Yesterday I was in the store looking for some new swim goggles for my son.  Yes, the blonde one who would lose his head if it were not attached.  I noticed a horrifying sight.

The summer stuff was being pushed back to the clearance rack and the back to school stuff was prominently featured up front.  ACK!  Summer just started.  Didn’t  it?  I certainly am not ready for the back to school extravaganza to begin.  This is the first year that I will have children in elementary school, middle school, and high school.  Just thinking about all the planning and co0ordinating and lunch packing is making my head spin.  I sure hope that they figure out how to add a few extra hours to the day by the time September rolls around!

But aside from my anxiety over that, I still feel like there are so many things that I want to do with our summer vacation.  Like, maybe, actually GO on a vacation.  We recently moved across the country and landed here right in the throes of baseball season.  Last night was our final game.  After almost 6 months of non-stop baseball we have a lull before the next sports season begins and more importantly before school begins.

People keep asking us if we have been to this place or that place–various touristy sites, lakes, parks, theaters– and so far Ihave had to say that no we haven’t gone anywhere.  But I am looking forward to checking out at least a few places over the next month.

At Motherlode, the New York Times parenting blong, Lisa Belkin tackles the question of whether or not we should get rid of summer vacation as a society.  For the children, not for the grown-ups, because clearly it really is not a vacation for us.

What do you think?  Should we get rid of summer vacation and go to school year round?  Would that help families where both parents work not have to scramble to find summer daycare?  Are the lazy days of summer a thing of the past?

If we did get rid of summer vacation when in the world would children have time to just be children?  To relax and run around the neighborhood with their friends and have no agenda?  To sleep in until their eyes pop open by themselves, to lay on the grass and read a book, to play card games with some friends, to not have any scheduled activities.  The sort of free time that we as adults are always wishing that we had more of.  Time for the children to just be children.

Every year people across the country set off their own fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July. Most never imagine that they or their children will be injured.

According to this article, in 2007, U.S. hospital emergency rooms treated an estimated 9,800 people for fireworks related injuries.

* 56% of the injuries were to the extremities and 36% were to the head.

* 49% of the 2006 fireworks injuries were burns, while 29% were contusions and lacerations.

*Nearly half of the victims of fireworks in 2007 were under the age of 15. The risk of fireworks injury was nearly two-and-a-half times as high for children ages 10-14 as for the general population.

*Sparklers, fountains, and novelties alone accounted for 25% of all emergency room fireworks injuries in 2005.

*On Independence Day in a typical year, more U.S. fires are reported than on any other day, and fireworks account for half of those fires, more than any other cause of fires.

*Fireworks caused an estimated 1,700 total structure fires and 600 vehicle fires reported to fire departments in 2005. These fires resulted in $34 million in direct property damage.

*More fires are reported on a typical Fourth of July than on any other day of the year and fireworks account for half of those fires, more than any other cause of fires.

If you are going to have personal fireworks, please be safe. But maybe they are something best left to the professionals.

That is the title of a new book that is out covering health myths that most of us have grown up hearing.

Things like gum takes 7 years to digest!  Going outside with wet hair in the winter will make you sick!

Taking a cue from this book, the New York Times recently ran an article presenting 11 Health Myths That May Surprise You. 

Who among us has not told our children not to swallow their gum.  I am not certain that it takes 7 years to digest (that seems a little crazy), but it certainly can not be good for your system, right?  But mostly it is one of those things you say as a parent simply because your own parents said it to you.  Along with other gems  such as “Your face is going to stick like that!”  “Carrots help you see at night!”  or “Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis.”

Those little myths and sayings are part of our collective parenting conciousness.  I know that there are more that just don’t come to mind right now.

For the record: Going out with wet hair will NOT make you sick.  Your face will NOT stick like that, even if someone does hit you on the back.  Carrots, while good for you, do nothing to improve your night vision.  And arthritis is NOT caused by cracking your knuckles.

How would you feel if you put your child on an airplane to go see their grandparents and discovered that the airline had messed up and sent the child to the wrong city? 

That is just what happened to one family.  Jonathan Kamas put his 10 year old daughter on an airplane in Boston to go visit with her grandparents in Ohio.  When the child failed to show up at her destination, the grandparents called Mr. Kamas wondering where she was.  And the airline had no idea.  For almost an hour Mr Kamas did not know the whereabouts of his daughter, until HE figured out that maybe she had been put on the wrong plane because the gates were right next to each other.  His daughter was in Newark, NJ.

And proving that this  is not an isolated event, the very next day an 8 yr old was put on the wrong flight.

How do these things happen? You would think that airline workers wouldbe hypervigilant in the case of unaccompanied minors.  Parents must pay extra fees  for this service and trust that a system is in place that works.

My 10 yr old son was supposed to go visit a friend of his out of state this summer, but I think this latest news put the proverbial nail in the coffin on that trip.  I just don’t feel comfortable sending him unescorted any longer.

What about you?  Have you sent your child on an airplane alone?  Is there a minimum age that you would consider allowing your child to fly unescorted?  Or are you like me, a fence sitter who was just pushed over to one side by this latest news?

The NY Times recently had an article exploring what the appropriate age is to leave children home alone.   Anyone who is a parent has faced this dilemma and I can honestly say that it is the number one thing I have conversations about with other parents of tweens.  Hushed conversations, because this topic is so divisive.  One friend wouldn’t leave her child home alone until he was 14, while yet another friend allows her 8 yr old to arrive home to an empty house every afternoon for a couple hours until she gets home from work.  Both feel as though the other is judging their decision.

As for me I sort of shrug.  Both seem slightly extreme to me, but who am I to judge each individual circumstance? 

I spent every afternoon home alone when I was a child from the time I was in third grade.  And by the time I was in seventh grade I spent my summers and school breaks home alone.  I lived on the beach and was allowed to go there everyday.  Something I am certain I would not feel  comfortable allowing my 13 yr old to do.

 As far as my children staying home alone, or babysitting siblings, I have broken them in slowly.  Leaving them for short periods of time and gradually increasing the time.  I have also discovered that personalities play a huge role rather than strictly age.  My oldest son rules the house in absence with an iron fist.  He is the rule enforcer.  There will be no fun under his watch.  I am exaggerating of course, but when I return home after leaving him in charge the house is tidy, everyone is quietly doing something like watching tv, and any snacks or food that were eaten were explicitly served by him. 

My next oldest son, who is just one year younger, is all about having fun.  He is the one who will think nothing of baking brownies  or cupcakes with his siblings to entertain them.  And leave every single baking utensil I own laying out in the kitchen.  There will have been elaborate games played and toys will be everywhere. 

Both of them are great with their siblings, but they do so very differently.  And both of their styles are okay. I was slightly more worried about my younger son but then one day we had a kitchen fire while I was home and cooking and he was the one who ran for the fire extinguisher and put the fire out.

I have to wonder if the economy has caused parents to leave their children, who are right on the cusp of their comfort zone, home alone because they can not afford a babysitter or summer camp. 

On the NYT parenting blog, Motherlode, Lisa Belkin asks, “At what age would you let your child…?”

She then poses a list of questions to ponder.

Among them,

stay in the car while you run an errand?

go on a date?

see a PG-13 movie?

babysit for the neighbor’s children?

How do you feel about this?  Do you have any hardfast rules about what ages your children need to be before they can do certain things or have certain privileges?  Did you have any hardfast rules that you reconsidered?  And if so, why did you reconsider?