Don’t bother bringing a plastic shovel when you head to a San Francisco playground anymore. The city is getting rid of all its sand at all its local playgrounds. You know why. Of course you do. According to this report by Christin Ayers at KCBS, the city regards sandboxes as unsafe. Suddenly. Connie Chan, a spokeswoman for Rec and Parks (which sounds backwards) says that, “We often face issues such as sharp objects, broken glass, even cat feces in our sandboxes throughout our playgrounds.” Joe Frost, a professor who has written 19 books on play and playgrounds, once had his…
Author: lskenazy
A reader writes: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m sending a link to a WHEC (Rochester NY local station) news story with updates on the mom who was charged after leaving her kid at the Eastview Mall LEGO Store. The officer in the video said some interesting things, both discouraging (under 16 and left alone for 2 hours is too long) and encouraging (it depends on the child). I’d be interested in reading your take on it. http://www.whec.com/good-question/unattended-child-when-can-parents-be-charged/4538715/?cat=10853 My take: How amazing and cool that this station did a follow up on something people truly wonder about: What age CAN you legally…
Any mom seeing these videos of her son traveling the world would probably feel reassurance, pride… And a jolt of new worry. That is the lot even of the freest of Free-Range parents. As someone once said (and I’m mangling it): Courage is the thing with wet pants. It’s not that Free-Rangers don’t worry. It’s that we try to teach our kids how to navigate the world — starting with how to cross the street safely — and gradually let them go. Except we don’t. We still worry to a greater or lesser extent AND we wave them goodbye. Some…
This New York Times piece on the new “Jane Crow” — poor black and Hispanic moms whose kids are taken away for trivial or even non-existent reasons simply because it’s assumed they are lazy, bad parents — will make you scream. It’ll also make you see how the Free-Range Kids fight is for ALL parents. We fight for the right of parents to be imperfect without this being considered a CRIME. Kids don’t need perfect parents. And they certainly don’t need their parents arrested or harassed for not conforming to the June Cleaver (who was fictional!) extreme. Maisha Joefield thought…
A 7-year-old Brooklyn girl was in the backseat, in her seatbelt, out for a drive with her dad when suddenly he passed out, seemingly from a drug overdose. The girl unbuckled her belt, jumped onto his lap and proceeded to steer the car. Two emergency medical technicians spotted her and one, Arlene Garcia, started yelling at her to brake, something the girl apparently couldn’t do. Then, reports the New York Daily News: As the child kept a snail’s pace, the first responders came up with a plan. “We said to ourselves, ‘How do you stop her?’ So we pulled right…
Not sure why this 2-minute film was made, but I think you’ll like it. It’s a little treacly and fake, and yet…I’m misting up. And if you can’t quite understand what the kid says when his mom asks where he’s going, he says, “I’m going to find God.” Gotta love a kid who takes the subway by himself and talks to strangers! Here’s his 2-minute journey. It’s by a filmmaker (and philosopher?) named Meir Kay: .
An Ontario, Canada mom who took her daughter in for a dental check up was told by the dentist that her daughter had a mouthful of cavities — nine. Finding that assessment odd (and expensive), the mom, Melissa Lopez, switched dentists and ignored the first dentist’s notices to bring her child in for the fillings. Incidentally, the next dentist found less decay. Without ever inquiring directly as to why the mom didn’t come back, Dentist #1 then reported her to child protective services for possible “oral neglect.” When the authorities investigated, they discovered that Melissa wasn’t an abusive mom but…
In an effort to protect our children, the US House of Representatives passed a law mandating a 15-year minimum sentence for teens who sext. That’s not making our kids safer. It’s the opposite. Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes (the inspiration for Mean Girls) and many other wise books, runs a blog and movement called Cultures of Dignity, and this month it explains why the bill is terrible and what we can do about it: FLIRTING OR FELONY? Teens, sex, and social media. It’s a combination that understandably makes many adults really anxious. Unfortunately, when adults get anxious…
News you can use, from an NPR interview with Jack Gilbert, author of Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune System. After the birth of his second child, Gilbert, a scientist who studies microbial ecosystems at the University of Chicago, decided to find out what’s actually known about the risks involved when modern-day children come in contact with germs. “It turned out that most of the exposures were actually beneficial,” Gilbert says. “So that dirty pacifier that fell on the floor — if you just stick it in your mouth and lick it, and…
An Iowa 14-year-old who took two pictures of herself — one in a bra and “boy shorts” (that is, undies), the other topless but with her hair covering her breasts — had been threatened by Marion County Attorney Ed Bull with prosecution as a child pornographer. The girl, Jane Doe, was part of a group of kids who’d been caught sexting, and the rest agreed to Bull’s deal whereby they’d admit their guilt, do some community service, take classes on the dangers of sexting and give up their electronic devices for a time. If they did all that, they wouldn’t…