Filed under: Uber Safety, Uncategorized, Walk to School / Stay Home Alone / Wait in Car, Worst-First Thinking | Tagged: abduction, Amber Alert, babysit, fear, high school, infantilize, overprotection, worst-first | 160 Comments »
An Alert for an 11-y.o. Missing for 2 Hours?
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK: Mom Ticketed for Letting Son, 14, Watch Brother, 3, for 30 Mins
Hi Readers — Just as we were rejoicing about sanity across the sea (see below, regarding Britain’s re-evaluation of its excessive background checks), comes this story, from The Express:
A MOTHER who left her son of 14 to mind his three-year-old brother while she went to the shops was given a police caution for “cruelty” and was suspended from work.
…Although there was no “incident” and they were not believed to be in danger, the mother was cautioned by officers for “committing an act of cruelty on a child or young person.”
You want cruelty? How about the cruelty of treating a mom like a criminal for knowing her son is a responsible young man? How about the cruelty of making a mom unemployable? How about the cruelty to all her fellow citizens who maybe even remember BABYSITTING at age 11 or 12, but now feel compelled to treat their own teens like imbeciles? Or the cruelty to young adults who want to do something in the world besides playing videogames, but are being told, “No! You are a baby yourself!”
This is positively stunting to children, and shackling to adults, who are apparently never allowed to leave their children’s side till the kids go off to college.
Remember when the rallying cry for a generation was, “Never trust anyone over 30”? Now it’s, “Never trust anyone UNDER 30.” Or at least under age 16 — the minimum age England’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children recommends babysitters be. (It also says kids should be 14 before they are allowed to stay home alone!)
This idea that teens are unable to take care of kids for even half an hour flies smack in the face of evolution, which has spent the past 300,000 years or so making teenage homo sapiens into parents. And somehow the species arrived at today. Glorious today, when we treat young children as infinitely endangered, and older kids as dangerously inept. — Lenore
Filed under: Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts, Child Protective Services, Uncategorized | Tagged: babysit, Outrage, outrage of the week, overprotection, police, ticket | 127 Comments »
Boy, 11, Saves Family! (So Why Won’t Many Folks Let 11-y.o.s Babysit?)
Hi Readers! Here’s a terrifying but wonderful story of what happened when a mom going about 55 miles an hour suddenly blacked out — with her three kids in the car. Thank goodness one was a very smart, quick-thinking young man. Let’s remember the things our kids are capable of instead of treating them all like precious little dumb-dumbs.
Have a great week! — Lenore
Filed under: Breaking news, GOOD News, Uncategorized | Tagged: 11, babysit, boy, car, save | 39 Comments »
Free-Range Challenge of the Week: Rate That Park!
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 kids I babysit and I are doing a HUGE summer project this year. We have planned to go to all of the parks in our city, play on them, and rate them on a scale of 1-5. So far we’ve been to about half of the parks and we’ve already realised a few things.
First of all the parks that try to be “safe” really aren’t much safer than the more fun but “dangerous” ones. And second, not everything always has to lead up to the slide! Some of our favourite parks so far have been the ones that you can play “don’t touch the ground tag” and also the ones that have neat inventive toys and obstacles.
Anyways, one thing is for sure, regardless of the safety or fun level of the parks, it really is a great thing to get out and find out what your town really does have to offer – we’re having one of the best summers ever!
Filed under: Guest Post, Uncategorized | Tagged: babysit, challenge of the week, parks, playground, safety, summer | 21 Comments »