at a map of the local sex offenders, the ones with little dots showing where the guys live who prey upon helpless little children? Well, as of this week, there are two dots that won’t come off until the guys die of old age — which could be quite a while. Right now, they’re both 16. The boys committed their crime at age 14. And just what was it? Horseplay. Stupid, disgusting horseplay. According to NJ.com, the kids pulled down their pants and sat on two 12-year-olds’ faces for the simple reason that they “thought it…
Hello, Readers: This is a wonderful thing, this statement by Leiby’s parents, asking the world to remember him by doing good deeds for each other. It doesn’t mention anything about distrusting strangers or men or the “crazy world” we live in, it is about bringing us together, not apart. Bless them and their son’s memory. – L
Hi Readers — A bunch of you sent me links to this wonderful NY Times story by John Tierney yesterday, about how maybe we have been making playgrounds SO safe that they actually stunt our kids’ development. (Or at least make it too boring for anyone over 7 to want to go play.) It’s a point I agree with so much that I wrote a piece about the same thing, last year. Here’s a link to that one, too. Basically, both articles point out that in our desire to eliminate ALL risks, we create new ones, like the risk…
Readers — Sometimes I need a break, as I’m sure you do too. And what could be better than a snippet from The Onion reminding us just how driven the news media and “experts” can be when it comes to whipping up fear? Enjoy! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQdZQjgGT-I]
UPDATE! Readers — Here’s a petition asking Georgia to release the mother from her “vehicular manslaughter” conviction and PUT IN A CROSSWALK! I just signed it! — L. Hi Readers — This case is so sickeningly sad, I don’t know where to begin. Fortunately, a blog I’d never heard of before — Transportation for America — does a PERFECT job of summing up the whole story and why it is such an outrage. Read it right here and kudos to the author, David Goldberg. In brief: An Atlanta mom and her three kids got off a bus stop that…