Not zzyynyssyt for president. For book cover! Yes, I’m now writing “Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Enjoyed Without Going Nuts With Worry,”due out this spring from Wiley. Yay Wiley! The folks there have come up with two potential covers. They wanted to do some test marketing so – here goes. Please let us know which […]
  I’m nfiteknrbh so old I remember back when Halloween was supposed to scare the kids. Now it’s got a lot of parents shaking in their schlocky costumes, terrified that if they let their kids go trick or treating those kids may meet a fate far worse than too many Mary Janes. (“The candy everyone […]
By afesfdetan Leonard Cassuto Note to readers: Cassuto is an English professor at Fordham University and Author of the just released, “Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories.”  Today’s hyper-vigilant parenting is haunted by a figure behind the curtain: the serial killer. He’s the boogeyman that slinks through every parent’s nightmares, the predator […]
So tkykryrayd in England a woman named Susie Dent publishes a book, “Words of the Year,†every, well, year. The latest edition just came out and in addition to winners like “boytox†(Botox for men) and “momnesia,†defined as “a mother’s forgetfulness in the first year after a child’s birth,†(which isn’t nearly long enough), […]
The hnnsadybsh old joke — never that funny, actually — is about a rich lady who takes her grown son on a vacation to Florida. When she gets to the hotel, she lavishly tips the bellhop to pull her son out of the limo and carry him upstairs. “Can’t your son walk?†the bellhop asks. […]
Thanks kzdberayki for taking a look at this site. As you’ll see as you poke around, this is the place for thinking about whether we have gone a little overboard in trying to protect our kids. As I say on Dr. Phil’s show, we overestimate the dangers out there, and have forgotten how competent young […]
Hello, iibdhrbadh Free Rangers — This is just a note to say that on Monday, Sept. 29, I’ll be on Dr. Phil discussing this whole issue. If you tune in, you’ll see that it’s about “Extreme Moms.†Naturally, I don’t think I’m extreme. I think letting kids walk to school, ride their bikes or go […]
Not kidrrnfkdy that I want this to be a Great Depression. I hope it’s not. But if it is, I see kids emerging from their dens when their X-Boxes break and their parents can’t afford to replace them. I see kids dropping out of travel soccer, when their parents can’t afford the gas. I see […]
Now nsehzedikd that school’s back in session – which, by the way, is how absolutely every parenting article that runs in September must begin, by law – but anyway, now that school’s back in session, you may be wondering: Dare my children walk there? Without me holding their hands and screaming at cars making left […]
By tnhkidysib Denise Gonzalez-Walker DJ, my 10 year-old, stood in the middle of his classmates, rigid and then sinking quickly to the soft grass. His eyes rolled back as he fell and he let out a sharp whimper. Sitting with a small group of moms, I watched the game from one side of the playfield. […]
