You’ve probably read about the new, possible cure for peanut allergies. One very hopeful study at Duke ( http://tinyurl.com/cmbh39) found that by administering first a dust-size speck of peanuts to an allergic child, and then a slightly larger speck and so on and so on, you can sometimes train the child’s immunological system to stop violently overreacting. It is wonderful to think that for some people, this may be a cure at last. But it’s also wonderful to think of the peanut story as an analogy to, of all things, stranger danger. If a child is allowed to explore…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Today’s guest blogger is Jen Singer, who is so smart, funny and wise it’s a pleasure to inrtoduce you to each other! She’s got a new book out (don’t we all?): Stop Second-Guessing Yourself: The Toddler Years, and her blog is fun, too: http://mommasaid.net/ . Here’s her take on playgroup parents with a different worry/scold threshhold: BY JEN SINGER You’re at your playgroup when another mom jumps up, runs across the room and picks up your toddler, who had just fallen down. He was not crying. He was not perilously close to a sharp-edged table or fireplace. He…
This sounds like a good book — “Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports,” by Mark Hyman( http://untilithurts.com/). Apparently Hyman’s 14-year-old son came home with an arm super-sore from playing too much baseball, too hard. Hyman told the boy to get out there and pitch again — after all, it was the playoffs. Just a few years later, the kid ended up in surgery. Sports injury. For his part, the dad ended up with an epiphany: There is no reason to push our offspring to this point. So he examines how sports went from something spontaeous…
Dearest Readers — I have been thinking of what to say about this new product but frankly, my jaw just keeps going slack. Ditto my sarcasm skills. So here goes, from the website Baby Sounds 4 Pets I have 2 passions in my life,my pets and becoming a mother. Three years ago while my sister was expecting her first child, I was looking for a CD of baby sounds to prepare her two dogs and cat for the arrival of my nephew. I couldn’t find one ANYWHERE! So I decided to create BABY SOUNDS FOR PETS! THE FIRST CD OF…
Regarding: Schools outlawing normal human behavior, this one has got to be the best. Or worst. You know what I mean. Sent from a father of three named Timothy: Last nbbzzfaisn fall, my 4th grader’s class banned playing football at recess after one child fell down and hurt his arm. You might say that that isn’t too outrageous of a response, except for one fact — the boy wasn’t actually injured by playing football. He was injured after he tripped over a tree root while showing the other kids his touchdown dance. Because football motivated the dance, it was…
We’ve already heard about teachers no longer being able to comfort their students for fear of being accused of child molesting. Even pre-school teachers are not immune: A hug is a grope until proven otherwise. But here is a new level of hyper-worry: After a child got injured, a school in Connecticut has banned ALL touching between ALL students. http://wcbstv.com/local/school.bans.hugs.2.969949.html No more backslaps. No more high fives. Fist bumps, be gone. You can understand the administration’s frustration. A kid was seriously hurt by a kick to the groin — that’s just awful. But why is the response to criminalize all…
Each week I get an email blast called “Connect with Kids” that veers between helpful and crazy-making. Today it’s the latter. (http://www.connectwithkids.com/tipsheet/2009/430_mar25/thisweek/090325_house.shtml) In a little article about babyproofing, it quotes an “expert” who casts her eyes around a new parent’s home and, “immediately spots something she doesn’t like in the kitchen. Plastic trash bags.” Continues the blog: “‘You think these are great for your trash cans, well, they are, but it’s terrible for your baby,’ she explains. ‘Children love plastic. For some reason, they are drawn to it. They will eat it, and they will suffocate.'” Excuse me, but children…
Here’s a little excerpt from a very positive review of the book, “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” in today’s New York Times: “….In the other stories the danger may be less operatic, but it’s no less alarming: a child molester lures a 7-year-old boy into a portable bathroom at a carnival; a tattooed stranger tries to abduct a teenage girl…” Talk about the perfect Mother’s Day gift! Now, I’ve got nothing against authors choosing whatever subject matter attracts them. But if you ever wonder why we feel so worried all the time about pedophiles and abductions and even — especially! —…
The death of Natasha Richardson is the definition of tragedy — sad, senseless, shocking. It’s just horrible and a lot of us are haunted by it. In fact, as parents, we maybe a little too haunted by it. How so? “It’s a wake-up call,” announced a mom friend of mine on a field trip last Friday. “Wake-up call to what?” I asked. “Parents now know that when their kid gets hit in the head and says they’re all right, they may not be.” “So we should take our kids to the emergency room every time they hit their head and…
My 10-year-old son wanted the chance to walk from our house to soccer practice behind an elementary school about 1/3 mile from our house. He had walked in our neighborhood a number of times with the family and we have driven the route to practice who knows how many times. It was broad daylight – 5:00 pm. I had to be at the field myself 15 minutes after practice started, so I gave him my cell phone and told him I would be there to check that he made it and sent him off. He got 3 blocks and a police car intercepted him.