This ad gives me chills AND the creeps. Here’s what it says, in urgent, caring, chiding tones: You take the family to the food court. Your wife and Pete head for tacos. You and Danny want Chinese. You look up at the menu. You look down to see what Danny wants . But you don’t see Danny. Every parent knows that feeling. IMAGINE if he were actually abducted. To receieve free Amber Alerts on your cell phone go to wirelessamberalerts.com A child is calling for help. A child is calling to CHILL! This scenario — a child snatched from a…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Ever wonder why we parents are so scared all the time? Maybe it has to do with the incessant din of marketers predicting DOOM unless we buy something. Something they just happen to be selling! Take a look at this blog post by Carolyn Graham, editor of L.A. Parent, and you’ll see the kiddie safety industrial complex in all its glory. This is an excerpt from Carolyn’s blog, “I Don’t Have Time for This.” WHO’S AFRAID? By CAROLYN GRAHAM Then today, I got to work and opened my email. It’s scary, and not just because there’s so many…
Dear Readers: Use your imagination to conjure up the deepest, most Moviefone-ish voice in your head and now hear it intoning this: “In a world, where the school day is 10 hours long. In a world, where there is no summer vacation. In a world where recess is shortened to make time for test prep and teachers cannot hug a second grader who has collapsed under the weight of her 28-pound backpack, comes the unthinkable: No bake sales.” It’s enough to make Jerry Bruckheimer hide under his desk, but in my own little burg, New York City, the powers that…
Hi Free-Rangers — Speaking of our growing terror of anyone with a Y chromosome, read this: My husband, who taught kindergarten Sunday School, is no longer allowed to help out with the preschoolers. At all. Why? A child fell down and hurt herself, and while comforting her he gave her a kiss. On the forehead. And apparently another parent saw this and assumed he was some sort of sicko. A month earlier he had a child in his class pass out napkins before snack and she went home and told her parents that she was the special helper in Mr.…
Hi Readers — I got this note yesterday and so many points resonated for me, I thought I’d share it. I think the writer makes a great point about hindsight — that just because, when looking back, we can see how most ills could have been prevented doesn’t mean that if we only plan hard enough, we can avoid every single possible bad outcome. When we think we CAN avoid any and all problems, we end up believing that when something does go wrong, SOMEONE is to blame. This is paralyzing for parents, and rotten for communities, too. So, before…
I hate hand sanitizers, but are kids really DRINKING them? Or setting them ON FIRE?? Or are we just coming up with more bizarre worries? (Yes, I know. Another rhetorical question. Did I mention we just MOVED? Hard to blog and unpack! ) — Lenore
Hi Readers — On the bus going across town today my husband and I sat behind a girl of about 13. No one sat next to her, even though a couple of folks were standing. This reminded me of my long-ago trip to Turkey. When I was there in the 1980s, at least, men were not allowed to take an empty seat next to a woman. I don’t know if this was law or custom, but the thinking seemed to be that men are too rude, easily excited or perverse to sit next to women. In other words:…
Hi Readers — You’ve probably seen this story, closely mirroring the one in England where the two moms sharing a job TRIED to share babysitting duty, too — and found out this was against the law. Here in the States, a Michigan mom takes in the kids of three friends each morning before the bus comes. Suddenly, the mom — Lisa Snyder — was informed this is illegal, as she is not a licensed day care operator. Amazingly, she did not go to jail. The case got the attention of no less than the governor, who immediately instructed the child…
Hi Readers! Remember the post from the other day, “Mom & Kid Bike to School, State Trooper Awaits”? Here it is. A Saratoga, N.Y. mom and her son rode their bikes to school only to be chastised by a trooper who informed them that this is verboten. But now, check out this article from the Times Union: Things are looking up! Okay, not perfectly up. The school district that had strictly FORBIDDEN kids to ride their bikes or walk to school is now considering letting kids MAYBE bike to school with a guardian. That still seems somewhat obsessive. But…
Hi Readers! Worrying that American students are falling behind their international counterparts, President Obama is floating the idea of longer school days and shorter vacations. This is about as uncreative a solution as a man all about “change” could possibly have come up with. “Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president has said. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.” Really? Who’s to say American kids are lagging because they aren’t…