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Smother Love
Every morning,Leanne Brickland and he sister would bicycle to school with the same wordsringing in their ears:“watch out crossing the road.Dont speak to strangers”.“Mum would standat the top of the steps and call that out,”says Brickland,now a primary-school teachet andmother of four from Rotorua,New Zealand.Substitute boxers and thongs for undies(内衣),andthe nagging fears that haunt parents havent really changed.What has altered,dramatically,isthe confidence we once had in our childrens ability to fling themlves at life without a grown-up holding their hands
Worry-ridden Parents and Stifled Kids
By todaysstandards,the childhood freedoms Brickland took for granted practically verge onparental neglect.Her mother worked,so she and her sister had a key to let themlves in
afterschool and were expected todo their homework and put on the potatoes for dinner.At thefamilys beach hou near Wellington,the two girls,from the age of five or six,would disappearfor hours to play in the lakes and sands.
A generation later,Bricklands children are growing up in a world more indulged yet moreaccustomed to peril.The techno-minded generation of PlayStation kids who c资金管理
an conquer entirearmies and rocket through spacecant even好词好句好段摘抄大全小学四年级
be trusted to cross the street alone.“I worry aboutthe road.I worry about stranger潜水需要会游泳吗
s.In some ways I think theyre missing out,but I like to be ableto e them, to know where they are and what theyredoing.”
Call it smother love,indulged-kid syndrome,parental neurosis(神经症).Even though todayschildren have the univer at their fingertips thanks to the Internet,their physical boundariesare shrinking at a rapid pace.According to British social scientist Mayer Hillman,a childs playzone has contracted so radically that were producing the human equivalent of henhouchickens-plump from lack of exerci and without the flexibility and initiative of freerange kidsof the past.The spirit of our times is no longer the resourcef
ul adventurer Tom Sawyer butrather the worry-ridden dad and his stifled only child in Finding Nemo.
In short,child rearing has become an exerci in risk minimization,reprented by stories suchas the father who refud to allow his daughter on a school picnic to the beach for fear shemight drown.While its natural for a parent to want to protect their children from danger,youhave to wonder;Have we gone too far?
Parents Wrap Kids up in Cotton Wool
A study conducted by Paul Tranter,a lecturer in geography at the Australian Defence ForceAcademy in Canberra,showed that 郭沫若诗歌
while Australian and New Zealand children had similarsmounts of unsupervid freedom,it was far less than German of English kids.For example,onlya third of ten-year-olds in Australia and New Zealand were allowed to visit places other thanschool alone,compared to 80 percent in Germany.
Girls were even more restricted than boys,with parents fearing assault or molestation(骚
扰),while traffic dangers were en as the greatest threat to boys.Bike ownership has doubledin a generation,but“independent mobility”---the ability to roam and explore unsupervid---has radically declined.In Auckland,for example,many primary schools have done away withbicycle racks becau the streets are considered too unsafe.And in Christchurch,New Zealandsmost bike-friendly city,the number of pupils cycling to school has fallenfrom more than 90percent in the late 1970s to less than 20 percent.Safely strapped into the family 4x4,childrenare instead driven from home to the school gate,then off to ballet,soccer or swimming lessons--rarely straying from watchful adult eyes.
In the U.S.Journal of Physical Education,RecreationDance,New Jery assistant principaland hockey coach Bobbie Schultz writes that playing in the street after school withneighbourhood kids--creating their own rules,making their own decisions and ttling disputes--was where the real learning took place.“The street was one of the greatest sources of my lifeskills,”she says.“I dont eon-the-street playanymore.I e adult-organized activities.Parentsdont realize what an integral part of character development their children are missing.”
Armoured with bicycle helmets,car ats,“safe”playgrounds and sunscreen,children are gettingthe messageloud and clear that the world is full or peril--and that theyre ill-equipped to handleit alone.Yet rearch consistently shows young people are much more capable than wethink,says professor Anne Smith,directorof New Zealands Childrens Issues Centre.“The thingthat many adults have difficulty with is that children cant learn to be grown-up if theyreexcluded and protected all the time.”
Educational psychologist Paul Prangley reckons its about time the kid gloves came off.Hebelieves parenting has taken on a paranoid(患妄想狂的)ed哲学道理
ge thats creating a generation ofnaive,incure youngsters whoare subconsciously being taught theyre incapable of handingthings by themlves.“Flexibility and the ability to resist pressure and temptation are learnedskills,”Prangley explains.“If you wrap kids up in cotton wool and dont give them theopportunity to take risks,theyre less equipped to make responsible decisions later in life.”
Parents Should Gain Proper Perspective
Sadly,high-profile cas of children being kidnapped and murdered--such as ten-year-old HollyWells and Jessica Chapman in the United Kingdom;five-year-old Chloe Hoson in Australia,whobody was found just 200 metres from where she lived;and six-year-old Teresa Cormack in NewZealand,who was snatched off the street on her way to school--only rve to reinforceparentsfears.Teresa Cormacks death,for example,was one of the rare New Zealand cas ofrandom child kidnap.In Australia,the odds of someone under the age of 15 being murdered bya stranger have been estimated at one in four million.A child is at far greater risk from afamilymember or someone they know.
