The “NO!” vote was 93%. Small sample, but still…

Then came this fascinating tweet:

Lenore, I speak as an older parent of younger kids. In addition, I AM that “modern” camp. With over 1200 campers on-site at any given time, I oversee a team of 15 camp photographers who upload almost 1500 photos daily. And it’s never enough. The parents are RAVENOUS for more and more and more. Some parents, if they haven’t seen a photo of their child in a couple of days, begin to stress out, imagining the worse. They call and beg and plead. Meanwhile, the camper is just chugging along, having a great time, phone-free, being a kid in the best possible way. There’s a deeper thread here, a thread of anxiousness and fear and a lack of trust. And it’s not healthy for either the parent or the kid.

What a culture we live in!

I am so interested in the way a stream of info, rather than calming anyone, seems to give them OCD: The more reassurance they have, the more they need, and the more one minute WITHOUT reassurance becomes unbearable. Think about a guy who keeps going back to check if he locked the door. Checking calms him for a moment. But NOT checking — learning to live WITHOUT constant checking — is the only way to break the cycle of anxiety.

Phones, photos, tracking, portals — all of these FEED the anxiety while PRETENDING to assuage it. It’s like giving someone a burger than makes them more hungry after they eat it. “Oh, you want more? Let me sell you another one!”

Love to hear anyone’s thoughts on how the need for certainty — concrete reassurance — is changing childhood, parenting, the camp world and the world-world! Thanks!

Here’s (not) looking at you, kids! — L.

The post “1500 Photos a Day Is Not Enough for Them” appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

That is LITERALLY, not figuratively, WACKY!

It’s like believing that if you eat a KitKat your ears will SPURT BLOOD!

A friend just wrote to say that my job is hard because not only do people not realize there’s anything OFF about this constant terror for our kids, it has become completely normal and even valorized.

BUT! The fact that there’s now a bill in CONGRESS saying that America has gone overboard on safety and this is ruining kids and we need to not only DECRIMINALIZE childhood independence but ENCOURAGE IT — that gives me hope.

As does the work of the psychologist Dr. Camilo Ortiz. He’s studying independence as THERAPY for clinically anxious kids and it is going so well that even HE is in shock. (He keeps sharing stories of kids changed after just a COUPLE WEEKS of things like walking to the store or a friend’s house. Let’s goooo! Just loosening the reins a little is so simple and EFFECTIVE!)

AND I get hope from all the parents and teachers writing to me — to Let Grow, actually — to say that once they step back and let kids do new things on their own, a LIGHT BULB goes on. “Oh! They were ready to do this ALL ALONG! And now they feel so much better because they are not in pause-mode anymore! They are activated! Alive!”

So even though that 25,000-parent study ALSO found that “62% said that 8 to 12-year-old children should receive more supervision than they currently do” — MORE! — I continue to believe that CHILDHOOD INDEPENDENCE will win out, because it makes everyone happier and NOT LESS SAFE! Actually MORE safe when it comes to childhood anxiety, which is INFINITELY more common than stranger danger!

So here I am — ranting, worried, hopeful as heck.

The human condition.

The post Majority of 14-Year-Olds Not Allowed Off Their BLOCK??? appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

Son in Famous Meitivs of Maryland Case Weighs In — as Does His Mom

How do you get more kids out and about on their own – and assure parents this won’t be mistaken for neglect?

That’s a question Let Grow has been addressing since we were founded in 2017 to make childhood independence easy, normal and legal. The legal part got a huge boost Tuesday when Rep. Blake Moore (R., Utah) and Jennifer McClellan (D., Virginia) introduced the Promoting Childhood Independence and Resilience Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Its purpose is “to promote childhood independence” rather than threaten or investigate parents who give their kids some unsupervised time.

Course Correction Needed

“I grew up in the generation where your parents sent you out and you played in the neighborhood till the streetlights came on,” said Rep. McClellan. That wasn’t neglect – that was childhood.

Hearing stories about parents investigated for letting their kids play outside or walk to the store motivated Rep. Moore to draft the bill. “We are way too far down a bad path and we need to work as hard as we can, legislatively, to pull ourselves out from that.”

In 2018, his state, Utah, became the first to pass what was then called the Free-Range Parenting bill.

In 2023 McClellan was instrumental in getting Virginia to pass its own Reasonable Childhood Independence bill. To date, 13 states have done so, usually with Let Grow’s help, usually with bi-partisan sponsors, and often, as in Virginia, unanimously.

