I’ve been collecting links for this one for a while, though admittedly I still haven’t really come up with any particularly cohesive argument about it, more just presenting it as something to think about. The idea/argument/trend/anti-trend is what’s referred to as Free Range Kids. Basically it’s the counter to the current trend towards “in the world we live in, you just can’t be too careful, especially when it comes to kids”. Free Range Kids would tend to say that it’s probably okay if you let your kids go outside and play without an adult hovering over them or gps enabled tracking bracelets strapped around their ankles. As many others have said it better, here’s a few links:
- Lenore Skenazy, the woman who sort of kicked off the movement/firestorm, introducing it in her own words here. She also had a blog here.
- Here‘s a more lengthy interview with her on Salon.com (via Boing Boing)
- A more local take with a few links to other stories.
The comment sections (where applicable) tend to be interesting for the mix of adults fondly remembering wandering and exploring as a kid, and cynics assuring anyone that doesn’t hover over their child that the child will end up dead or a heroin addict. They tend to get pretty fierce, even by internet standards. A few more articles for the sake of the comment sections here, here, and here.
Discussions of free range kids tends to draw to the surface quite a few pretty hot button issues/debates, such as:
- It takes a village to raise a child vs stranger danger.
- At what point is society allowed to step in and tell someone how to raise their children?
- How marketing and the news media / cable / cop dramas affect our view of society and how we interact with it.
- The sliding scale of how okay people are with letting children roam vs the size of the city / percent of nearby neighbors that the parent knows.
- The affect of two parents working outside the home, and therefore there being less adults at home during the day as a default safety net.
- How being very protective of children both responds to and creates a culture of distrust / lack of community / suspicion of everyone / (stretching a bit) a culture of fear and isolation.
- Have you ever walked past a playground and glanced over and smiled at the joy of children at play? Have you gotten a dirty/suspicious look from a parent on the playground for doing so?
- Keeping children young and helpless forever so parents can always be important.
There also seems to be some parallels in here for that other major freedom vs safety debate of our times – terrorism. How much should we modify our lives and how many freedoms should we give up to try to foil the terrorists / pedophiles? How does the media affect our perceptions of these threats? How much should the parents / government always be the ones to make decisions for what’s best and safest? How much does one lead into the other, with the government replacing parents as an authority figure that can tell us what’s safe?