Hi Readers — Sometimes feels as if we’ve lost a little perspective on what constitutes danger, especially when it comes to whether it’s safe for our kids to walk a couple blocks to school. This video should restore it. And then some. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEhPlZwqhpE]
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Here’s a strange case. An eighth grade science teacher in Kansas has been fired for creating a “sexually hostile environment.” On the face of it, that sounds like it makes sense. Who wants a teacher harassing the kids — or even other teachers? But here’s what the guy was ostensibly fired for: “I drew a map out of proportion,” the teacher, Ryan Haraughty, told a Fox4 reporter in Kansas City. Florida was bigger than it should have been. “The kids jump all over stuff like that. ‘Oh Mr. Haraughty, Florida is all wrong!’ Okay, whatever. Not thinking, I…
Yes, Readers: That was the conclusion over in less-than-jolly, indeed, downright macabre England. According to this article, a group of safety experts was assigned to assess the sport’s dangers: After two years and £250,000, they found that ten-pin bowling alleys up and down the country could be a ‘very dangerous’ environment for families. They concluded that it was too easy for children or teenagers to run down lanes and get trapped in machinery that sets up the pins – even though there was no record of any such accident having happened. I love this study, not just for its conclusion,…
Here’s when. I thought this article was a joke. Then I thought the tree was. Then I remembered: We are living in 2009. This cone-tree, erected in a public square, has no pine needles to poke an eye out, no branches to clobber anyone, no feature at all to remind us that trees — and people — live in the real world. And maybe come spring the town will erect a shoe box representing that other great threat to humanity: the Easter Bunny. — Lenore
Wow!! Thank you, CBS Early Show, reporter Kelly Wallace, and producer Joe Long, for this fantastic piece on the end o’ the line for helicopter parents! It even features The Simpsons! (Homer and Bart, that is, not Jessica and Ashlee.) Voila! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx3hGiUc2Ms
Hi Readers — Acting like decent, warm-hearted human beings again? Please. Won’t you ever learn? Take a lesson from this story: A Canadian couple in their 70s were out running errands. Saw a boy on his bike. Waved. Later, they parked the car to run those errands. Cops arrived — a slew of them — and hauled them in for questioning. The charge? Attempted abduction. Husband and wife were separated, questioned, the husband was searched. In the end, “We were satisfied no abduction took place,” said the police. I think that depends if you mean abduction of a child or…
Hi Folks! It’s time for more mainstream media examining the idea that maybe our kids don’t need quite as much hovering as the mainstream media had been recommending. The segment will air sometime after 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So if you’re not waiting in line at Toys R Us, tune in! (Or sleep in! I’m sure we’ll find a copy of it somewhere.) — Lenore
Oprah visits “the happiest people in the world” and finds out. Guess where their kids nap? (First two minutes of 8 minute vid.) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QS8dROjKNY&feature=relatedwo] And meantime: HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Give thanks we live in a time when kids are safer than ever before…even if it’s hard to convince anyone of this fact. — Lenore
So. Anyone out there who has both cable and TiVO who can figure out how to tape the re-broadcast of the Campbell Brown show on CNN that I was just on and maybe even send me a link, or post it on YouTube, if that is not hidesouly illegal? The show re-airs at 4 a.m. Eastern Time. And if this the FCC reading this, just kidding!
Hi Folks! I’ll be on CNN tonight at about 8:30 Eastern Time discussing “overparenting.” I feel a little bad for helicopter parents because overnight they’ve been knocked off their perch, even after it was society that hounded them into doing and buying and fretting in the first place. That darn pop culture! So hard to pin down. — L.