Hi Readers — I just loved this comment to the “Driven Crazy by Pregnancy Perfectionists” post. And her phrase to describe the over-the-top precautions mom-to-be are advised to take — “mindless acts of pointless martyrdom” — is so wonderful, it deserves to be embroidered on a million Baby Boppies. Voila: Dear Free-Range Kids: I literally threw What to Expect When You’re Expecting across the room after I cracked it open for the first time to a random page and read, “We don’t have any evidence that coloring your hair harms the fetus, but we don’t have any evidence that it’s…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers: As a Free-Range parent I believe in preparing kids to be independent and safe. Just as we teach them to “Stop, drop and roll!” in the unlikely event they’re ever on fire, it makes sense to teach them to yell, kick and run in the equally unlikely event some creep tries to grab them. It is also worthwhile teaching them to say “No!” to any person who tries to get them to do something uncomfortable, and then to “tell” on that person, no matter what that person made them promise. A key phrase, by the way, is to…
No, says the dad of the boy in question. Here’s the story: Boy #1, age 14, had a girlfriend who sent him a nude picture of herself. Then he and the girl broke up and he, repulsively, forwarded the photo to kids at three other schools. It seems that some of the kids who got the photo passed it along again. Let’s call one of those kids Boy #2. Along with a couple of others, Boy #2 is now facing sex offender charges. His dad believes his son should pay for his cruelty. He has taken away the son’s computer…
A five-year-old calls 911 when her daddy can’t breathe. Here’s the story, as seen on the Bonnie Hunt Show. A reminder to all of us: 1 – Teach your kids about 911. 2 – Remember what kids are capable of! They can rise to the occasion! (Let’s just hope the kid doesn’t get her own reality show and end up all weird.) — Lenore
Hi Readers! I get a lot of amazing material throughout the day and when I can’t think of anything particular to add in the way of a blog post, I just Tweet them. It finally dawned on me that maybe I should share those Tweets right here, because not everyone is a Twitter-type. So here are the latest. And of course, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, all you have to do is go there (here’s a link) and once you’re signed up (easy! here’s that link) you can find me at FreeRangeKids. (I know. Super-creative name, right?).…
And yet, that’s what the world it is getting: A new line of lingerie for girls 9-14 launched by Miley Cyrus’ little sister, Noah, and Miley’s Hannah Montana co-star, Emily Grace Reaves. Or so sez BoingBoing. Read all about it here (and here and here). Does anyone else remember the furor when Miley took those sexy, shirt-free photos with Annie Leibovitz? Basically claimed she had no idea she had no shirt on, and daddy had walked off to make a malted or something? Back then, I blamed Annie. Now I blame Disney. Sexy young girls sell and don’t they know…
Hi Readers — I am ashamed to say this incident happened in my own city, New York. (Well, Staten Island, anyway.) A Staten Island fourth-grader was reprimanded and almost suspended yesterday when the principal spotted him playing with a LEGO policeman and a two-inch-long toy gun during lunch, the Advance reports. Under the city’s no-tolerance policy regarding guns in schools, PS 52 Principal Evelyn Matroianni brought 9-year-old Patrick Timoney to her office and called his mother to say the boy might be suspended for carrying the miniature toy gun to school. Hallelujah, he avoided that fate, which I suppose should…
Here’s a short, fun post from the blog (The Customer Is) Not Always Right, all about a new clerk trying to figure out where to shelve the girls’ underwear he is carrying. Yes, that means he is wandering around the store, in public, girls’ panties in tow.
It’s because of stories like this: “Nation’s Strangers Decry Negative Portrayal Among Children.” And video news reports like this one: “Missing Girl Probably Raped.” How do they nail it again and again? Anyway, if you’re easily offended, skip these. If not — enjoy! Lenore P.S. This classic just in! Sent by a reader: “More U.S. Children Being Diagnosed with Youthful Tendency Disorder.”
Hi Readers — Yes, it’s true! According to this story by the Associated Press, a “massive” federal study finds that child abuse has declined a whopping 26% from 1993 to 2006. What’s more, child sexual abuse is down even more dramatically: 38%! The reasons seem to be a combination of higher awareness of the crime, less tolerance of it, less shame in reporting it, and more professionals (cops, teachers, social workers, therapists) focused on its prevention and detection. On the perp side, more arrests for the crime seems to have helped, as have therapeutic drugs that tamp down criminal urges.…