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Free-range parenting

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Free-range parenting is a term coined by author Lenore Skenazy at her website (founded April 2008) and her book "Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry" (published April 2009) and can be generally described as the opposite of helicopter parenting.

Overview

American journalist Lenore Skenazy has written about the problems of overparenting and overprotection of kids with a particular emphasis on allowing kids to have appropriate levels of freedom and responsibility for their age while still keeping them safe. Her book, Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had without Going Nuts with Worry[1] and her related website (April 2008) [2] describe what she sees as the horrors of mainstream schooling, parenting, and organised activities, highlighting the unnecessary protection from risk that limits children's opportunity to mature properly into independent adults, and the unnecessary training, even in using flash cards for preschoolers, thereby limiting their opportunity to have fun or do their own thing.

In the United States free-range parenting is limited by state laws, which prohibit children from wandering alone by themselves. In the absence of federal laws in regard, states govern how old a child must be to walk to school alone. In Massachusetts, such issues are generally addressed on a case-by-case basis. Other states, such as Delaware, or Colorado, based on states' child labor laws, will investigate reports of any child under the age of 12 being left alone, whereas other states, like North Carolina, have fire laws that stipulate a child under 8 should not be left home alone. Only three states specify a minimum age for leaving a child home alone. These include Illinois which requires children to be 14 years old, in Maryland, the minimum age is 8, and in Oregon 10.[3]

Criticisms

One criticism[according to whom?] is that free-range parenting advocates are focused too narrowly on child abductions by strangers, which are rare, and ignore the dramatic drop in child deaths from unintentional injuries in the past 50 years.[citation needed] The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) credits the same cultural change free-range parenting advocates resist for much of this decrease in mortality:[citation needed]

Many improvements are a consequence of a change in family behavior. Older children are less likely to walk to school than was the case 20 years ago, perhaps helping reduce pedestrian accidents. Manufacturers developed a host of child-proofing products as different causes of injury became better known. What ties these changes together is the increased availability of information on how to protect children, enabling parents to look after their children's safety more effectively. All parents can now read mandatory safety labels on products and must take other steps required by regulations. In addition, parents, especially those who are well-educated, have more information today to help them best use their time and money to protect their children. For example, the amount of safety information in Dr. Benjamin Spock's popular manual of baby and child care increased from three pages to 13 pages between 1957 and 1992. This advantage of education may have contributed to growing inequality between the mortality rate for children of more-educated parents and that for children of less-educated parents. [4]

Another criticism is that Skenazy is correct[citation needed], but has taken the ideas further than intended thus underestimating the risks to children in today's society. A third is that "free-range parenting" is what used to be called "parenting". As in judging what risks, freedoms, and responsibilities are appropriate for their own kids.[citation needed] Parents who self-identify as free-range parents are taking it too far in thinking that they are parenting differently.[according to whom?] [5]

References

  1. ^ Skenazy, Lenore (2009). Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had without Going Nuts with Worry. Jossey Bass. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-470-47194-4.
  2. ^ Skenazy, Lenore (2008). "Free Range Kids blog".
  3. ^ Maryland parent investigation raises issue: What age to allow children 'free range' to walk, stay home alone?
  4. ^ "Reducing Accidents is Key to Lower Child Mortality". NBER. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  5. ^ "What Kind Of Parent Are You? The Debate Over 'Free-Range' Parenting". NPR. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
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