Unless there is real evidence of abuse, a simple decision like a parent leaving their kid in the car while they run into a store doesn’t give a concerned citizen the right to start legal proceedings against a family, often the thinking is, it’s better to place a child in foster care than allow her parent to let her sleep in a car.

Lenore Skenazy

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Who's crazy: people who trust other people, or people who don't? by Lenore Skenazy

Who's crazy: people who trust other people, or people who don't?

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You don't remember the times your dad held your handle bars. You... by Lenore Skenazy

You don't remember the times your dad held your handle bars. You remember the day he let go.

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A child who thinks he can't do anything on his own eventually can... by Lenore Skenazy

A child who thinks he can't do anything on his own eventually can't.

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We have to learn to remind the other parents who think we're being careless when we loosen our grip that we are actually trying to teach our children how to get along in the world, and that we believe this is our job. A child who can fend for himself is a lot safer than one forever coddled, because the coddled child will not have Mom or Dad around all the time, even though they act as if he will.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued reams of playground regulations and actually gone so far as to recommend against "tripping hazards, like tree stumps and rocks." Maybe we should just bulldoze the local parks and put in a couple of blobs... made of plastic.

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If you live in a culture that says you can't let your kids get off the bus without an adult there to take him home, or we'll arrest you for letting your kids walk home from the park, how can you do anything other than spend more time with them than you otherwise care to ?

One thing to remember is that none of us are purely anything. People think I am anti-helicopter parenting, but what I am really against is a culture that has made us so scared about everything, like Our Kids falling behind or getting hurt.

We live in a fear-infused culture in which we’ve lost perspective on safety, common activities like leaving a child in a car are often presented as though they pose enormous threats to our safety.

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We've been encouraged in our society to do what I call worst-first thinking, which is come up with the worst-case scenario first and proceed as if it's likely to happen, and that's what happened with The Meitivs, someone sees two children alone, and they leap to' Oh, my God, they're neglected. What if they're run over by a Mack truck ? What if they're kidnapped ? There are predators all around.'.