Search results for: \"stranger danger\"

By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

Second Thoughts on Keeping Kids Safe by Never Letting Them Out of Our Sight — and the Enduring Myth of Stranger Danger

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...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 4 minutes

Let Kids, 12 & 9, Stay in Hotel Room Alone?

Wow -- there are 101 responses and counting to this question on our Raising Independent Kids Facebook group. A mom named Michelle asks: Question about leaving kids alone at a...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 7 minutes

Let Grow Takes a Look at Crime Statistics

Don't let fear rule your parenting. These common sense crime statistics show the world is safer for kids than it's been in decades.
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

The Sorrow and the Fear: Athena Strand’s Murder, and Us

Sorrow and anger rage in our hearts. A child has been murdered. Athena Strand, 7, was abducted and murdered last week in her Texas town of Paradise. (The irony hurts,...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 20 minutes

Readers’ Advice to Mom Who (Temporarily) Lost Kid at Airport

Recently we ran the letter a mom named Katy wrote to Let Grow about how her child, 6, wandered off at Newark Airport after Katy had asked her to stay...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

What Age Did You Go Outside by Yourself?

Our Twitter poll last week asked those born BEFORE 1982 and those born AFTER to tell us what age they were first allowed outside to do things like walk to...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

Putting Covid (and other) Risks to Kids in Perspective

We humans get risk wrong. We focus on what's top of mind, or top of the fear chart -- not what's a top killer. This great piece in The New...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 9 minutes

Let Grow Looks at Common Child Safety Myths and Facts

Today’s parents are bombarded with more information, advice, and “cautionary tale” news stories than ever before. From viral Facebook posts to breaking news, it seems like there’s always something new...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Four Realistic Lessons from the Jayme Closs Kidnapping

In October 2018, 13-year-old Jayme Closs of Barron County, WI, was kidnapped from her home after 21-year-old Jake Patterson allegedly broke in and shot her parents. After 88 days, she...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

How Dare the News Report This Non-Event as an “Attempted Abduction at Rest Stop”?

The headline is terrifying: Mother gives warning after attempted abduction at rest stop And yet the story is anything but. See if you feel the same. 10TV.com in Columbus, OH,...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

The Shockingly Simple Way to Stop Helicopter Parenting

Even if you want to stop worrying about your child's safety any time they are beyond the front lawn (or on it!), we live in a culture driving us nuts...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Do Human Traffickers Kidnap Children?

In recent years, the common parenting fear of kidnapping has taken on a new aspect. Now parents are asking: Do human traffickers kidnap children? Child kidnapping is a tough fear...
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