Hey Readers — Here kattysszin is a wonderful little skit from Saturday Night Live. It’s not about kids, it’s about women. But the message works for both: Buy our safety device. Or live (if you’re lucky!) to regret it. — Lenore
Tag Archives | safety
Keeping Score — Literally (And a Song!!!)
Hi Readers! A friend just wrote to tell me he was dismayed to learn that at his local grammar school the kids play soccer but don’t keep score. Why not? Because this way, “Everybody wins.” Or nobody wins, of course.  If  losing a schoolyard soccer game is too traumatizing for kids, imagine what’ll happenwhen they […]
Crazy Safe!Gov’t Recalls MACHETE as “Laceration Hazard”
This is ever so slightly off-topic (except that it highlights our societal assumption that everything is unsafe and everyone is super stupid), but thank you, Reader Laura, for sending in aiknrtkiyi today’s product recall . The Consumer Product Safety Commission is telling consumers to immediately “stop using” the 20-inch-long, saw-tooth Gerber Gator Machete (related to Gerber […]
Surely You Must Be Choking!
Hi Readers — Thanks to all of you who sent in this htdbfbtfbr AP story today, about the American Academy of Pediatrics wanting companies to start labeling hotdogs, carrots, grapes and other foods as choking hazards. Which, admittedly, they are. And sidewalks are tripping hazards, and puddles are slipping hazards, and trees are bumping-int0 hazards. […]
Hey Kids! What To Do If You Are Trapped in A Trunk by Your Local Madman!
Hi Readers: As a Free-Range parent I believe in preparing kids to be independent and safe. Just as we teach them to “Stop, drop and roll!” in the unlikely event they’re ever on fire, it makes sense to teach them to yell, kick and run in the equally unlikely event some creep tries to grab […]
Shark to 14-Year-Old Girl: Okay, Okay. You Win!
Hi kknszkbire Readers — Not quite sure what this has to do with Free-Range other than: Never underestimate the power of a 14-year-old girl! The one in this New Zealand incident gave her attacker a whack and lived to tell the (shark) tale. Â — Lenore
Some Parents Aren’t Ditching Their Maclarens — Despite Recall
Oh do I love this piece, Recall sssnfdzhds Rebels: Moms Fess Up to Using Recalled Maclaren Strollers, on ParentDish. (And not just because I’m about to start writing a weekly post for that site. Yay!) The piece is all about parents who, strangely enough, managed to keep some perspective after Maclaren recalled about a million trillion […]
Not Every Kid Gets Driven to the Bus Stop in an SUV
Hi Readers — Sometimes feels as if we’ve lost a little perspective on what constitutes danger, especially when it comes to whether it’s safe for our kids to walk a couple blocks to school. This video should restore it. And then some. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEhPlZwqhpE]
OK, Now: When Is BOWLING Perfectly Safe? (Hint: Never.)
Yes, Readers: That was the conclusion over in less-than-jolly, indeed, downright macabre England. According to this beshetkkna article, a  group of safety experts was assigned to assess the sport’s dangers: After two years and £250,000, they found that ten-pin bowling alleys up and down the country could be a ‘very dangerous’ environment for families. They […]
When Is A Christmas Tree PERFECTLY Safe?
Here’s ihritfdeny when. I thought this article was a joke. Then I thought the tree was. Then I remembered: We are living in 2009. This cone-tree, erected in a public square, has no pine needles to poke an eye out, no branches to clobber anyone, no feature at all to remind us that trees — […]