We need to ensure the next generation gets more exposure to logic, philosophy, and critical thinking. Sadly it seems all energy and expression these days reflects the “I” and the “We” and not enough taking the position of the “Other.”
Safetyism is also influenced by the fact that people have children at older ages, and that parents are able to keep their kids physically so much safer than any other time in human history that they think they can keep their kids safe from anything.
The other thing I have noticed is that safetyism isn’t a personal choice; it’s a social standard that parents are measured by. Enforced by outsiders. And the openness to risk is entirely relative to other parents. Anecdotally, people with very large families also raise their children with safetyism, perhaps not to the same extent. But paranoid parenting fears are contagious and extremely persuasive. I can’t think of an instance where overprotective parenting is stigmatized, where a parent is embarrassed to hover. I think it goes only the other way.
What a great article.
We need to ensure the next generation gets more exposure to logic, philosophy, and critical thinking. Sadly it seems all energy and expression these days reflects the “I” and the “We” and not enough taking the position of the “Other.”
This article was brilliant. The truth in a nutshell!
Safetyism is also influenced by the fact that people have children at older ages, and that parents are able to keep their kids physically so much safer than any other time in human history that they think they can keep their kids safe from anything.
The other thing I have noticed is that safetyism isn’t a personal choice; it’s a social standard that parents are measured by. Enforced by outsiders. And the openness to risk is entirely relative to other parents. Anecdotally, people with very large families also raise their children with safetyism, perhaps not to the same extent. But paranoid parenting fears are contagious and extremely persuasive. I can’t think of an instance where overprotective parenting is stigmatized, where a parent is embarrassed to hover. I think it goes only the other way.