Helicopter Parents vs. Free Range Kids: Q&A with "America's Worst Mom" Lenore Skenazy
"If you google 'America's worst mom,' I'm there for 68…pages," says Lenore Skenazy, proprietor of the controversial parenting site Free-Range Kids, a book of the same title, and a syndicated columnist for Creators.
Since 2009, Skenazy has been waging a non-stop battle against helicopter parents, nanny-state nuisances, and a media consumed by scare stories about everything from child abduction to food additives to sports injuries. The result is what Skenazy calls "'worst-first thinking,' which is coming up with the worst thing that could possibly happen and then proceeding as if it's likely to happen."
Such a mind-set culminates in over-protective parents and a society that insulates children that has turned childhood from a time of fun and exploration into a version of 24-hour lockdown. "You have to admit that there's a little bit of risk in everything and that there's never been a safer time to be a child on this planet," says Skenazy.
Reason TV correspondent Kennedy sat down with Skenazy to discuss why? "you don't have to worry to be a good parent."
About 4.30 minutes.
Produced by Joshua Swain. Camera by Jim Epstein and Anthony Fisher.
Scroll below for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.