It has been in the news recently that parents are increasingly not allowing their children to play, shop or walk to school without supervision. With the media hype surrounding Madeline continuing still further I can understand this fear.
However parents must remember that slowly giving children more and more freedom and responsibility is one of the key ways they can teach their children how to be adults. Freedom to play, problem solve alone and cope with new situations alone equips the child with key skills.
Allowing children to encounter risks means they learn what boundaries are through experience and not through being told, the latter often being ineffective. They can learn what are safe risks and what are dangerous ones.
We as a country need to have strong families in which children can be free to learn about the world in a controlled environment. Perhaps getting a walking club together for school so 5 children always walk together for example. Children need to learn how to function without their parents.
The actually risks to children are not grossly higher than the past, they are minimal, but perhaps this is too much risk for some parents, but I feel they will do their children a disservice if they do not allow their children to develop both with them and without them
