Episode Details

Episode Highlights With Lenore

• How she initially rose to fame by letting her child ride the subway alone and how she got the title “America’s worst mom” because of it
• The way we got to a point where we're afraid to let our kids do things that many of us remember doing
• Crime is lower now than when we were kids so why are we more worried?
• Two big things that happened in the 1980s that shifted parenting in the US
• Big factors that have influenced why we have more fear around parenting now
• Why we all have the desire to keep our kids safe but the downsides of an over curated childhood
• The negative effects of over curated childhood for children
• Why more kids are having depression and anxiety and how kids feeling underestimated can contribute to this
• How too much control is harming children and why kids need an internal locus of control
• Independence, responsibility, and trust all help contribute to this internal locus of control for kids
• What the Let Grow Project is and the free resources they have
• How to rewire your own fears as a parent to feel safe in letting our kids have more independence

Resources We Mention

• Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow by Lenore Skenazy
• Let Grow Website
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Free to Learn by Peter Gray
• The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein