There is a new TV show on tonight you all might like. It is World’s Worst Mom, and it is on the Discovery Life channel (which used to be their Fitness & Health channel).
Lenore Skenazy was labeled the “World’s Worst Mom” when she let her then 9-year-old son ride public transport in New York City. He was more than capable of doing so and found it quite empowering. Lenore now has a blog, Free Range Kids that deals with the sort of helicoptering parents that are afraid to let their kids do anything. These are the sorts of things that we older folks did all the time in our youths. These days, we even see parents getting arrested or investigated by Child Protective Services for letting their kids do totally innocuous things. Lenore is also frequently featured in the libertarian Reason.
In one instance, Lenore was written to by a woman who had the police bring her children home for being barefooted outdoors. I wrote about it here: Free-Range Bare Feet. These sorts of issues help explain, I think, at least some of the opposition to people going barefooted.
In the show, Lenore tries to help some parents work through their unreasonable fears. Tonight’s two episodes are about a mother who treats her 10-year-old boy like a toddler (not even letting him ride a bike), and another mother who will not allow her 6 children to go outside or use public restrooms.
You can catch the two shows tonight at 9:00pm and 9:30pm EST on the Discovery Life channel. Check local listings, as they say, for when it airs in your area.
But He Might Hurt Himself!
Lenore rules! I have been reading her blog since long ago.
I’m guessing you saw this, right?
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/7-homeschool-kids-stolen-by-sheriffs-deputies/
From the article:
“She said the dispute started a month earlier when an anonymous caller complained about the family allowing the children to be barefoot.”
Yes. Here’s the Yahoo news version of the story: 7 Children Removed From Home Over Mineral Supplement.
It makes me feel ice cold inside when I hear stuff like that. They see ‘odd’ behaviour, they then find a reason, any reason, to exert power. It’s a rather nasty part of human nature.
The thing is that people are so coddled nowadays that literally anything outside the norm scares them. If they were running about in the snow barefoot, then they clearly were doing it for fun. Because it IS fun, as long as you move fast and the snow is dry. Honestly, they’re still allowed to put their hands in the snow for snowballs, right?
It’s nice to see all their friends rallying for them at least.