Dear Readers: You may recall that last week, Dear Abby passed along the advice that children take a walkie talkie every time they enter a public restroom so they can call mom when they get molested. Since this is a common fear, I asked a child abuse specialist if this is also a common occurence. Of the 500 children this pediatrician had treated for sex abuse, NONE had been abused by a stranger in a bathroom. So Abby’s advice was a little alarmist, to say the least. That same day, Abby ran a note from another reader that said we…
Author: lskenazy
Thanks to Pyromomma for sending along this amazing photo! “Scientists Discover Portal to Outside World.” Show your kids! (And thanks again, Onion!)
Sometimes the boogey man is just that, as these parents found out: http://img29.imageshack.us/i/securedownloadbon.jpg/
In the town of Milford, Connecticut, in 2005, a grandma named Una decided to build a pool. That way her 14 grandchildren could play in it. Except, she worried: One couldn’t. He was allergic to nuts and there was the possibility that if he and a nut happened to be in the pool at the same time — a tree nut, that is — he just might have an allergic reaction. So to keep him from sitting out the fun, grandma did what any modern-day American does. She demanded the mayor chop down all the hickory nut trees near her…
Hi Readers! This just in, from Free-Ranger Deb Turner, who asks: “If you were shopping with your nine year old, and a man approached you and your child and did a Donald Duck imitation for the child, would you call 9-1-1? This happened in my local area.” ‘Duck’ didn’t ruffle any legal feathers The case of an Oriskany man accused of frightening children and parents at Wal-Mart with his Donald Duck impression was dismissed from City Court on Friday. A charge of endangering the welfare of a child was dismissed against Martin A. Tuzzolino, 55, by Judge Daniel C. Wilson,…
Thanks to the intrepid reporters at The Onion, we are finally dealing with the truth about backyard camping. It’s not pretty.
Hi Readers! Here’s what’s up at a grammar school outside of Chicago where the kids have apparently been getting it all wrong during recess. A local source writes: This past weekend I went over to visit a friend of mine who is a first grade teacher. When I walked in, she was watching a video demonstrating different outdoor games to teach children, like 4-square, tag, etc. I asked why she was watching and she said, “We are figuring out which games are appropriate to teach the kids at recess.” When I followed up I learned that during the past year,…
Walter Olson runs a great, nay, mindblowing blog called overlawyered.com. The name says it all. He’s got great posts on everything from a suit against dolphin trainers (for teaching their dolphins to deliberately splash during a water show, making the area slippery) to a family suing Honda for million because their car window blew out (in a tornado). And here’s one of his latest: 12-year-old’s slide injury to cost Little League $125K by Walter Olson on August 6, 2009 Staten Island, N.Y.: Little League Baseball Inc. and the New Springville Little League have agreed to pay $125,000 to settle…
Hi Readers! Here’s an interesting angle on Free-Ranging, brought to us by Kathy Seal. Kathy is a journalist in Santa Monica and co-author ofPressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Dealing With Competition While Raising a Successful Child and Motivated Minds: Raising Children. Her websites are www.kathyseal.net and www.pressuredparents.com. Voila: CAN YOU HELP WITHOUT HELICOPTERING? Ok, I’m gonna say something controversial: You can’t be too involved with your child. You heard me right. Tons of gold-standard research shows that the more you’re involved with your kids –be they toddlers or teens — the better it is for them. And that doesn’t contradict…
Here’s a phenomenal NPR piece — transcribed — that solves the classic overprotection question, “Well, why NOT keep kids inside all the time if it’s safer?” A lot of parents think it was fun back when they played outside as kids, but since that kind of thing presents at least SOME danger (no matter how tiny), why not skip it and replace it with organized sports (they still get fresh air!), educational activities (won’t hurt on those Harvard applications!) or simply keep them at home, indoors? (Better safe than sorry!) The problem is that more and more research is showing…