1songbird

wonderful article. i loved this: "10 is the new 2. We're infantilizing our kids into incompetence." how true that is. as one determined NOT to be a "helicopter parent," i am often looked at as odd or "dangerous" in my decision-making: like saying it's ok for my 8-year-old to walk next door to ask to play ON HIS OWN. ooooh, danger, will robinson. or, letting him venture off in a supermarket to get something on his own. oh, no! what might happen?! seriously, when i was a kid, i played away from my parent, outside, and until the lights came on. i went to the store by myself, i walked to school crossing busy streets, and i survived. however, currently, it seems we are suffocating our children's childhood (that freedom we adults chase and memorialize throughout our lives). we fill them with drugs that make our them sit still and stand at attention so they can do their classwork in lieu of play. recess is the first to go and the homework is piling up. we are creating automatons who ultimately cannot problem-solve or stand on their own without hand-holding. if this continues, our future looks terribly grim. let 'em get dirty, go on adventures, get a little scared and realize they are their own heroes. you get one childhood. period.