I recently read this great article about, essentially, parenting and fear.
It’s a great article, and the takeaway is that child abductions, child/stranger rape, and dangerous accidents involving children are all down from when many of us were children.
And yet, we (as parents) have never lived more fearfully, more anxiously, and more worried.
We have memories of growing up, roaming freely. We rode bikes to pools, in woods, and to corner candy stores.
We walked to parks, through neighborhoods, and to school.
Our parents didn’t know where we were and just assumed we would come back.
The 24 news cycle wasn’t there to tell our parents about abductions on another coast. Cable wasn’t showing them grusome murders in woods they had never heard of. Facebook wasn’t showing scary stories, Amber Alerts weren’t blowing up cell phones, and our parents couldn’t follow every terrifying story down the Twitter hole.
Were are parents more relaxed?
You bet they were!
We are blamed for hovering, but you can blame us? Our reptilian brains are scared shitless and are nerves are raw and jangly.
The only way to escape this mess is to STOP.
Stop watching the news. Stop subscribing to Amber Alerts, and for the love of all things holy, stay off cable.
If you must stay current, READ.
Great periodicals, newspapers, books, and magazines.
Stay away from the Internet and read real documents.
This way, your imagination may go wild, but at least you won’t have totally shoddy reporting and associated scary music to go with it.
You are more likely to have compassion mixed in with your sadness and fear.
Your brain can feel slightly less assaulted.
Our culture has placed all of us parents, unwittingly, in a jail of fear…but the cell door is wide open.
We can walk right out. It is in our power.
Are you ready to stop parenting out of fear?
Time for coaching.
Click here to begin for a FREE 20 minute consult with me, Meghan Leahy
