I often report false “crises” pushed by the media.

Here’s one that might be real:

The children are anxious.

In my new videoLenore Skenazy, founder of the association Let it growsays it’s because today’s parents rarely allow their children to experience the joys of independence.

Skenazy once let his 9-year-old child ride the New York subway alone. For this, the media called her “the worst mother in America.” “Law and Order,” the TV show, produced an episode in which the child traveling alone is kidnapped and murdered.

But in real life, what Skenazy allowed isn’t that risky. His son told me: “I know how to get around. » Nothing bad happened to him and he gained the confidence that comes from taking care of himself.

Skenazy argues that not letting children take care of themselves makes them insecure. Anxiety and depression are “skyrocketing,” she says, citing the Journal of Pediatrics,

“How do you know the cause is lack of freedom? I ask. “Maybe it’s social media.”

“Anxiety and depression were increasing before cell phones,” she responds.

The cause, she says, is media hype around isolated instances of child abductions and “stranger dangers.”

“It actually points everyone in the wrong direction,” she said. “The biggest threat to a child is someone they know, not a stranger.”

Skenazy says parents should simply teach their children to “recognize that no one can touch you where your swimsuit covers.” Resist, run, kick, scream. If someone bothers you, don’t be nice. Resist. And then report back.

“These three R’s,” she says, “keep children safer more than ‘stranger danger,’ because most strangers pose no danger.

Allowing children to experience independence doesn’t just help the children, she says; it helps parents.

“It’s not fun to think that as soon as your kids go outside, they’re going to be kidnapped…and it’s not fun to have to be with your kids every second.”

The American Surgeon General issued an “opinion on parental mental health and wellbeing”, writing: “Over the past decade, parents have been consistently more likely to report experiencing high levels of stress.

“It’s miserable if you have to spend every second watching, supervising, entertaining,” says Skenazy, “when there are so many things you could be doing in your life!”

“Let Grow, the nonprofit I run, asks teachers to assign kids to go home and do something new on their own…just so parents have the experience to… watch the child go to the store, the park, or whatever you want. We are in a dangerous neighborhood, the kitchen is making pancakes without the parents being there to light the stove.”