THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (2009 EDITION)

[defrog]

Some weekend reading for you: an interesting interview with Lenore Skenazy, the author of Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry.

Skenazy is the woman who famously wrote about allowing her 9-year-old son Izzy to ride the subway alone – only to receive accusations of child neglect and abuse. She’s since started a blog dedicated to the proposition that kids are in no greater danger today than we all were 30 or 40 years ago – if anything, they’re safer – and yet not only are parents being overprotective in terms of letting them go outside and play like we all used to do, they’re expected to be, and are accused of being criminally negligent parents if they aren’t – to the point where you can expect a visit from the police threatening to charge you with child endagerment if you let yr kid walk a half-mile to soccer practice by himself.

Which, I suspect, is one of the chief reasons why parents are as overprotective as they are: fear of being frivolously arrested or sued by self-righteous know-it-alls.

PRODUCTION NOTE: I’ve posted about this before, though I focused more on how a lot of it comes down to the human tendency towards disproportionate risk assessment. Anyway, it’s a debate worth reviving, because as I’ve tried to demonstrate on this blog time and time again, living in fear ain’t living. And it’s a waste of energy when yr afraid of the wrong things.

Sleep in safety,

This is dF