Find Out If the Danger to Childhood Is Real With This “Footnote for Parents”

Between news of children being poisoned with garden hose and getting heatstroke in orphanages and almost certainly being trafficked in Ikea , it is imperative for parents to always be on the lookout to protect their fragile children from the multitude of others. dangers that may be lurking at any moment.

Right?

Come on , says Lenore Schenazi, a woman who has been battling a culture of parental alarm since she wrote a column titled “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Child Ride the Subway Alone” ten years ago for The New York Sun. (It was a story that made some think back to their childhood days when they were free to roam the neighborhood before sunset, while others suggested that she should be captured by child welfare services.) As part of her Let Grow movement, which basically encourages parents to Relaxing a little, Schenasi added a section titled “Really?” it allows people to separate the real dangers of children from the things that simply fuel fear. With facts and statistics on topics ranging from bottle feeding to toy pistols (Schenasi is a reporter by trade), the project is similar to Footnotes for Parents as she describes it.

A few examples:

Is it true that children should not go to public bathrooms alone?

Is it true that children died of poisoned candy on Halloween?

Is it true that children waiting in cars die during short errands?

Spoiler alert: Nearly every “danger” is pretty much exaggerated.

Schenazi tells me she doesn’t blame the helicopter’s parents for the hover. “They are attacked all day with stories, everyone tells them that their children are in constant danger because of everything they do / see / eat / read / hear / watch / lick,” she writes in an email. But she also believes that “fear is not neutral.”

She adds: “Fear keeps children at home locked inside ‘safe’, unable to get on bicycles or play outside with their friends. You can’t grow up with any kind of independence and resourcefulness. “

Her “Really?” the page is a way to overcome fear and also “reaffirm our gratitude for living in such safe times.” There has never been a safer time in America to be a child . It is important for parents to consider the facts in each situation and know when to ignore hysteria.

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