Hi Folks! In response to the blog post below this one — the one about the kid getting lost on her way home and miraculously NOT being abducted — a reader named Davonia wrote this note. It’s so helpful and straightforward. Voila: THE “WHAT IF?” GAME! by Davonia The best way I can think of to counter this is to play the what-if game with your children. We do this all the time at dinner. What if you miss the bus in the morning: what do you do? Walk back to the house, use key and call Mom or Dad.…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! I’m sorry for what happened to this kid, but is it NEWS? And did we NEED that last line? And as the guy who sent this to Free-Range Kids said: “I thought this a headline from The Onion.” But no. It’s from Gainseville, Fla: 7-year-old ends up walking home alone from school By Harriet Daniels Staff writer Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 7:58 p.m. The family of a Williams Elementary first-grader is trying to figure out how the child, who had always ridden the bus or had been driven home, ended up walking from school alone on…
Hi Readers — Here’s the news from across the seas. Or sea, anyway. Or ocean, really. Anyway, a reader writes: If you want more UK stories — a couple below: I noticed a warning in a store here (see photo) that it is now illegal to sell crackers to people under the age of 16. Crackers are a traditional British novelty at Christmas and celebrations — they’re little surprise parcels that two people pull apart and that usually contain a (generally poor quality!) gift and a joke. They also have a small amount of explosive that creates the “crack.” It’s…
Hi Readers — Here you go, the next new profession: Baby planners. As wedding planners are to weddings, baby planners are to babies, helping future moms arrange their homes, buy the goods, and prepare themselves mentally and physically for the coming bambino, at least according to this fascinating piece in Tampa Bay Online. On the one hand, I sympathize with the moms-to-be. Babies R Us — a store that didn’t even EXIST when I was born — is filled to the brim now with 10,000 items. It would be nice to have someone clearheaded cut to the chase. (“Is a…
Hi Readers! Judy Gruen, a mom of four and the author of The Women’s Daily Irony Supplement, wrote this up for us! She invites you to read her columns onwww.judygruen.com. WHAT NEXT? by JUDY GRUEN Soon we will herald in a new year. What will it bring for those of us concerned about the house-arrest trend of parenting? Here are my predictions: 1. No parents will be allowed to take their newborns home from a hospital without first implanting a GPS device in them. Federal workers will make random home visits to ensure that the GPS is fully charged…
Hi Readers! As you probably know, for years you could buy an invisible electric fence to keep your pets in the yard. But now you can use one when you’re camping, too, to make sure your kids never wander off, thanks to a new device called the Camp Guard. According to an article in the Herald Journal in Logan, Utah: “The Camp Guard [is]a wireless perimeter security system that alerts campers of animals entering their campsite or kids wandering away. When the perimeter is breached, an alarm goes off, lights flash or both. “The real value of the product…
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]
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