Boy Rides Subway Alone, Makes News — And He’s Not Mine!

Gotta admit, this boy has mine beat. A 5-year-old bzskrtdyik hopped on the New York City subway yesterday and rode it 34 stops, emerging, according to the cops who found him, happy – even ecstatic. (His mom, whom he’d slipped away from, was, of course, hysterical. THEN happy, even ecstatic. )  I started this whole […]

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Learning The Wrong Lessons from Sandra Cantu’s Death

It’s front page news out here in San Francisco where I’m visiting, but it’s probably front page news out by you, too: The tragic story of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was abducted and murdered last week in California. Today’s front page story is as inevitable as the media attention: “Case Forces Parents to take Tougher […]

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Would You Like Some Cyber-Candy, Little Girl?

NEW STUDY SHOWS HUGE INCREASE IN ARRESTS OF ON-LINE PREDATORS!!!!! I can guarantee you, that is the headline you are about to hear on TV and read in the papers. And, terrified for your children, you will keep watching or reading, which serves the media darn well. They have lured you in and are holding […]

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Up With Recess! (And Down with Homework)

In case you had a sneaking suspicion that when schools chip away at recess time, they are doing their students no service, along comes this nice little study to say: You’re right. And while we’re at it: Grrrrrr. Thanks to No Child With A #2 Pencil Left Behind, more and more schools are sucking time […]

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What Happens When Kids Can’t Play

Hello, Readers! We have another guest post today, this one from developmental psychologist Dr. Helene Guldberg, a founder of the wonderful, British, on-line current affairs blog, Spiked (www.spiked-online.com). fidhntthnf She’s also author of Reclaiming Childhood: Freedom and Play in an Age of Fear. The thing I found most shocking in this post is that you […]

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Why I’m Not Taking the Advice of an “Expert” on Child Molesting

A comment on my post, “Of Peanuts and Pedophiles,” included a link to a Salon story on child sexual abuse. Voila: http://tinyurl.com/cc2qys bithsndtbt . It’s a disturbing piece, by a guy who worked for a year in a treatment center for juveniles who have raped and molested other kids. Hearing their histories gave him a, […]

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Of Peanuts and Pedophiles

You’ve probably read about the new, possible cure for peanut allergies. One very hopeful study at Duke ( http://tinyurl.com/cmbh39 sekhtdbien ) found that by administering first a dust-size speck of peanuts to an allergic child, and then a slightly larger speck and so on and so on, you can sometimes train the child’s immunological system […]

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When the Playgroup Mommies Think You’re A Slacker

Hi Readers! Today’s guest blogger is Jen Singer, who is so smart, funny and wise it’s a pleasure to inrtoduce you to each other! She’s got a new book out (don’t we all?): Stop rfttdyrseb Second-Guessing Yourself: The Toddler Years, and her blog is fun, too: http://mommasaid.net/ . Here’s her take on playgroup parents with a […]

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Kids and Sports and Crazed Parents

This sounds like a good book — “Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports,”  by Mark Hyman( http://untilithurts.com/). Apparently nzfsasanar Hyman’s 14-year-old son came home with an arm super-sore from playing too much baseball, too hard. Hyman  told the boy to get out there and pitch again — after all, it was the playoffs. Just […]

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