Hi Readers! Remember during the summer I ran a post by businessman Rick Woldenberg about the wacky new Consumer Product Safety law? Here’s a little of what he said: Readers of Free-Range Kids may not be surprised to learn that Congress has enacted far-reaching legislation to save your children from the dangers involved in reading an old book, riding a new bike or even using a Barbie pen. That is, if after using these items, they generally eat them. Feel safer already? The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act became law on August 14, 2008 and it dramatically changes…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — Today’s New York Times has a really great piece about a town in New Jersey whose sand-bottomed, spring-water filled swimming hole has been the joy of local kids since 1929. Until, of course, today. Now half the residents want to fill the pond in and replace it with a standard concrete pool, making it easier to watch their children. The other half say this is helicopter parenting taken to extremes. The pro-pool people cite the death of a 14-year-old last year — the third drowning in 80 years — as proof that the swmming hole is unsafe.…
Hi Readers — A few posts down we were discussing a questionable arrest for “child endangerment.” In this case, the parents had left their 9- and 6-year-olds waiting in the car while they ran into Walmart for what turned out to be half an hour. Vis a vis child safety: The windows were cracked, the doors were locked, the 6-year-old was sleeping and the 9-year-old was reading. The older child was also given a cell phone. Here is what one prosecutor wrote, which I found insightful: I am a former prosecutor who worked for some time in abuse and neglect.…
A message most schools are probably copying word for word right now. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C5Rnb7J3sU]
Hi Free-Rangers: Here’s a brand new fear to leave you with for the weekend: “Raccoon Latrines Pose Risk to Kids.” A new risk? OMG! Lock up the kids! Reader Lorie McGraw found this article explaining — in great detail — how these “latrines,” found all over suburbia, get filled with…what you’d expect. (Put down your raisins before reading any further.) If a raccoon is infected with roundworm parasites, the worms’ tiny eggs fester in the latrines (aren’t you glad you’re reading this post?) and kids who eat whatever they find lying around, could get seriously sick. How sick? So…
Next Tuesday is Pres. Obama’s speech to children, urging them to stay in school and read books and, for all I know, brush their teeth. It’s about that controversial…or so you’d think. But of course, nothing is uncontroversial in these hyper-umbrage-taking days, so we’re hearing from some parents and school administrators and concerned citizens that this is wasting “valuable” school time and amounts to “brainwashing.” They’re treating the speech like it’s a heroin demo for first time users. Can we please calm down? This is our President, the guy we elected to lead and inspire our nation, and here is…
Hi Readers — A fellow named Brian sent in this note about kids and nature. It sort of dovetails with a study just released in England that found an alarming percentage of kids are spending so much time indoors, they can’t identify things in the natural world anymore, including daddy longlegs. I’m no huge fan of spiders, but daddy longlegs seem like they should be part of everyone’s childhood, one way or another. (Just not laying their eggs in Bubble Yum.) — Lenore No Child Left Inside by Brian Last year I had the opportunity to work at an Outdoor…
Good news! “Twitter, Facebook Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Age Kids.” (Thank you again, Onion! And thank you, those who sent this video in.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu4zMvE6FH4
Oh darn! Just when you thought you could inject yourself with hormones every day for about 2 months, bloat like a beachball, have your eggs monitored and retrieved (after loads of blood tests) to then be fertilized in a test tube and plunged back into your womb at about $15,000 a pop so you could, hopefully, get pregnant, give birth and gradually raise a little boy or girl who would be all yours to abuse in just five or ten years, it turns out it’s not that easy! Alas, Australia is about to pass a law that…
Cute For Better or For Worse comic that somehow seems very appropriate! — Lenore Enjoy!