What can children do without their parents?
It’s a loaded question this week following the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s edict that single father Adrian Crook can no longer let his children ride the bus to elementary school on their own.
The decision, we’re certain, was made with safety in mind.
But the imposition of safety extracts a corresponding price. In the case of childhood, the price is paid in lost independence and a confined spirit. And so, before more adults encroach further into the wilderness of childhood, we ask them to be cognizant of the chasm between security and the appearance of security.
Maybe Crook could drive his children to the North Shore every day. However, given the car crashes that routinely snarl traffic, we have to ask if that would be safer or only look safer?
As parents who’ve watched our children walk into walls, put things in their mouths and do for procrastination what Wagner did for opera, we appreciate the need for helicopter parents. But we need to acknowledge that being a helicopter parent isn’t an option for the great many mothers and fathers who scramble between work, school, doctor’s offices, daycares and, eventually, home.
Kids need looking after. We all remember the misbegotten decisions of our own childhoods; but maybe that’s the point. We made decisions, learned, and patched up our physical and emotional wounds.
Children need some of that freedom.
If we decide our children shouldn’t do much without their parents, we may discover we’ve created a generation that can’t do much without their parents.
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