Recorded at the Batle of Ideas 2015

In a week where opprobrium has been heaped on the

parents of a four-year-old child who had to be rescued from a gorilla

enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo, while the parents of a Japanese

seven-year-old boy face charges after abandoning him to wander in the

woods for a week, listen to this session from the Battle of Ideas 2015

where Lenore Skenazy argues that far from being obsessed with what our

kids might be up to, we must give them the freedom to roam and explore

without constant adult supervision.

The term ‘cotton wool kids’ has become part of everyday language.

Indeed, many parents, academics and others share a concern that children

have become over­protected. The worry is that youngsters no longer have

enough freedom to explore, to get into scrapes, have accidents and work

out how to deal with situations when they don’t have adults telling

them what to do.

Discussions about this problem often focus on Mum and Dad: the blame,

it is said, lies with irrationally fearful, overprotective ‘helicopter

parents’. Yet when parents do try to give their children more freedom,

they can face a great deal of hostility and even legal action. In the

US, the parents of so-called ‘Free Range Kids’ have been charged with

child neglect, while UK parents who let their young children cycle to

school on their own have become the subject of protracted public debate

about whether this is neglectful. Parents are told almost daily that

their children’s health, welfare and safety are at risk, not just from

strangers lurking in the park but from adults they know and thought they

could trust, including family members, teachers, doctors and volunteers

– and the apparently ever-growing menace of online grooming and abuse.

Given this state of affairs, how could parents not end up being fearful

and paranoid?

How should we, as adults collectively, think about how best to

protect and care for children while at the same time challenging and

testing them in creative ways? Why do we find it so hard to agree on a

‘commonsense’ approach to child-rearing? Are projects that focus on

letting children ‘run free’ the answer? Or are these becoming just

another parenting fad, accessible mainly to middle­-class parents who

can weekend in the country? Is it possible, or even desirable, to change

the way we raise our children in a more profound way? How might we find

ways to develop character, determination and independence of thought

and action in future generations?

SPEAKER

Lenore Skenazy

founder of the book, blog and movement Free-Range Kids; “America’s Worst Mom”

RESPONDENTS

Alice Ferguson

director, Playing Out

Dr Helene Guldberg

director, spiked; author, Reclaiming Childhood: freedom and play in an age of fear and Just Another Ape?

Lisa Harker

director of strategy, policy and evidence, NSPCC

CHAIR

Dr Ellie Lee

reader in social policy, University of Kent, Canterbury; director, Centre for Parenting Culture Studies