Kid-Friendly Business Closings. Another business servicing families has succumbed to the hard times. On Friday we got an email from MiniMasters, the family club in Tribeca that offered classes and indoor playspace, announcing that they were permanently closing their doors that very day and the nearby Kidville would be accepting MiniMasters club memberships. Kidville moved into the neighborhood within the year. Don't know if their presence doomed MiniMasters or if it was the economy alone, but MiniMasters is not the only kid-centric business shutting its doors. City Crickets, the West Village toy store closed a few months ago, Tribeca's Whipper Snippers is in its final days, and we've heard of many other stores struggling or giving up. Not sure what we can do to help, but remember to support with our dollars today the businesses that we want to be there tomorrow. The boom of kid-friendly businesses in New York City has helped make the city a better place to raise kids. We hope we don't lose too many of them!

New Playgrounds. A new Hell's Kitchen development is promising a Tom Otterness (the artist who makes the little people and creatures you see in many public places in NYC) playground that will be open to the public. It's cute, but all I can think about is how hot that bronze will be during the summer. [Gothamist]

Another new playground has opened in Queens, Corona Golf Playground, revitalizing the spot that F.S. Fitzgerald called a valley of ashes in The Great Gatsby. The playground has a water play area, playhouses, basketball and volleyball courts, and other fitness amenities.

On the flip side, protesters came out to express dissatisfaction with the city's deal to allow a developer to build on the location currently occupied by the Ruppert Playground on East 92nd St. [Gothamist]

In other playground news, the city is putting up signs warning parents that equipment may be hot. This is in response to parents' complaints after a few children got minor burns from running barefoot on hot playground mats last summer. [1010 WINS]

Consumer Reports against Attachment Parenting? Consumer Reports' "Five Products Not to Buy for Your Baby" has spurred a huge outrcry from attachment parenting fans because the article claims that slings and co-sleepers are not safe. The findings state that there are no safety standards for co-sleepers and slings. They say co-sleepers are just as dangerous as sleeping with a baby directly in the bed and two babies have died. As for slings, at least four children have died and many more have suffered serious injuries from falling out of slings.

Parents have taken this as an attack on Attachment Parenting and are furious over the report. Personally, I don't understand the uproar. Should Consumer Reports turn the other cheek in order to support a parenting philosophy? Companies should either make the products safer or parents should continue to do what parents have done for centuries (sleep with baby in bed) and just know the risks involved. Same for slings. It doesn't mean you have to never use a sling, but you need to know the dangers and make sure your child is secure. NYTimes Motherlode blog sheds further light on the report and uproar.

Thank you, Consumer Reports for informing parents of the dangers of these products so we can choose not to use them or use them more safely.

No Idle Time. NYC announced a new regulation that it's illegal to idle your car. This used to be a big conflict in our family since some people have the wrong impression that idling the car uses less gas than stopping and restarting the car. Actually, idling the car for just ten seconds uses more gas than turning he car off and on again. This is the most simple and easy way to save money, gas and keep our air clean. Please save your idling for your kids, not your cars!

Kindergarten Crisis Rally. The New York Times had another piece about the City's squeeze on the middle class as the Mayor tries to make kindergarten admissions more equitable, citing parents angry that their kindergarteners are being put on waiting lists for their zoned schools.

Improving educational opportunities for those most in need is definitely important and worthy, but has the city gone too far at a time when families are particularly hard pressed with the economic downturn and have fewer options? Private schools, where many families might have sought refuge in the past continue to raise tuitions to rates most families could never dream of affording and are now limiting their financial aid dollars to new families to compensate for current families who are newly in need.

Hopefully, the new policies will work to improve city public schools across the board for all New Yorkers and not just drive families to flee to the suburbs, as has occurred in previous economic downturns. What do you think? Is your family planning on leaving New York City due to the current public school and overall economic situation? Tell us in the comments. And, if you'd like to tell Bloomberg, there will be a rally on Wednesday, May 6th at 4pm on the steps of City Hall to speak out against the new kindergarten waitlists.