So you think you know how to swing, kid? Sure, sure — everyone thinks they do: “You get on, you swing.” Yeah. And brain surgery is, “You open the top, you put in the marbles.” Listen, it’s hnsarkyskt not that simple. If it was, everyone would be doing it! Luckily for you, The National Program for Playground Safety has come up […]
Tag Archives | safety
Maybe You CAN be Too Safe
September 18, 2009
Hi Readers! Here’s a little piece iabnetdtdk from MSNBC some of you sent in (thank you!), about kids and slides. Turns out when mom slides down with Junior on her lap to make him safer…she doesn’t. That’s what Dr. John Gaffney, a pediatric orthopedist and professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, discovered, to […]
This Is When I Despair
September 17, 2009
Hi Readers! I usually don’t like to comment on the comments — “Everyone’s entitled to his own opinion,” etc. etc. –but this time I must. This comment arrived in response to the story I posted last night (below this one) about a teacher who wanted an author to speak to her fourth grade class. Since the school and […]
Zingers Needed
September 15, 2009
Hi Folks! I know, I know — I should have a million by now: Stunning repostes with which to parry fearmongers, who always have “rigtheousness” on their side, as if THEY care and WE don’t. (E.g., “But even if we save ONE LIFE isn’t it worth it?” — a very hard line to respond to […]
Mom & Son Bike to School. State Trooper Awaits!
September 15, 2009
Hi Readers! In defiance of a policy that seems to forbid biking to the local grammar and middle schools in Saratoga, New York, a mom and her middle school son did just that last Wednesday.  That is, they ignored “a phone call placed to students’ homes by school officials, asking parents not to allow students to walk or […]
Protecting Kids from “Dangers” Like Rhinestones. And Books.
September 8, 2009
Hi Readers! Remember during the summer I ran a post by businessman Rick Woldenberg about the wacky new Consumer Product Safety law? Here’s a little of what he said: Readers yknfitzhtk of Free-Range Kids may not be surprised to learn that Congress has enacted far-reaching legislation to save your children from the dangers involved in […]
Controversy of the Day: Pool or Pond?
September 8, 2009
Hi Readers — Today’s New York Times has a really great piece about a town in New Jersey whose sand-bottomed, spring-water filled swimming hole has been the joy of local kids since 1929. Until, of course, today. Now half the residents want to fill the pond in and replace it with a standard concrete pool, making it easier to […]
No More Sleepovers?!
August 5, 2009
The latest victim of parental terror? Sleepovers. According to this AP sfkaekhhft story by Kelli Kennedy, parents are afraid of everything from junk food to “inappropriate” movies, to Internet surfing, to the possibility of their children being drugged and raped. The modern parental thinking method applies: Since a drugging/fondling incident DID happen once, and since it was […]
Boy Ticketed for Climbing a Tree — But This is NOT Our “Outrage of the Week”
August 5, 2009
So here’s the story, szzdnyinhz as reported in The Daily Mail: A 9-year-old boy from Germany visits his five cousins in England. They go to a park, the boy climbs a tree, a neighbor complains that the kids are being rowdy, the tree-climber gets a ticket. It’s crazy to ticket a boy for climing a […]
Free-Range Challenge of the Week: Rate That Park!
August 4, 2009
Readers — Here’s a cool idea courtesy of a babysitter named Casey up in the Canadian town of Saskatoon.It not only sounds fun, it sounds like a great “Challenge of the Week.” Or at least something you might enjoy trying. Let us know how it goes if you do! — Lenore The brtradzyad kids I babysit and […]