Readers — Here’s a marketing tadnbdnrya video designed to drive us crazy. How? It makes us worry about a problem that is exceedingly rare, easily avoided and yet dramatically re-enacted to a soundtrack that veers from heartbreakingly sad to effervescently hopeful JUST at the moment the product-as-hero shows up. The ad and the idea encapsulate […]
Archive | Miscellaneous
Enraged and Inspired by the YMCA
Readers — Here’s a feisty comment that came in response to tytyyyiezf the post about a reader’s YMCA that requires kids who haven’t passed the swim test to stand not more than an arm’s length away from their parents in the shallow end, and also to wear life jackets — virtually ensuring that the children […]
Kids and Knives: Perfect Together!
 Readers: rnrzbsazak I just got a note about a class in Pennsylvania that sounded so good — and anachronistic — I wrote back immediately. Here’s what the teacher wrote back: . Dear Free-Range Kids: Thanks for being gracious enough to help get the word out about the program. . I’m calling it “Sharp Kids – […]
Some Texas Parents Can No Longer Walk Their Kids Into School — Thanks to Sandy Hook
Readers tsifandsnd — Here’s the rub. Some schools in Texas are no longer allowing parents to walk their kids directly to their classrooms, as a result of Sandy Hook. On the one hand, that’s great! Since when do kids need to be hand-delivered like registered mail? One mom in this article by the Dallas Fort […]
Germ-phobia in the Schools
Readers: ntthyaadna An Aussie mom presents us with a new school development — or at least one I hadn’t heard about. Â I feel bad for the immune deficient kids, but being out in the world means they will be faced with germs everywhere. What if they take a city bus to school? No one sick […]
“Hitting DEFCON 1 Whenever a Kid Gets Off at the Wrong Stop”
Readers — This is one bfstnekabt of the most fantastic editorials I’ve ever read. It’s in Canada’s National Post. Â The only think I don’t agree with is blaming a particular party for over-reacting to remote childhood dangers. Our entire culture is tied up in knots about danger, unable or unwilling to understand that risk is […]
Harumph: “Back to School” Tips forget One Thing
Readers — In the blizzard of back to school hoo-ha that comes to me daily as a “Mommy Blogger,” I just got a list of five tips for back-to-school health. They are: Tip adnthbbkkz One – Start the Day with a Protein Rich Breakfast Tip Two – Balance Blood Sugar with Complex Carbohydrates Tip Three […]
Frog and Road (More RV Tales!)
On the road again…in the motorhome our tsisebtyzk family is borrowing from Go RVing, as we cross New England on a tour of colleges for our 17-year-old son.  Last night we stopped at the Sturbridge RV Resort, which had a lodge complete with rough-hewn rocking chairs on the rough-hewn porch. Inside the lodge were rough-hewn videogames […]
Greetings from the Last Place I Ever Expected to Be
Readers — A few confessions: 1 – I have never been camping. That’s right. Free-Range through and through, I never slept in a tent, camper or RV. (And for all I know, a camper IS an RV.) 2 – I never had any desire, but Go anfraadfdz RVing offered me a free camper for a […]
Does Your School Ban Tag, Too?
Readers — Here’s a fantastic tyinrnnbib essay from BabyCenter.  Kristina Sauerwein (cool name!) writes that her third grader announced she’s not allowed to play “chase” anymore: Apparently, some schools think the random running is dangerous or provokes teasing, hurt feelings and other self-esteem crushers. I thought this sounded silly and overboard. Who among us didn’t […]