Children are more anxious than ever, and birth rates are lower than ever. Parents say raising children is too hard, and millennials and zoomers are opting out of the whole thing.
There are a ton of reasons for this, but one big one is helicopter parenting.
Parents feel they cannot leave their child unsupervised for a moment. Sometimes this stems from a fear that something horrible is going to happen, such as an abduction. This is a matter of bad risk assessment — an abduction by a stranger is a one-in-a-million occurrence.
Other parents feel guilty if they’re not helicoptering because our media and culture have told them that constant worrying and hovering is a sign of love.
Still more parents helicopter their children because they are afraid of being judged if they don’t. That fear is a lot less unfounded than the fear of kidnappers.
My wife is less free-range than I am, and so when I let the children do something that pushes her boundaries, she often exclaims, “I’m not afraid of kidnappers; I’m afraid of Child Protective Services.”
Lenore Skenazy, the guru of free-range parenting, chronicles the unfortunate and infuriating incidents of law enforcement banning childhood independence.
On Tuesday, Skenazy, together with Diane Redleaf, wrote of the Widners, a family in Atlanta.
“One day, after swim practice, the 7-year-old, Jackson, lagged behind while the rest of his siblings walked home, and stopped by the grocery for a free cookie.
“A store employee thought it was so unusual to see an unaccompanied 7-year-old that a store employee called 911. Then, instead of letting him leave, the employee told Jackson he had to wait for the police to arrive.
“After the police finally brought Jackson home, they informed his father, Glenn, that it wasn’t safe to let a child his age wander around outside.
“‘You just can’t raise kids like that anymore — it isn’t safe,’ said the cops.
“Glenn begged to differ, reciting statistics that kids today face no greater risk from stranger danger than previous generations. Nevertheless, the police summoned child protective services.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Skenazy and Redleaf campaign for state laws to legalize free-range parenthood, or “reasonable childhood independence,” that protect parents and children from law enforcement action for letting children do safe things, such as walk the neighborhood.
There are plenty of other obstacles to childhood freedom and parental relaxation, but such laws would be a good start.
