In 2008 Lenore Skenazy, let her son find her way back home using the subway alone and, she later wrote the story in a newspaper column which dubbed her the title “America’s Worst Mom.” She had given her son some quarters and some money in case of emergencies, and she was confident of her son since they had used the subway for long. However, the readers of the story saw her actions as being outrageous, and up to date, this has remained as a controversial issue, with many parents feeling it is unsafe. Is it not time parents loosen a bit?
Skenazy faced a lot of criticism for letting her nine-year-old boy to use the subway alone. She received a threat of arrest for endangering the life of the young child. However, this motivated her and increased her desire to encourage parents to give freedom to their children to develop resilience and self-confidence necessary to cope with the life challenges effectively. In the World’s Worst Mom show, she mediates to rescue kids from overprotective parents actions by showing them how good children can perform alone and enjoy the pride in their accomplishment.
In my opinion, she is a very brilliant mom since she is training self-confidence and reliance on her son at a tender age. She uses her knowledge to help anxious parents to provide some independence to their kids necessary for learning and personal growth. Free range kids build self-confidence by themselves, they are independent, and parents worry less than to those who have parent assisted self-confidence (Ramaekers " Suissa 76). Therefore, her choices and desires are worthwhile in child development and not worth the nickname “World’s Worst Mom.”
Work Cited
Ramaekers, S., and J. Suissa. "Good Enough Parenting?" The Claims of Parenting, 2011, pp. 73-97, doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2251-4_4.
