The fact is, there are plenty of forces keeping kids inside, supervised, scared, distrusted, and stuck. But there are so many people concerned about stunting a generation’s growth that we are now a force to be reckoned with, too.
And since our way gives kids and parents more freedom, more trust, more power and more hope, we are going to win.
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Compared to this 1979 list of milestones, parents in the U.S. expect too little of our kids in the area of independence, and too much in the area of academics. http://www.chicagonow.com/little-kids-big-city/2011/08/is-your-child-ready-for-first-grade-1979-edition/
“Initially, helicopter parenting appears to work,” says Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult. “As a kid, you're kept safe, you're given direction, and you might get a better grade because the parent is arguing with the teacher.” But, ultimately, parents end up getting in the child’s way. In the first episode of Home School, The Atlantic’s new animated series on parenting, Lythcott-Haims explains how helicopter parenting strips children of agency and the ability to cultivate their own tools to navigate the world.
"Parents protect, direct, and handle so much for children today that we prevent them from the very growth that is essential to their development into adult human beings." -Former Stanford University dean, Julie Lythcott-Haims
This is a REALLY AMAZING article. I would say if middle class parents had to pick one parenting thing to read this year, it should be this! It makes a great case for letting schoolkids roam free. It details studies on some serious negative effects of parental overinvolvement, and on things children need for healthy development that they get through independence. (And it gives some ironic stats: the annual # of playground injuries and abductions--both always low and rare--has not changed much since the 70s, when kids spent gobs of time away from caregivers.)
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