Helicopter Moms vs. Free-Range Kids

[Ptarmigan]

Helicopter Moms vs. Free-Range Kids
By Louise Crawford
Newsweek
April 21, 2008

Would you let your fourth-grader ride public transportation without an adult? Probably not. Still, when Lenore Skenazy, a columnist for the New York Sun, wrote about letting her son take the subway alone to get back to her Manhattan home from a department store on the Upper East Side, she didn't expect to get hit with a tsunami of criticism from readers.

"Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence," Skenazy wrote on April 4 in the New York Sun. "Long story longer: Half the people I've told this episode to now want to turn me in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and helmet and cell phone and nanny and surveillance is the right way to rear kids. It's not. It's debilitating—for us and for them."

Online message boards were soon swarming with people both applauding and condemning Skenazy's decision to let her son go it alone. She wound up defending herself on the cable news networks (accompanied by her son) and on popular blogs like the Huffington Post, where her follow-up piece was ironically headlined "More From America's Worst Mom."

Full Article

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Many people here are parents. I don't think she is the worst mother in America. That goes to Lori Drew. I understand that parents want to make sure their children are safe. Society in general has gotten more risk adverse and obessessed with self-esteem. Despite all the high profile kidnappings and molestation by strangers. The vast majority are by people close to them, either a family member or relative.

I personally think parents get sometimes TOO involved in their child's life, from school to squabbles in life. Kids gotta experience failure at some point in their life. The most successful people in life are the ones with many failures, Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln come to mind. For every successful invention Edison had, he had multiple failures. Lincoln was a failure in life, yet he became President during the Civil War.

[DixieBelle]

I have a child in the fourth grade. I don't have a problem with him being outside in our neighborhood but I draw the line at crossing any major intersections. Not because he's incapable, but because the cars are such a danger. Heck, I don't even like crossing on foot myself!

He also flies alone and has since the age of 5. Granted, it's as an unaccompanied minor with an escort and parental handoff, but it's still a big step for a little guy. Last year, we started a "sink or swim" policy. Now, whenever we arrive at the airport, he's responsible for telling me which entrance, which ticket counter, telling the agent his flight info, checking his bag, finding the line for security, finding the gate, etc..same process on the other end with his dad. Of course we're standing right behind him so he's never in any danger. But someday I won't be standing there and I don't want him to be clueless.

I TOTALLY Think over-parenting and this feel-good namby pamby style of raising kids is only going to bite us in the butt.

[formerlurker]

4th grader taking the subway in NYC alone?   Too much for me to handle as a parent.