Making a Federal Case out of It

The federal Promoting Childhood Independence and Resilience Act would have states makes it clear that ordinary childhood activities like playing outside or even staying home alone a bit are good for kids, and not neglect. Neglect is when you put your child in obvious and serious danger – not anytime you take your eyes off them.

For instance: Being allowed to walk home from the park is not neglect. And yet, in 2015, Rafi Meitiv, then 10, and his younger sister, 6, were doing just that. Child Protective Services was summoned to the Meitiv home. “They threatened multiple times to take us away,” Meitiv, now 21 and a college senior, recalls. “They thought that my parents were dangerous and we’d be better off someplace else.” He thought he’d never see his parents again.

Danielle Meitiv (Still!) Speaks Her Mind

This became known as the Free-Range Parenting case. Danielle Meitiv, the mom, had read my book, Free-Range Kids, and believed, as she does to this day, that, “Parents deserve to let their children have their freedom, and it’s developmentally important.”

Eventually, the Meitivs were cleared. But over the years I’ve heard from parents across the country, accused of neglect simply for letting their kids do things kids have always done, before constant supervision became the social norm.

But Won’t Kids Get Kidnapped?

The authorities’ rationale is often that unsupervised kids could easily get kidnapped. This is wildly off. As I stated in my 2025 TED Talk: If for some reason you WANTED your child to be kidnapped by a stranger, how long would you have to keep them outside, unsupervised, for this to be statistically likely to happen?

750,000 years.

And yet, in part due to that far-fetched fear, more than one-third of all children — and more than half of all African-American children — will endure a child abuse investigation before age 18.

An Equity Issue, a Parenting Issue, a Mental Health Issue

“The brunt of investigations falls most heavily on lower income people and persons of color,” notes Diane Redleaf, Let Grow’s legal consultant.

The Promoting Childhood Independence and Resilience Act comes at a propitious time: Over the decades, kids’ mental health has been taking in tandem with their independence. It is cratering now. One free, simple antidote is to give them back some responsibility, trust and fun in the real world. A pilot study of independence as therapy found it worked faster than Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and better than meds. And it’s free!

“Watch Your Kids Or I’ll Call 911!”

Indiana State Rep. Victoria Garcia-Wilburn is one mom who would love to see the law passed.

When she moved into her suburban home, she was still unpacking boxes when she let her kids hop on their bikes – in helmets – and ride to the very quiet cul de sac. Yelled a neighbor, “‘You better watch it, or else I’ll call DCS on you!’”

That incident led her to join Indiana Rep. Jake Teshka (R) to work with Let Grow to sponsor Indiana’s  Reasonable Childhood Independence law this spring.

After she told her story at the bill’s hearing, it passed unanimously.

Now the U.S. Congress is considering a law like that. It’s thrilling. It’s freeing.

And it’s about time.

NOTE: If you’d like to find out your state’s neglect law, please click  here.

If you’d like to support Let Grow’s work, please click here and scroll to the bottom.

Bill’s sponsors Reps. Blake Moore and Jennifer McClellan

The post Congress to Consider Letting Kids Be Kids appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

So let me repeat what the great Peter Gray says about that story:

IT. IS. FICTION.

We can’t use it as a reason to give kids less freedom because “this is what happens.” Because it’s not. (The REAL story of 6 kids marooned on an island found them working cooperatively and rescued more than a YEAR LATER. Look up “Tongan Castaways.” The boys not only maintained their humanity, they worked as a group, kept a fire burning the whole time, and even held funerals for the birds they cooked for food.)

As for the Netflix series, the book was adapted for the screen by Jack Thorne, co-writer of “Adolescence,” which was ALSO FICTION. Not a documentary!

These twin visceral, dystopian soap operas about how horrible kids are when left to their own devices — left with not enough adult supervision — have a tendency to seep under the skin because they are so dramatic and shocking.

I just wish there was some way to dramatize how depressing it is to grow up with CONSTANT adult supervision. (Actually, this Ben Sasse oped does a great job of that.)  Mental health problems are soaring among kids and we keep hearing about how little they are allowed to do on their own. 50% of parents won’t let their kids, 9-11, go to another aisle at the store.

That stat is NOT FICTION. It could be what’s crippling a generation with anxiety. But it is not DRAMATIC, so we just keep perseverating on how badly kids behave when they’re not in travel soccer. 

