Normal World: Children become autonomous early on in their development and are able to travel relatively short-to-medium distances without the need of a chaperone.
American World: Children are forbidden from venturing 2 feet into the outside world without a pair of 21 Year-old eyes oogling them at all times. Travel of children autonomously under the age of 16 is forbidden. Any concerns about a child’s development are swiftly hand waved away because the mystical child-stealing candy van might drive on by and snatch your obviously stupid and oblivious child. Anyway, don’t forget to go to church!
and it’s not parents fault for the most part. Most parents want their kids to have freedom and autonomy, but it’s now seen as child endangerment to do this. The law and paranoid fox news watching neighbors who report kids for their ‘safety’ are the problem.
I feel like less of a helicopter parent now, thank you.
My kids have had to make me realize they should be independent in certain things a few times and I always feel bad for overstepping, but it’s hard not to when bad drivers, school shooters and random terrible shit are shoved in our faces all the time. We’ve been programmed to be afraid and it is really hard to not be in our current world of media, internet, and seemingly neverending hatred.
Normal World: Children become autonomous early on in their development and are able to travel relatively short-to-medium distances without the need of a chaperone.
American World: Children are forbidden from venturing 2 feet into the outside world without a pair of 21 Year-old eyes oogling them at all times. Travel of children autonomously under the age of 16 is forbidden. Any concerns about a child’s development are swiftly hand waved away because the mystical child-stealing candy van might drive on by and snatch your obviously stupid and oblivious child. Anyway, don’t forget to go to church!
and it’s not parents fault for the most part. Most parents want their kids to have freedom and autonomy, but it’s now seen as child endangerment to do this. The law and paranoid fox news watching neighbors who report kids for their ‘safety’ are the problem.
I feel like less of a helicopter parent now, thank you.
My kids have had to make me realize they should be independent in certain things a few times and I always feel bad for overstepping, but it’s hard not to when bad drivers, school shooters and random terrible shit are shoved in our faces all the time. We’ve been programmed to be afraid and it is really hard to not be in our current world of media, internet, and seemingly neverending hatred.