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America the Unhappy

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

Americans -- "particularly those under 30 -- have become drastically less happy in recent years," The New York Times reported this week.

Graphs from the latest World Happiness Report -- a real thing, put out by Oxford, Gallup and the U.N. -- show American kids' happiness drifting down like a deflated balloon. The surgeon general, already ...Read more

'The Anxious Generation' Has the Worst of Both Worlds

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

In a blockbuster Atlantic piece, "The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood," my Let Grow co-founder Jonathan Haidt says our culture is getting it all wrong when it comes to kids: We "underprotect" them in the virtual world and overprotect them in the real one.

That's the worst of both worlds if we want to raise healthy, happy kids.

The ...Read more

Not All Adults at the Park Are Predators

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

I'm trying not to obsess about child overprotection, but ... obsess I do. Here's the latest object of my ire: the playground signs in my berg, New York City, that say, "Playground rules prohibit adults except in the company of children."

Apparently, any adult who simply wants to sit on a bench and watch kids at play could be a creep, so we ...Read more

The NY Times Says Intensive Parenting Is Best, But...

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

"Parents Are Highly Involved in their Adult Children's Lives and Fine With It," declared the front page of The New York Times. Added the subhead: "New surveys show that today's intensive parenting has benefits, not just risks, and most young adults seem happy with it, too."

Is that true? "Intensive parenting" is best, and kids love it, even ...Read more

Playing Is Always Unsafe

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

The following note was passed along to us by a dad whose kids attend a public school in Texas. It says (emphasis mine):

Parents we need your help in keeping our children (SET BOLD) safe (END BOLD) at the playground after hours and on the weekends.

It is important that children are (SET BOLD) supervised at all times. (END BOLD)

We have had ...Read more

Walmart and Abduction: America's Favorite Things!

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

Sometimes I can't tell if I'm overly trusting or if the world is the opposite, and here's a perfect example:

At the end of December, a 64-year-old man shopping with his wife at a Florida Walmart grabbed a 4-year-old's wrist and, according to the media and local law enforcement, attempted to kidnap him.

If you Google "Daily Mail Walmart ...Read more

Safetyism Eclipses Common Sense

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

School's out on April 8 for many kids in the U.S. and Canada. On that date, a full solar eclipse will be visible from Texas to Ontario, and "There are risks associated with viewing a solar eclipse," several Toronto-area school boards announced.

Those schools moved their May 17 kid-free professional development day to April 8 "to ensure that ...Read more

We Made Kids So Safe That It's Hurting Them

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

Kids need to climb trees, jump off things and ride their bikes fast. That's what the Canadian Paediatric Society is recommending in a white paper out today: "Healthy childhood development through outdoor risky play."

If that sounds positively radical -- and also commonsensical -- you're right. Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist at ...Read more

Toronto Bans Tobogganing -- and Fun?

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

Talk about a slippery slope. Toronto recently erected "Tobogganing is not allowed" warnings on 45 hills around the city.

The reason for these bans is right there on the sign: "Hazards such as trees, stumps, rocks, rivers or roads make this hill unsafe."

So apparently it is only safe for humans to enjoy an activity in nature if they are in an ...Read more

Time for Show-Churned Froot Loops?

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

Every once in a while, someone comes up with a truly great new product: The Tesla. The Fit-Bit. The Pop-Tart.

But most of the time ... they don't. They come up with a tiny twist on an old product and expect us to give a whoop. That's hard, especially when you know their secret: They use (unless I'm mistaken) the Skenazy New-ish Product ...Read more

The Man Saving Childhood Joy

Parents / Lenore Skenazy /

Kids running around, playing games, staying out till the streetlights come on!

That was Charles Brewer's childhood -- and dream. To make it happen in modern-day America, the entrepreneur developed Glenwood Park in Atlanta, a neighborhood that hewed to the tenets of "New Urbanism." That meant it had "town houses, offices, retail, walkable ...Read more

 

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