Kids Aren't Fragile! Lenore Skenazy

Kids are smart, strong, and at least as capable as their parents were at their age. So, when the crime rate is at a 50-year-low, why does society insist on bubble-wrapping them? Why are we encouraged to protect children from minor cases of physical or mental discomfort? Why don’t we trust them to do things safely or successfully on their own?

These questions about raising kids are tackled in this episode of "How Do We Fix It?" We consider practical solutions for parents and schools.

"Treating kids as physically and emotionally fragile is bad for their future, and ours," says our guest, Lenore Skenazy, founder of Free Range Kids and President of Let Grow, a group that helps schools set-up unstructured free play before and after school hours.

A recent study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that rates of depression among teenagers rose nearly 60% since 2009. The number of young people seen in emergency rooms who had attempted suicide or reported having suicidal thoughts doubled between 2007 and 2015.

"What Let Grow is trying to do is change behavior, because once a parent sees a kid do something independently...the parents are so overjoyed with seeing their kid blossoming they are rewired," says Lenore.

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