In this age of parenting, it seems one of our main objectives is "keeping our kids safe." But safe from what? Is the fear that guides our need to hover even logical? And what sort of people will result?
Julie Lythcott-Haims has met this kind of person, thousands of times in fact, in her job as Dean of Freshman at Stanford University. After seeing her book How To Raise an Adult and hearing her TED talk, I called Lythcott-Haims to talk about what happens to these overprotected kids when they try to leave the nest. As it happens, many of them have a difficult time adjusting. The first-year students she worked with were “very accomplished in a transcript and résumé sense” but stymied by the challenges of everyday life. “They can’t do their own laundry,” or manage typical roommate problems, or even register for their own courses—a task many outsource to their parents. “It feels very loving and it’s certainly helpful,” Lythcott-Haims says, “but that kid ends up really ill-equipped to navigate life’s imperfect bureaucracies.”
Read the article at Salon: Our obsession with safety is harming our kids - Salon.com
