feedback for "Five-Minute Time Out: Chris Mercogliano"
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It's tricky convincing overprotective parents that they need to back off a bit and let their kids play, but there is a movement afoot to do just that. Perhaps when we develop into a chorus, we can change some minds.
I've started an online web community devoted to this topic:
http://playborhood.com
Also, regarding the specific issue of fear, see:
Is Driving Your Kids Around Safer Than Letting Them Roam Outside on Their Own?
http://playborhood.com/site/article/is_driving_your_kids_around_safer_than_letting_them_roam_outside/
The answer, from US government statistics, is an emphatic "no". Children are roughly three times more likely to die as a passenger in an automobile accident than in the three major "roaming around" accident categories: death as pedestrian, death as victim of stranger abduction, and death as bicycle rider.
posted by : playborhood on 11/9/2007 at 3:20 PM Flag For Abuse
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I'd also like to share a link to an article of mine on a similar subject, a bike ban at my child's school:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-williamson29mar29,0,803913.story?coll=la-opinion-center
The "bubble-wrap babies" syndrome has gone too far. I'm so glad to learn about this book, but it is just a drop in the ocean of media, most of which urges and encourages parental panic.
posted by : ljwilliamson on 11/9/2007 at 8:46 PM Flag For Abuse
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Fear Based Parenting is disguised in the marketplace as "childproofing" or "safeguarding". There is alot of money to be made on this type of fear. Television plays a big part in promoting parental fear, we call CNN the Fear Channel (beware, everywhere in the world something dangerous is happening at all times!!!)
There are parents putting too much pressure on themselves to be perfect, but these are not generally the Attachment parents. Attachment parents are parenting on instinct and it's these parents that are the ones allowing their kids to roam around outdoors, play with sticks, dirt, mud and bugs. They also usually don't watch alot of television. They are too busy meeting with other friends to play or taking walks and hikes out of doors.
I can't wait for my son to be old enough to ride his bike around our neighborhood by himself, over to a friend's house or to his grandmother's who lives 8 blocks away.
posted by : yvetteyasui on 11/12/2007 at 9:32 AM Flag For Abuse
