In Chester County, PA, kids will no longer get the chance to scramble for candy tossed from floats at the annual Halloween parade because suddenly the local tradition is too dangerous. According to The Daily Local News, Parks & Rec director Keith Kurowski “was fearful that one of about 25 parade floats might injure an unattended child, or a marching band member with a flag or mock rifle might mistakenly strike a youngster.” Yes, those marching bands are vicious. You see a majorette with a flag? Run! There’s nothing they like better than to “mistakenly” (wink wink) strike a youngster.…
Author: lskenazy
Many, many of you have sent me this interesting piece: Thoughts on Vegas and Why Men Keep Doing This, by Charles Hoehn, author of Play It Away. (Free book here!) It ran on the blog Be Yourself. In trying to parse why Stephen Paddock and a few other men have unleashed massacres (something, thankfully, most men do NOT “keep doing”), Hoehn rolled around some ideas, including that the lack of play can lead to deep depression and pathology. I, too, believe the drive to play is installed at birth by Mother Nature, for a reason: To teach us, in a…
I iassrntati am in Boston giving some talks, and once again, some parents tell me that one reason they’re not sending their kids outside is the fear that some busybody will call 911. That is why we must make it not only normal, but blazingly, officially LEGAL to give our kids some independence, a point the Texas Policy Institute’s Brandon Logan and I make in this piece of ours that appeared in the Austin-American Statesman. Commentary: Giving kids an old-fashioned childhood is not abuse By Brandon Logan and Lenore Skenazy — Special to the American-Statesman A few years back,…
One more time: Most humans saying hello to a child in public are not doing anything evil. Those who report them to the police, on the other hand… Dear Free-Range Kids: I thought you would be interested in this Facebook post to one of my groups today. It was the Blue Mountains Community Social Group, over here in Australia. The person who posted it reported that she saw it pasted up in a local shopping centre. We’re a fairly small, regional community, about 100km from Sydney. I’m happy to say that of the 93 comments (so far) and 227 reactions,…
The ’80s live! At least in Selinsgrove, PA, according to this music video. And who does it star? Thirteen-year-old Isabel Lysiak, sister of our favorite pint-sized publishing magnate, Hilde Lysiak, the girl condemned as too cute to cover a murder in her town. Here’s the video and below is Hilde’s exclusive story about it. This comes straight from the Orange Street News: EXCLUSIVE: Music Video “Dream of the 80’s is Alive in Selinsgrove” Debuts By Hilde Kate Lysiak A new music video claims that the town of Selinsgrove is stuck in the 80’s — in a good way! Thirteen year…
Here’s the first of what will undoubtedly be a bulging bag full of Halloween warnings. In fact, please share whatever excessive warnings or procedures your school or town is dishing out this Halloween. Meanwhile, note how this “helpful” advice takes one night of candy gathering and turns it into a lifetime of suffering and sorrow. Because just ONE SUB-OPTIMAL childhood meal/activity/food/experience = lifelong regret. That’s how fragile kids are. Dear Free-Range Kids: The scariest part of Halloween has nothing to do with your costume. As kids fill their bags with candy, they’re also filling their mouths with gum disease and…
From my inbox: Dear Free-Range Kids: Fall started last week and all the signs of the season are in the air. Temperatures are starting to cool off, fall festivals are in full swing, college football is on the weekends, and retailers are pushing for the holidays with sale items. While the fall is a fun time, it is also stressful time for many. From the pressure of another year rapidly ending to worries about the upcoming holidays to the change in the clock, many people find fall to be a stressful and depressing time. Why is this? How can people…
This fantastic piece in the New York Times, The Overmonitored Nursery, is by new mom Sophie Brickman. She chronicles what life is like FOR THE MOM with all the new gadgets to monitor your baby every. single. second. After bringing healthy baby Ella home from the hospital, Brickman and her techie husband slipped the Owlet Smart Sock on the infant’s foot. This gizmo measures, among other things, the baby’s blood oxygen level. Cut to: an hour later. A piercingly shrill electronic version of “Hush Little Baby” blares through our room as a blue neon light strobes frantically. I leap out…
Kudos to the ScaryMommy blog for scaring up this truly bloodchilling memo from a pre-k. While cheerily (or perhaps dutifully) noting “Autumn is officially here and so is our second month of school,” it then launches into the real meat of the matter: Your kids stink and it’s all your fault. “We made it through a really tough first month with tears, attitudes, unwillingness, not listening, not obeying the rules and especially, too much talking and not enough sitting in seats when asked to. We work on this every day at school, but we need help from home, too. We…
Tonight I’m speaking on a panel in Ridgewood, NJ, organized by local activist extraordinaire Jeanne Johnson on “Moving Forward Together: Fostering a Pedestrian Friendly Community.” Her initiative is called Walktoberfest. . Getting all of us back outside, walking around our neighborhoods, is good for our bodies, souls, friendships, local businesses and even property values. The only downside is you don’t get to spend more time in your car. Darn! . Meantime, here’s what happens if we all stay inside, and the kids do, too: Dear Free-Range Kids: . I am at a loss. I grew up in Chicago and now…