Are daily photos from overnight camp a big issue? Probably not the biggest. But they are part of a culture where parents have increasingly come to expect the ability to watch their kids at all times, even from afar — or at least have been trained to expect this by organizations eager to provide surveillance-as-a-service. Standing tall against this tide is Georgia Del Favero, Executive Director of Camp Birchwood in Laporte, Minnesota. At this overnight camp for girls 6 to 17, Georgia’s bucking the trend of uploading daily photos for parents. Instead, she sends out photos once a week. This…
Author: lskenazy
Would you leave your sleeping child in a hotel room with a baby monitor and go eat at a nearby restaurant? That’s the question posed by Stephanie Murray in this wide-ranging Slate piece. Murray was inspired by two things: 1 — The viral mob attacking parenting influencers Matt and Abby Howard for leaving their babies in their cruise ship cabin with FaceTime on, while they ate in the dining room. 2 – The fact that Murray and her husband do the same thing on vacations: Take the baby monitor with them and head out to a nearby dinner. Why is…
You may recall the tragedy that happened just about 10 years ago when a toddler got away from his mom at the Cincinnati Zoo and somehow fell into the gorilla enclosure. Fearing the gorilla could harm the child and knowing that tranquilizers do not take effect immediately, the zoo made the difficult decision to kill the gorilla. And then a good segment of the American population made the simple decision to troll the mom. A meme went around featuring a photo of the gorilla, Harambe, with the words, “I was killed because a b*tch wasn’t watching her child.” There was…
By now you have probably see this great video, below. Not yet? Well, you’re in for a heartwarming couple of minutes: Utah mom Stephanie Read read The Anxious Generation, got to the chapters I helped out with (the ones for parents and schools), and took them to heart. As she told Instagram: “At the end they have this challenge, like, let your kid do something without a parent…so it can build confidence for them.” That’s literally The Let Grow Experience, where the assignment for kids is: “Do something new, on your own, WITH your parents’ permission but WITHOUT your parents! (Here’s the…
The human condition is not one of calm seas and sated hearts. That’s why so many religions work so hard to get us there. The latest is the “Know Everything Your Child is doing/saying/hearing/reading/eating/trying/licking and Peace Will Be Yours.” Um…right. So here’s the wise note from a mom who remains anonymous – and a little nervous. This, she notes, is just what it means to be a parent. It’s a condition that cannot be changed, even with today’s tracking devices that promise to give us parental “peace of mind.” As if! Dear Let Grow: As the mother of two teenagers,…
TIDES TURNING AT LAST? Just a few months after Georgia mom Brittany Patterson was arrested for not knowing that her son, then 10, had walked to the store on his own, her state has passed a Reasonable Childhood Independence law. It now goes to the governor for signing. The bill clarifies that “neglect” is only when you put your child in serious, obvious danger – not anytime you take your eyes off them. This protects against the modern-day helicopter parenting norms that have made passersby – and, sometimes, government workers — insist that children of almost any age need constant adult supervision. When…
I present to you Mike Strambler, a psychologist and Associate Professor at the Yale School of Medicine and author of the Substack “As Is.” As insightful as Mike is, his tween-age son is right there with him. When I met Mike at a party several months ago, we got to talking about kids, confidence and condescension, and he told me the story he now relates below, about his son’s final taekwondo tournament: Kids Deserve Honesty, by Mike Strambler Iron Cobra When I was around 10, my mom signed me up for karate classes at a spot in downtown Camden, NJ.…
It is right to respect nature. But is it right to insist on a “hands off” policy, as if each leaf is a Vermeer? A mom dropped us a note to say: At my son’s pre-k, he and another boy were picking leaves off of an overgrown bush while adults were talking. The boys were quiet, engaged, and the bush seemed pretty hardy. When the teacher and the other boy’s dad realized what was going on, there was lots of Very Concerned Talk about respecting the bush, and keeping it nice for the other kids, and sort of a glance…
This Reddit post by “KnightErrant21” made me sit up and SALUTE! Yes, yes, yes! Maybe it’s just not that attractive to have kids when you think that every second, every dime, and every thought must be directly devoted to their development and safety! I contacted the Reddit writer and asked if I could please reprint his rant and he said sure, because his truth is our mission: More childhood — and parent — independence! I don’t agree with every word, of course. I think parenting has always required effort. But today’s demands ARE pointlessly relentless: * LET’S BE REALISTIC: THE…
Here’s a note I got 10 years ago. Read to the end for an update! Dear Lenore: I consider myself a fairly laid back mama, and I’m always of the opinion that bumps and bruises (and maybe broken bones) are part of growing up. But a few days ago, I was holding my third child, a 9-month-old, as I was climbing some stairs, and I tripped and fell, and she hit her head very hard – hard enough to fracture her skull and require immediate brain surgery. The good news: she’s doing really well, and they expect a full recovery.…