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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

Carjacker Steals Car with Kid in It, Returns to Chew Out Mom

Drives Off Again, Child-Free Yet another guy screamed at a mom for letting her kid wait in the car while she ran in to get a gallon of milk –...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Idaho Introduces Reasonable Childhood Independence Bill

“The intent of this is to help parents feel comfortable that they can let their kids grow up and experience life in a relatively independent way without the threat of...
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...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

School Evacuated…Because of a Dinner Plate

The students were evacuated to the football field as Hazmat teams rushed to the scene. The local prosecutor was alerted, so were the police. Responders entered the building and investigated...
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.