###

Above are the actual Tongan castaways. I’m not sure how long after their rescue they were photographed. Below is a still from the Netflix Lord of the Flies:

The post The “Lord of the Flies” Problem appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

Wrote Yglesias:

My son (age eleven) is definitely allowed to go places in the neighborhood but compared to how I remember myself does not have that much interest in doing so — “at home” has become way more entertaining than it used to be and most of his friends don’t live very close to us.

I replied:

It’s way easier to get our kids outside when there are friends nearby, of course, but it’s also possible for them to make neighborhood friends — if kids are out and about and visible. 

How can we help make that happen? A couple ideas:

1 – Organize a “friendship club” with 2 or 3 nearby families: “My kid can knock on your door and vice versa, without pre-planning a playdate.” 

2 – Organize a “Let Grow Play Club” or “Free Play Friday.” Notify neighbors that your kids will be playing at a local park X day/time and others are welcome.

3 – Ask your school to try our (free!) independence-building program, The Let Grow Experience. Kids get a monthly homework assignment: “Go home and do something new, on your own, WITH your parents’ permission, but WITHOUT your parents.” Oftentimes kids start walking to friends’ homes, riding their bikes, going to the store — all of this renormalizing the sight of kids out and about. AND getting us parents used to the idea of LETTING THEM GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT US! When a bunch of families are doing this at once, the stigma disappears and the collective excitement reinforces itself.

In a Harris Poll I helped design with my @LetGrowOrg co-founder @JonHaidt and his chief researcher Zach Rausch, 73% of kids agreed:

“I would spend less time online if there were more friends in my neighborhood to play with in person.”

Kids LONG for free play with their friends. Let’s make that easier to happen!

The post It’s Hard to Get My Kid Outside appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

“Lenore, did you say you don’t CARE about kids and phones?”

That’s what a child psychologist just emailed me.

MY RESPONSE: It’s NOT that I don’t care about phones. It’s that this is how kids are growing up (from an article I just read):

Last week, my grandson asked permission to walk to the store 3 blocks away. His mother checked the GPS tracker on his phone, reminded him about stranger danger, and set a 20-minute timer for his return.”

That childhood would depress ANYONE. Being treated like a Brinks delivery: tracked, timed, watched, warned, distrusted. Not to mention underestimated, pumped full of fear, and given less freedom than a dog in a dog run. By the people who love him (and presumably KNOW him) the best!

When that is all the autonomy you are allowed, it should not surprise anyone that you’d DIVE INTO YOUR PHONE where you can meet up with friends, chat, play, go on adventures and exercise your curiosity. It is an alternative universe to the one that is right outside your door but OFF LIMITS to you. Sure, there are no smells, no tastes, no textures online. No sun on your face. But at least it’s a place where you get to be YOU, following your interests. FINDING your interests! Flirting, joking, hanging with friends.

If we want to see kids’ mental health improve, we have to focus at LEAST as much on this HARDER half of the equation. It’s not just that PHONES are “experience blockers.” It’s that WE are experience blockers! And it’s not because we are horrible helicopter parents, but because our CULTURE has convinced us that kids need constant supervision, assistance and “teaching” (from soccer to Kumon) or else they are in danger of being hurt or falling behind, and WE are in danger of being seen as bad parents.

That’s why my goal is to reframe independence as a GIFT we can give our kids. And when we give them that, it replaces the FEAR LOOP (What could go wrong/OMG so much! / Will I regret it for the rest of my life?/Yes!/ So why let go? It’s too terrifying!/ I WON’T) with the TRUST LOOP (I let them go and — wow! Look how competent!/ How proud I am! / How proud they are!/ What am I going to let them do next?/ LOOK AT MY KID!!!).

So it’s NOT that phones are good for kids. I don’t think they are. They sap their sleep. They eat their days. But my point is this:

It is really easy to hate phones.

It is really hard to open the door. 

For a generation we’ve been taught that the real world is too much for kids — too dangerous or overwhelming. But it’s not. It’s thrilling and fulfilling and that’s what we must give them back.

And the only way for that to happen is through ACTION: Actually letting our kids do something ON THEIR OWN and getting flooded with the fear, at first, yes. And then the pride and exhilaration of “LOOK AT MY KID!” that allows us to do it again…and again…and again. 

