Love these ladies! This should make your weekend! . .
Author: lskenazy
Research presented at a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies this month warns of a grave threat to America’s children: Grandma and Grandpa. The study suggests older people are so hopelessly out of date on child-rearing recommendations that they may put their beloved grandchildren at risk. Of 636 grandparents surveyed, nearly a quarter didn’t know that babies are supposed to be put to sleep on their backs. “We shouldn’t assume that just because they’ve raised a child before, they’re experts,” Andrew Adesman, who led the research, told CNN. Except—big except!—you don’t need to be an “expert” to raise a child.…
Let’s stop beating ourselves up for not being perfect parents! The mom who wrote this article in The Week believes that being late to pick up her teen son a single time will make him feel as unloved as she did back when her parents were routinely late: I waited at the doctor’s office staring at nothing in particular trying not to watch the clock. A vision of my teenage son exiting school looking for me flashed through my mind. I saw his face, sagging with disappointment. Not quite in possession of his driver’s license, he normally biked to school.…
Can we remember that it is not “babysitting” to watch over someone else’s child playing next to your own, just because the parent is not right there. It’s called “community.” It’s called “being a decent human being.” It’s called “normal.” What is not normal is getting the authorities to intervene simply because you disapprove of another mom’s parenting decision: Dear Free-Range Kids: How can we defend good parents caught in the net of the over-reaching laws? On 6/24 I was arrested in CT for a 53-21a: Risk of Injury to a minor. It was for allowing my 3 year…
This wonderful essay by Stephanie Fairyington states it baldly: Why have we decided that adults should give their seats to children, rather than vice versa? On the blog CityLab, she writes of a recent New York City subway trip with her friend: [We] were on a Brooklyn-bound D train when a family boarded with their son, who looked about six. The mother kept staring and rolling her eyes at us for not giving up our seats to her child. She testily said aloud: “Don’t worry, sweetheart, someone will get off soon and you can have a seat.” Huh? Really? The…
I love this project. You may, too (boldface mine): Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m a photographer and an interdisciplinary community artist, and I’m transforming people’s childhood play memories into art for my new project called Play Passages. To start, I’m inviting people to share a vivid outdoor play memory from their childhood, and then draw a map of its location with their eyes closed. Believe it or not, it’s actually easier for many adults than drawing with eyes open—it short circuits the inner critic and invites people to play again. After making the drawing, then people use watercolors (with…
An upstate New York mom has been arrested for an unspeakable crime. She allowed her 10-year-old child to shop alone at the Lego store in the local mall while she shopped in a different store. The horror. Rochester station WHEC reports: The Ontario County Sheriff’s Office says a Pittsford mother is accused of leaving her ten-year-old child alone in the Lego Store at Eastview Mall while she shopped. Deputies say that 44-year-old Jia Fan was arrested at about 5:37 p.m. Sunday evening. She is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Ah yes, that poor, endangered kid, surrounded by…
This piece, “The Three Rules I made My Daughter Swear to Obey in College,” has been getting some attention in the mom-o-sphere. Rule #1: 1. Leave no-one behind What the writer means is, when you go out with your friends to a bar or party, no one should get left behind. That sounds pretty good to me — unless one of your friends lets you know that she wants to stay later than you, or go home with someone else. In that case, it doesn’t make any sense that you all have to stick together. This isn’t a field trip.…
Here is a piece of Americana to consider. It reads in reverse chronological order. I’ve taken out the names of the people, streets and town because there’s no reason to identify them. Rather, let’s give both the mom and kid a lot of credit for coming clean. A hat tip, as well, to the police department, for treating the girl with respect and compassion, and to the calm response by the swim team director. . And really, can we blame kids for panicking, when they grow up steeped in “lessons” about stranger danger? When you think about it, the first…
Following up on the story earlier this week about a Good Samaritan who found a lost toddler and tried to help her find her parents — only to be mistaken for a predator by the girl’s dad, who punched him and proceeded to smear him as a pervert on Facebook — a friend pointed me to this clip from the show Black-ish. You’ll see why! .