Research

Lenore Skenazy — Free-Range Kids

Lenore Skenazy challenges the culture of fear surrounding childhood and asks whether we've confused reasonable childhood risk with genuine danger.

Themes in her work

What Skenazy writes about

The rise of risk-averse parenting
Constant supervision has become the social default, often regardless of a child's age or actual capability.
Fear and perceptions of danger
Skenazy's central argument is that our sense of how dangerous the world is has drifted a long way from the evidence — and that the drift has costs for children.
Independent mobility
Walking, riding and catching public transport are ordinary skills. They are learned by doing them, in stages, with practice.
Children navigating their communities
A child who moves around their neighbourhood comes to know it — the streets, the shopkeepers, the neighbours — and to be known in return.
Reasonable risk versus genuine danger
Some things are genuinely hazardous and belong to adults to manage. Many others are simply unfamiliar, and children grow through them.
Gradually increasing responsibility
Trust is extended in steps: a task, then a slightly bigger one, then one further from home.
Protecting children versus restricting childhood
Both look like care. Only one of them leaves children more capable at the end of it.

Our reading of it

The project is not advocating for neglect, and not for removing sensible safety measures. It asks parents to consider one question:

"Are we protecting children from genuine dangers — or are we sometimes protecting them from experiences that help them grow?"

In practice, that might look like

Sources

The updated second edition of Free-Range Kids includes new material on childhood and parental anxiety.