L

PS: For the record, that is the goal of The Let Grow Experience, our (FREE) program for schools. There’s a home version, too, also free. Both make it easier for parents to give their kids a little more independence, so both generations can reap the REAL WORLD rewards.

The post Lenore, Do You Not CARE About Kids and Phones? appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

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My Newsom interview ran last week. This is my interview with Utah First Lady Abby Cox.

Cox is a champion for educators, foster kids, special ed, and the Special Olympics. She is also the wife of Gov. Spencer Cox. Born and raised in small-town Mt. Pleasant, Utah, she and Spencer were high school sweethearts. They returned home after school to raise their four kids. For seven years, Spencer commuted two hours to Salt Lake City as Lieutenant Governor. Now that he’s Governor, he and Abby live in the capital.

Utah was the first state to pass a Free-Range Kids law. It has since passed in 11 more states and is called the Reasonable Childhood Independence Law. Cox and I spoke by Zoom. Our conversation has been edited for length.

*

LS: I read that at age 14 you took over the family’s ranch? Did I get that right?

AC: I grew up on a 600-acre ranch. My dad was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when I was in about 8th grade, and my two older brothers had left home. So I was kind of my dad’s right-hand person. But also his legs didn’t work.

LS: You were like 3 out of four limbs.

AC: I have seven sisters, so we all pitched in.

LS: Give me an example of something that you suddenly had to do.

AC: It depended on the time of year. In the summertime, you’re growing alfalfa, barley, grain, so you have to move [irrigation] pipe morning and night. And then I was cutting, baling, hauling hay. It’s hot and you’re lifting between 80 and 100-pound bales.

But January through about March or April, that’s when the sheep are lambing. So at 5:30 every morning before you go to school, you’re out there gathering lambs and putting them in pens with the ewes.

LS: Every night there’d be a new little baby lamb?

AC: We had about we had about 300 head of sheep, so there were between 10 and 20 lambs born in the night. And when you’d get home after school, there’d be more born, so you’d do that again.

LS: What did you love doing as a kid?

AC: We’d love to escape.

LS: Not surprising!

AC: We had these old barns where my sisters and I would play house. We had an old car that was in the corral. We gathered up the little broken windshield pieces — that was our “money.” We put that in our little purses.

There were also lots of dolls and lots of reading. Monday nights, that was our time to sing and play the guitar.

LS: What would you guys sing?

John Denver, a lot of Simon and Garfunkle, church hymns, things like that.

LS: It sounds like Little House on the Prairie.

AC: My kids do say, “Mom, it feels like you grew up in the 1880s not the 1980s.”

LS: What age were you allowed to ride your bike?

AC: Probably from the time I was 8-and-a-half or 9 I rode my bike the six miles round trip into our little town.

LS: And how’d you get to school?

AC: There was a bus. And when I was in high school, I drove the farm truck.

LS: With your sisters?

AC: Yes. We fought all the way.

LS: What do you like seeing today’s kids do on their own?

AC: I love to see kids working, kids out there weeding. I also love that my son could ride his bike down to the creek and play with his friends in the creek.

LS: So what disturbs you about today’s childhood?

AC: At one point my son said, “I literally just want to play summer ball with my friends, have a great experience, a little competition.” But he couldn’t. I mean it sounds weird, but I’m telling you, in every little town and big city here in Utah, for every kid, it’s either all or nothing: You have to commit as a four-year-old that you’re going to play soccer or whatever for the rest of your life —

LS: Or not play at all. Yes, I’ve seen that. The kids sports world is very intense, and there’s almost no time left for plain old free play. What do you think is lost?

AC: My background is in early childhood special education. We know that playing is learning. You can’t learn empathy if you’re not really having those moments of real connection, of real play. My sisters and I, playing house — we got in plenty of fights and we had to work it out. I learned that I could fight with them and not have anybody to play with. Or, I could figure out how to be empathetic, see their point of view, see what I did wrong. Empathy really is cultivated by free play. How do we make sure that these kiddos today have that opportunity? It’s critical to brain development.

LS: Well, at Let Grow we recommend all schools stay open for exactly what you’re talking about – mixed-age, no-phones, free play. We call it a Let Grow Play Club. An adult supervises, but like a lifeguard. They don’t organize the games or solve the spats. All our materials are free. Our other free program is The Let Grow Experience: Kids get the monthly homework assignment: “Do something new, without your parents.” Kids start running errands, climbing trees, making lunch.

