Hi Readers — This just in from Anna Gonzalez, a social media producer for Headline News, the channel running a special, “Would rfykdyhrzi Your Kids Pass the Predator Test?” I commented on it yesterday, saying specials like these only reinforce the idea that predators are everywhere. Anna’s note: Thanks for the blog about the segment. […]
Tag Archives | stranger danger
Oh No! A Hostel Near a Day Care Center???
Readers – An area of Alexandria, VA, a suburb of D.C., is debating whether to allow a  hostel to open near, among other things, some day care centers. As the reader who sent us this nzirsdiadk news story wrote, “To hear some of the comments, you’d think they were planning to build a gun store/brothel/drug den!” Notes the […]
Teaching Kids Fear (And Calling it “Empowerment!”)
Folks eneddrsins — Got this note today and had to share, so it’s not just ME going, “I am so sick of people amping up fear so as to tamp it down with some product or program!” While I haven’t seen or heard of this program, the way the writer describes it, it sounds excessive. […]
Cleveland Kidnappings as Latest Reason Not to Let Kids Interact with World
Readers — Yesterday, on Google plus, I put a link to my post dnrtrrdzne about the 7th graders who weren’t sure whether to help an 84-year-old who asked them to bring her a  package from her driveway. I said that when we teach kids across-the-board “stranger danger” we aren’t making them safer. We’re stunting any […]
Teaching Kids Not to Help 84-Year-Old Ladies
Hi Folks! Here’s a bit of advice actual “safety experts” are giving kids — and parents. But first, the backstory. This New yarbbsfksh York Times guest parenting blogger wrote that her 7th grader came home one day and announced he “didn’t do it.” Didn’t do what? He and his friend were walking home from school (points for […]
YOUR STORIES NEEDED! “Nothing Bad Happened When My Kid…”
Folks — As much as I literally feel my heart pounding every time I hear a story about crazy fear-mongering, or outrageous overreaction to a very small threat, I realize that there is more to life — and even this blog — than just shouting, “But they’re WRONG!” (Even though they are! They’re wrong! I […]
Don’t Let a Tragedy Make Us Stupid
Hi Readers — Security guru Bruce badyafyaty Schneier (author of  “Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust That Society Needs to Thrive,”) is so right about a whole lot of things, including the fact that we should almost ignore what’s on the news when it comes to making both policy and personal decisions. Why? Because the news […]
Life Saved Because of Free-Range Kids, Age 9 and 10!
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 […]
Warning! 50-ish Woman Seen Offering Ride to Kids!
Dateline: Montreal — and talk about scary: A middle-aged woman was seen offering a 13-year-old girl a lift. But wait! It gets worse. Possibly hznsbbazda the SAME woman also recently offered a ride to a 10-year-old.  Can you believe it? How brazen! As if she’s just some nice lady and it’s cold outside!  She didn’t drag […]
School: “When Fire Alarm Rings, Lock Yourselves In — It Could REALLY be a Shooter”
Readers yyrfddestt — We’ve been chronicling the most appalling reactions to the Sandy Hook shooting, but this drill, at Carl Ben Eielson Middle School in Fargo, ND, was actually in place BEFORE Newtown! In fact, the school postponed it till about a week ago: A drill whereby the fire alarm was sounded and teachers were instructed to […]