ArcaMax

Students at 11 Chinese schools (so far) are required to wear "smart" uniforms that track their every move.

Thanks to chips sewn into the uniforms' shoulders, the school can record the exact time a child enters and leaves the school.

If the kid skips a class, his parents and teachers are notified. If he leaves the class without permission, ...Read more

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably is a duck. But if it looks like a rose and smells like a rose, maybe it's sex trafficking?

That was the conclusion reached by police officers contacted by a manager at the Walmart in Coshocton, Ohio, who saw some people putting roses on the windshields of cars in the store's parking lot...Read more

Shaina Bell, the 24-year-old Ohio mom arrested for leaving her kids in a Motel 6 room while she worked her evening shift at a Little Caesars, has something much better than a pizza to deliver now: a home for her kids, made possible by the $165,000 raised for her family in a GoFundMe campaign.

"A lot of people are saying hurtful things, but a ...Read more

An Ohio mom has been arrested for leaving her kids, a 10-year-old and a 2-year-old, in a motel room while she worked her shift at a pizza shop.

A tip to the police led officers to a Motel Six in Youngstown at about 6:15 p.m. on Thursday night. The 10-year-old explained that her mom was working and would be home at 10 p.m.

The officers went to ...Read more

When engineers build something expensive and important, they try to "future-proof" it. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, future-proofing means "to design software, a computer, etc. so that it can still be used in the future, even when technology changes." In other words, something that's future-proof is able to adapt as the world changes.

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It goes without saying that no one wants a child to be hurt, ever.

Sometimes, though, it seems as if we believe that with enough child-surveillance, parent-surveillance, blaming, shaming, investigating and arresting, we can achieve perfect childhood safety: Just make sure kids are watched 24/7 -- and hound the parents who don't do that.

That's...Read more

Yet another guy screamed at a mom for letting her kid wait in the car while she ran in to get a gallon of milk -- but with a twist: He was a carjacker who'd just stolen her car.

The second he noticed the kid in the back seat, he sped back to the parking lot and yelled at the mom to take the boy out. She did -- and he drove off again.

More ...Read more

The students were evacuated to the football field as hazmat teams rushed to the scene. The local prosecutor was alerted, as were the police. Responders entered the building and went room by room. What calamity beset Haddon Township High School in New Jersey's Camden County last week? A bomb threat? A gas leak? Anthrax?

Worse. Dinnerware.

...Read more

Yes, we're a few weeks into 2021 -- a few BIG weeks -- but before we get too comfy, let's pause to promise this year will not be as nuts! Because for kids and parents, 2020 was strange and crazy in ways big and literally microscopic. As in, virus-size. The craziest helicopter-parenting moments?

No. 1: Pointing Fingers

A 6-year-old with Down ...Read more

If you saw the thread that was burning up Twitter these last few days (at least before a certain meetup in Washington, D.C.), you read a story almost as long as the six-hour ordeal the dad describes, which began when his daughter wanted some baked beans and the father, John Roderick -- aka "Bean Dad" -- told her to open a can and heat some up.

...Read more

A friend who was just noodling around the AccuWeather site found a blog post called "Why Have Midwestern Cities Banned a Beloved Winter Pastime?"

The piece, which seems like it might just sit in a slush pile on AccuWeather's news desk and await recycling every snow season, discusses a few horrible sledding injury lawsuits that drained the ...Read more

You may recall the saga of the South Carolina mom who granted her kids -- 9, 10 and 11 -- permission to walk the mile home from school together, without her.

School officials refused to release them to do this, on the grounds that a nearby intersection (with walk/don't walk signals) is too dangerous. This particular mom's kids happen to cross ...Read more

Attention readers: Lenore Skenazy is off this week. Please enjoy the following column by Bob Goldman.

It was a close call.

For a moment there, it looked like our COVID-19 crisis was clearing up and you would soon be going back to work at your actual workplace. It was a transition that would bring you many advantages, none of which you ...Read more