AC: Yes, kids need to be able to take those risks, have those experiences, and as parents, we do have to normalize that. I love to see kids walking to school. We want them to have these very organic, real experiences of being independent.

I have a friend who has a middle schooler, an 8th grader that has Down Syndrome. And she’s a big influencer, you know, on Instagram. And he loves Slurpees.

LS: Wait! I’ve seen that video! It is so terrific and so is he and so is she! Her son goes into the 7-Eleven and gets his own Slurpee for the very first time and comes out a foot taller!

AC: It’s really fun to celebrate that.

The post The Issue Newsom and Cox Agree On! appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

Have you noticed that childhood independence is almost shockingly NON PARTISAN?

It’s not a right or left-wing thing to want your kids to be able to walk to the store, play outside, or spend some unsupervised time at home – without being investigated for neglect.

That is one reason Let Grow, the nonprofit that grew out of Free-Range Kids, has been able to help pass “Reasonable Childhood Independence” laws in 12 states so far, usually with bi-partisan co-sponsors and often unanimously. (I am president of Let Grow.)

The law is WILDLY bi-partisan because it simply guarantees parents that  “neglect” is when you put your kid in obvious, serious danger – not any time you take your eyes off them.

The states that have passed the law are red, blue and purple: Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Virginia, Connecticut, Illinois, Montana, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, and a few weeks ago: Indiana. Bills are bubbling up now in Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, too!

To highlight the broad appeal of NOT micromanaging parents, I interviewed two governors’ wives of opposite parties who are both working hard to get kids off of screens and into the real world: Jennifer Newsom of California and Abby Cox of Utah. First up is Jennifer Newsom. My interview with Abby Cox will be up shortly!

JENNIFER SIEBEL NEWSOM WANTS KIDS TO HAVE AN AWESOME CHILDHOOD

Jennifer Siebel Newsom is a filmmaker, activist, mom, and the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. In her quest to give California kids a great childhood, she has championed libraries, farm-to-table school lunch programs, and the California State Library Parks program, providing free all-day access to 200+ California State Parks to anyone with a library card.

She is also intensely focused on child well-being in the digital age. The California Partners Project, her nonprofit, has published a Tech/Life Balance guide for families, and a Movement and Outdoor Activity Family Guide, which recommends, among other things, more independence and free play.

That’s the sweet spot where we overlap. Here is a much shortened, edited version of the chat we had about letting kids go — and grow:

LS: Thank you so much for meeting with me. I loved your interview with [Let Grow Co-founder] Jonathan Haidt.

JN: I’m a big fan. As a mother of four, and a sort of Mama Bear to so many children across the state, I’m very, very grateful to you both for this movement, and your individual and collective work.

LS: Speaking of collective work — you may have read in the piece Jon and I had in The Atlantic, where we found that one big reason kids are on their phones so much is because they get to do so little else on their own.

JN: Yes, it’s an important piece on how digital technology is changing the landscape of childhood.

LS: Tell us a little about your own childhood.

JN: I was born and raised in California, summers in Montana, and I spent so much of my childhood outdoors. Not just as an athlete, not just hiking and picnicking and visiting parks, but being underneath trees, in creeks and streams. I lost my older sister days before my seventh birthday and nature was my refuge.

LS: Oh no. I’m so grateful you found some solace.

JN: Nature, fresh air, and being outdoors were my source of healing and empowerment. I like to say that without even knowing the term, I was “forest bathing.”

LS: And now?

JN: Now I do see families in our parks, but sadly, I see more and more kids stuck to their devices, sort of numbing themselves. The streets are kind of quiet. Sitting inside when you have gorgeous weather outdoors really saddens me. That’s why we’ve invested so much in our state park system.

LS: Peter Gray, one of the founders of Let Grow, says that when kids are out there, climbing trees or playing tag – that’s when they’re really learning. That’s why we always recommend schools start a Let Grow Play Club, staying open for mixed age, wide-open play – and no phones!

JN: You know, having different ages together – they teach each other. They have opportunities to practice independence. I don’t know if my team told you, but I was a college athlete. And I despise the culture that our kids are inheriting – the sports culture! It’s so intensely competitive. No wonder [kids are] depressed and anxious. And no wonder they want to numb out on those screens! So I’m a huge proponent of having play and activities after school when they can be with their peers and build community across ages.

LS: Let’s hear it for some unstructured time.

JN: My 8-year-old who was on the top soccer team in Northern California was literally saying, “I’m going to quit soccer.” Because the program was too intense! All the pressure is hurting their mental and physical health.

