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> I think it's worth shielding our children from danger for as long as possible, so they can focus on learning. Life will come at them, that's for sure. And the

> I think it's worth shielding our children from danger for as long as possible, so they can focus on learning. Life will come at them, that's for sure. And then they'll have the motivation to learn how to deal with all the bad stuff. But until them they'll learn more of the good stuff if we remove the distraction of having to look out for themselves. But how will they ever learn that when all they've been brought up with was that they can't be trusted to do anything on their own? What good is all the learning when you lack confidence to apply it to something new, unknown, where you don't know the outcome 100%? You make it sound like you are living in a war zone when in fact, your children are probably much safer than they ever were in history.

credit_guy 10y ago
I don't know the answer yet (my being a parent is still work in progress, you know...) but I think my son will earn my trust to let him go to and from school by himself in a few years. I don't think there will a sharp demarcation line at 18 or any other age: you are under constant supervision up to here, and completely on your own from here on. It's just that I don't think it's so important for him at this age to learn to negociate the street traffic, even if I was roaming the streets when I was his age. Can he do it? Sure. Are there dangers? You bet. Are they negligible? Maybe, some people say they are, some are freaked out. But we have a huge bias in our perception: we are all alive. We enjoyed our freedom when we were kids, but some of us died, and we, the survivors, tend to not include their experience in our assessment of the dangers. I did play with carbide cannons as a kid, and also with matches, firecrackers, I climbed trees, and of course, I got in numerous fights with other boys. And here I am, safe and sound, living proof that it's ok to do all of those. Only the proof is flawed. One of my coworkers had a classmate die while playing with a carbide cannon. It's really not that safe to play with carbide cannons, or with fire, or to dash across the street right before a car was passing (forgot to mention I did that too).

credit_guy 10y ago

I don't know the answer yet (my being a parent is still work in progress, you know...) but I think my son will earn my trust to let him go to and from school by himself in a few years. I don't think there will a sharp demarcation line at 18 or any other age: you are under constant supervision up to here, and completely on your own from here on. It's just that I don't think it's so important for him at this age to learn to negociate the street traffic, even if I was roaming the streets when I was his age. Can he do it? Sure. Are there dangers? You bet. Are they negligible? Maybe, some people say they are, some are freaked out. But we have a huge bias in our perception: we are all alive. We enjoyed our freedom when we were kids, but some of us died, and we, the survivors, tend to not include their experience in our assessment of the dangers. I did play with carbide cannons as a kid, and also with matches, firecrackers, I climbed trees, and of course, I got in numerous fights with other boys. And here I am, safe and sound, living proof that it's ok to do all of those. Only the proof is flawed. One of my coworkers had a classmate die while playing with a carbide cannon. It's really not that safe to play with carbide cannons, or with fire, or to dash across the street right before a car was passing (forgot to mention I did that too).