Re-entering the new-mom gig after ten years away took some getting used to. I realized this the first time I went shopping. What I was expecting to see were the items of my first mother go-round--cute pieces with teddy bears or bunnies--with a little technology updating. But what I got was a surreal experience in the new world of parenting. Everything was light-up, twirl-around, noise-making and digital. I’m surprised the babies of today don’t have seizures every five minutes. I knew from that experience that the baby-parenting game had changed and I would need help navigating it. So, I signed up for several parenting email loops to see the news. And one of the things 
I found was more prevalent than any other topic: over-scheduled kids. It seems we have more money than time and more ambition than patience, so we put our kids in every activity under the sun (and moon, sometimes) to help them “develop” and “succeed.” Which leaves very little downtime for unstructured play. Which gets lamented in all the articles I read. And then gets excused in their own particular case by the author of the piece. It’s apparently just other parents who are doing it wrong. Well, I say, “Progress be hanged!” and I let my kid roam around the house naked with flip flops on pretending to eat plastic waffles. She’s a free-range kid. In Sesame Street’s Playtime With Big Bird, the yellow guy gets his play on. And he’s kind of naked, too.http://www.amazon.com/Playtime-Big-Bird-Toddler-Books/dp/0679888810
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/index.pperl
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