Article Category: Parenting

By Let Grow

Read Time: 2 minutes

Study Shows Kids Persist Less When Parents Step In to Help

Okay, this sounds like something we all know intuitively, but it is cool that social science decided to put intuition to the test. The abstract of a new study published...
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By Noah Berlatsky

Read Time: 5 minutes

College Is Not Always the Right Choice

"Can we stop talking about this?" That's what my son said the last time we started having a conversation about college and alternatives to college. He's a sophomore in high...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 4 minutes

My Kids, 8 and 10, Were Playing Down the Block. The Fire Department Escorted Them Home.

A letter in support of Nevada's "Reasonable Childhood Independence" Bill being Introduced Today A letter in support of Nevada's "Reasonable Childhood Independence" Bill being Introduced Today A doctor explains why...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

What Do a Gay, Black, Democrat Mom of One and a Straight, White GOP Grandma of 20 Have in Common? They’re Co-Sponsoring Nevada’s Reasonable Childhood Independence Bill

Nevada State Senator Dallas Harris Nevada Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen Let Grow's goal of making it easy, normal and legal to give kids some confidence-building independence is getting a big boost...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

“Bean Dad” Gets a Visit from Child Protective Services: Is that Good?

You may recall that last month, a comedian/musician named John Roderick became known all over the Western World (or at least Twitter) as "Bean Dad," thanks to his tweets about making his...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

Future-Proofing Our Kids

When engineers build something expensive and important, they try to “future-proof” it. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, future-proofing means “to design software, a computer, etc. so that it can still...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 6 minutes

Child Psychologist John Piacentini on How Parents and Teachers Can Help Anxious Kids Stop Avoiding Discomfort, Before the Cycle Bakes Itself In

Childhood anxiety and depression are on the rise. What could bring them back down? Let Grow's Lenore Skenazy Zoomed with Dr. John Piacentini, a leading child and adolescent psychologist and...
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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: 3 minutes

How to nurture kids’ curiosity

Recently, a journalist asked Let Grow: How can we foster our children's desire to learn things on their own -- not just for a class? Our response: School as we...
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By Vanessa Elias

Read Time: 5 minutes

Are You Raising Kids in Captivity, then Expecting Them to Survive in the Wild?

Wild animals in captivity quickly habituate to human care. Living a sheltered life, they don't learn critical survival skills. They show signs of psychological distress that will sound very familiar...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

The More Kids Walk, The More Likely They Are to Succeed in Adulthood

The more that kids grow up walking around, the more upward mobility they enjoy as adults. That’s the startling conclusion of a study on “The Socioecological Psychology of Upward Social...
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By Elizabeth Peyton

Read Time: 5 minutes

Are Teenage Babysitters and Babysitters Clubs Obsolete?

Teenage babysitters seem to be a thing of the past, but why? This mom makes an argument that we need to keep supporting teenage babysitters.
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