Word: childrene
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...years old, and when I was a child, men worked, women kept house and we children were left to our own devices. We built kites from sticks, newspapers and string; scooters from a piece of 2-by-4 and old roller-skate wheels; stilts from leftover lumber. We played hide-and-seek, Come My Good Sheep, Red Rover, marbles and jacks. We played football and baseball with our own rules and changed them if we wanted to. And what happened to us? We grew up to be the Greatest Generation...
Kudos and thank you from a mom who has let her children bike to the convenience store, walk along a country road to find a lost phone, figure out public transit to a city high school and study and volunteer abroad. I'm still not ready to hear what they did when we weren't looking ... but I do know there are no perfect kids or perfect parents. Every day you say a little prayer...
Gibbs cites the explosion of parenting websites as "among the most powerful weapons" in the war against overparenting. But we'll never restore children's right to play until the legal system protects the freedom to let kids take the normal risks of childhood. Until then, out of fear of litigation, recess will continue to be banned at schools across the country, park officials will remove jungle gyms that might attract a child over 5 and parents will feel a legal need to hover on playdates...
...many parents abdicate all control because the fight becomes too difficult. Teens are now let loose to drink, smoke and experiment sexually with little guidance. Since they were not taught to develop internal controls, they have great difficulty with impulse control. Really, being a little less controlling when your children are young and a little more so when they are older is a much better formula...
Gibbs' article was excellent, yet what's needed is not merely a backlash but an evolution toward something better. I suggest that a solution might be found in remembering that children learn by example. Throughout history and across cultures, that seems to be the most succinct expression of what defines a good parent...