LS: Kids need a chance to spend some time pursuing interests just for their own sake. Nothing more. And they need a place to do it.

JN: As part of our California for All Kids initiative, we have a strong partnership with libraries. We’re working on trying to turn these into more “third places” –

LS: As in a place that’s not school and not home –

JN: Yes. We want to have families taking advantage of libraries. The library is a public good.

LS: Have you heard about libraries running “Repair Cafes” once a month? That’s where people who know how to fix things – often older guys – come in, and so does anyone with a broken toaster, or what have you. The old guys tinker, everyone mingles, and some kids even learn how to use real tools.

JN: I love that! Agency for the older people. And one of my kids loves to tinker. He likes fixing bikes. It would be so cool for him to be around an elderly person who has a skill he’s teaching and could serve as a mentor.

We chatted some more about mentorships, and real life as an alternative to screens. Long story short: We both believe kids need more time doing real things, in the real world, especially outside.

The post Left? Right? Newsom and Cox Weigh in on Childhood Independence (Jennifer and Abby, That is) appeared first on Free-Range Kids.

STEM? MEH. NOW IT’S ALL ABOUT  “MESH” 

A few years ago it was hard to tell the Toy Fair from MIT. The aisles were filled with Science Technology and Math – “STEM” — toys teaching everything from AP bio to quantum physics. Any toy that wasn’t particularly scientific nonetheless claimed it was: Toy cars taught Newtonian laws of motion. Toy ovens? Thermodynamics. Slime taught the chemical properties of something so gross I can’t stand touching it. It’s like playing with liver.

But now the cool thing is “MESH” toys – toys that provide Mental, Emotional, and Social Health. Which are all toys ever made, of course. But today’s toys insist they teach kids how to lose, or share, or “deal with big emotions.” (Have you noticed all emotions have been promoted to “big emotions” lately? Another trend.)

Basically, the old parental fear that kids wouldn’t get into Duke has been replaced by the new parental fear that even if their kids DO get in, they’ll sit in their dorm rooms, playing with slime. So toys-as-therapy it is.

INFLUENCE PEDDLERS

The strict rule at the Toy Fair was always, believe it or not, NO KIDS ALLOWED. There were fewer kids at the fair than at Scores. But this year, they were swarming all over. Had the rule makers gone soft?

Nope. They’d gone online and realized that kid influencers are where it’s at. Kids watching other kids unbox toys is actually not that different from guys watching whatever’s going on at Scores — a mesmerizing, tantalizing, expensive way to unwind. So influencer kids and their stage-door moms were marching up and down the aisles, collecting swag and contracts.

Then, toward the end of the day, I saw three influencers – young boys — playing on the floor. They looked like puppies, giggling, climbing all over each other and having the time of their lives. The toy they were playing with?

Looked like an L-shaped piece of Styrofoam – possibly packing material.

JUST CHUTE ME

For some reason, Chutes and Ladders is still on the market. If that’s a game, moth balls are bar food. Chutes and Ladders is about as fun as eye surgery.

Nonetheless, I found a version of the classic being sold at one of the toy booths. It remains the game where you finally find yourself just a few blessed spaces from ending the match (which began last Tuesday), when – WHAM! A chute opens up and you are back at Square One.

“It metaphorically prepares you for life,” the salesman told me. Thanks, Buddha. His company also sells a lot of jigsaw puzzles, which are another perfect metaphor for life: They’re hard. They’re briefly beautiful. And, en fin, everything ends up in a box.

Okay. That’s a little dark. Let me add that it was nice to see the booth doing a brisk business in old-fashioned, no-screen fun like dominoes, cards, and yo-yos. Plenty of fun left to enjoy!

 TOYS IMITATE LIFE

Another bustling booth at the Fair featured doll houses of every size and price point, with one thing in common: The more items it came with, the more that parents were willing to pay. Yet the sets also came with pull-out bins to stuff all the extra stuff in.

In other words, just like our homes, they were cluttered with things we thought we needed, paid good money for, and then couldn’t stand tripping over.

Play is obviously practice for adulthood. The happy fact remains: Whenever kids get together and do it, it’s wonderful.

Let them play!

P.S. Want to start a Let Grow Play Club, where kids organize their own games and solve their own spats, playing like those boys with the Styrofoam? We’ve got free materials for parents here, and for schools here.

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