No Phones Allowed? My Kids Were Practically In Tears
School teacher Ezra Alexander started a Let Grow Play Club after school: Kids could play with anyone and do almost anything -- except their phones. At first, this made his...
Strict Parenting? Gentle Parenting? Ellen Galinsky’s “Autonomy-Support” Alternative
Teens need two things -- some autonomy and some support. Put them together and you get autonomy-supportive parenting, which Ellen Galinsky examines and ultimately recommends in her new book, "The...
After hearing Jon Haidt discuss "The Anxious Generation," Larissa asked her 5th grader if she'd like to walk home unsupervised for the first time. And that's when everything changed!
The Cure for America’s “Drastically Less Happy” Kids
Americans under age 30 are drastically less happy than older Americans, in part because they get so little chance to play on their own. But play is nature's anti-depressant.
Surprise! Free Play is Safer than Sports or Hanging out at Home
This post is reprinted (and gently edited) from a surprising article on LinkedIn that showed that free play is safer than sports -- the adult-organized kind -- or even hanging...
New Study Finds Intensive Parenting is Best…Or Does It?
Is it intensive parenting to text your young adult kids a few times a week and offer some advice on things like finances? The New York Times says yes. I...
Want to make your teen into a capable young adult? Who doesn't! The key may lie in remembering that teens have always BEEN capable young adults, ready to pitch in....
This absorbing, longer-than-usual, and perhaps envy-inducing essay was originally published on Terms of Endearment, a newsletter by Sarah Menkedick about motherhood, travel, art, home education, Mexico, and living a more...
