Readers — A bunch of you have been sending this ddiyhnzhan fantastic story from New Zealand, where a school abandoned its plans to build a fancy, new playground because there were just too many regulations and expenses. Instead, it decided to let kids play the old-fashioned way, by making their own fun. The results? Astounding. […]
Yep, kids built a fort on an empty lot. Then someone called in a complaint. First off, here’s the letter the kids wrote to the city: Dear bisasasrte City, Please do not tear this house down! We have all worked for almost a year on it, for hours and hours. We have all had fun […]
UPDATE: *********Readers, one of you asked us to start a list of parks that still have merry-go-rounds. Does yours? If so, please tell us where it is!********* Readers, did you grow up with a merry-go-round at the park? And now? Interestingly, I couldn’t find any laws that state merry-go-rounds must go, only reams of regulations […]
Readers — Here is an actual letter from a school superintendent, sent in by a reader after she and her husband had asked why their kindergartener was getting  only getting one 20-minute recess per day. Writes the mom: I was told it was because of curriculum at first.  That seemed odd because we went from […]
Readers — I find this story by Colleen Creamer flabbergasting: A grandmother in the tiny town of Charlotte, TN, allowed her four grandkids, ages 7 – 12, to ride up and down her street. For this she found herself in violation of a 2003 city code that declares no one can “ride an all terrain vehicle, […]
Readers — So many truths turn out to be counter-intuitive, including this little lesson from a Canadian Hockey Mom: At a hockey tournament last weekend, where EVERYTHING was adult-organized, and the only “toy” these grade 6 and 7 boys brought along was a goddamned Playstation or Xbox or some crap like that with games where […]
Readers — To use my friend Gever nfzsbidfia Tulley’s term, we are geniuses when it comes to “dangerizing.” To dangerize is to take a hitherto normal activity or item and re-interpret it as something dangerous. That’s how we get baby knee pads — we dangerize crawling. And Halloween restrictions — we dangerize trick or treating. […]
Readers — Yesterday rtyksdbben I asked you to ponder why the government is (or, apparently, MAY be) destroying its brand-new “Just Move!” Â stamps that show kids doing things like skateboarding, jumping into the water and doing headstands. The real reason is that when they were shown to President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, as […]
Readers ehabzkesrf – Before you read this, let me say that I am eagerly awaiting a call later today from a lawyer whose organization fights for parents’ rights to raise their kids as they see fit, so long as they aren’t hurting them. In the meantime, here’s why we need a group like that: Dear […]
Hi Folks – A reader named Jaimie sent in this zdtftsfskn story, noting that “These kids wouldn’t have been able to help if they weren’t outside, or if they were afraid to talk to a woman they didn’t know!” What happened? An Atlanta-area mom named Susanna Rohm was in her living room when she noticed […]
