Lenore Skenazy is the author of Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry), which started a national movement against helicopter parenting and bubble-wrap child rearing. I wish every parent in America would read that book and regularly visit her website. The smothering, over-protective, “all risk must be eliminated” style of parenting that she forcefully and persuasively rejects is, IMHO, the reason we have college students today who need counseling and “safe spaces” after encountering “Trump 2016” written in chalk on the sidewalk.
Shortly before Christmas, Skenazy posted her top 11 worst free-range moments of the year. Her number one is my favorite (i.e., most headdesk-inducing one):
The police chief of New Albany, Ohio, helpfully revealed the age that kids are old enough to start going outside on their own: 16. “I think that’s the threshold where you see children getting a little bit more freedom.”