Risk phobia

[unixronin]

Lenore Skenazy wrote a telling article a couple of months back about helicopter parenting run amuck and our society's growing gibbering terror of anything that possibly MIGHT pose the slightest risk.  "Don't run with scissors"?  Try "ZOMG, don't run, you might TRIP AND KILL YOURSELF!"

Honestly, I've many times wondered how in hell some people get through their daily lives at all, when it seems they're so scared of EVERYTHING that it's a miracle they can find the courage to get out of bed in the morning.  Sterile shopping cart liners, lest your kid touch a metal bar that's been touched by a soup can that's touched someone else's hand?  Hastur in a merrywidow, people, let your kids out of the sterile bubble and give them some kind of real-world chance at developing a functional immune system.  Yeah, if you let them run at the playground, they might trip and fall.  Better by far to let them learn to judge risk for themselves now while the risks are small.

Comments

[ithildae]

People need practice making adult decisions. There are so many students that I tutor that have never made their own schedule. They have never had a chance to just hang. How can anyone possibly expect someone to work out a college schedule when they have never even attempted their own scheduling? (Most of these bright students are in real trouble.)

[unixronin]

Exactly my concern. We are raising a generation of hothouse flowers who completely lack any kind of crisis-handling skills.

Rather like our President, in fact, one might say.

[ithildae]

Ouch!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

One wonders how the human race survived...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Elder Son got his leg broken in the neighborhood park (phrasing used because he fell off his own bike and another kid ran over him . . .), and we shrugged and paid the vet bills. He, and we, survived.

As Buddha put it, life is struggle and sorrow.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

See also Nietzche: "That which does not destroy us makes us stronger."

Sometimes I think there is a part of society that wants to turn us all into Wells' Eloi.

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

It's lucrative for people to live in fear, that way they'll buy products that assuage that fear. I blame the human urge to advertise, personally. If you want to sell a product, invent a need for it. It started with bad breath, underarm odor, and "unwanted hair".

I also believe it's no different from the accusations of Witches! that swept the country a few hundred years ago. If you get people frightened of witches and evil eye, you can sell them protective amulets and charms.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

"The first thing we do is, we kill all the advertisers."

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

I can get behind that.

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Most egregious new product? Touch-less hand sanitizer dispensers for your home. EVEN WASHING YOUR HANDS IS DANGEROUS!!

I assume you saw Schneier's post yesterday about the risk of choking on a hotdog?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup. That's where I saw the Skenazy link. (Forgot to credit Bruce for the pointer.)

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Nod. Not cite-snarking you. It was just coincidental and I wanted to point it out if you hadn't. Didn't realize you guys both referenced the same link. That's what I get for skimming.

[lwj2.livejournal.com]

The respiratory therapists where I used to work did a survey of patients, discovering (to nobody's surprise) that the majority of their paediatric patients had been kept inside in until they started kindergarten.

They noted that kids who were out grubbing in yards, getting dirty and eating bugs and worms, as kids are wont to do, had very few incidences of respiratory problems that weren't genetically linked or due to early birth.

Neonates that were allowed out like normal kids had fewer UR problems than those kept inside. Neonates have a huge incidence of UR problems because of poor lung development.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

*nod* I despair at the people who WILL NOT see that by trying to protect their kids from every possible imaginable risk, they are actually harming them. Not only is it not possible to eliminate all risk from life, but it wouldn't be a good idea even if it were — both from the viewpoint of directly impacting kids' health, and of crushing their spirits and never allowing them to develop independence or a sense of adventure.

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Absolutely and completely agreed!