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

[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.