The Shockingly Simple Way to Stop Helicopter Parenting

Even if you want to stop worrying about your child’s safety any time they are beyond the front lawn (or on it!), we live in a culture driving us nuts with fear. And so, over the years, normal childhood milestones like walking to school or running an errand have disappeared, buried like ancient Troy under layers and layers of “STRANGER DANGER! IS YOUR KID NEXT? DETAILS AT 11!” dust.

Parents need a way to blow that dust away and re-discover how easy and NORMAL it is to let kids achieve the same independence milestones we did. Especially since anxiety is UP and the crime rate is DOWN. It’s back to what it was in 1963. (And not because we helicopter! Crimes are down against adults, too, and we don’t helicopter them.)

Enter the Let Grow Project. (Blog post continues below video.)

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This 3-minute video describes the project, in which a school has all the kids go home and ask their parents if they can do ONE THING  their own parents did. Because the school endorses it, and all the other families are doing it, even nervous parents say yes.

And once their kid has marched off to the store — and come back triumphantly carrying the bread — the parents are changed FOREVER. (Oh, so are the kids.)

This project takes about 15 minutes of class time to explain, and after that — none.

Parents – Schools – Teachers – Principals – Superintendents: If you’d like your school to do the Let Grow Project and have any questions, drop me a note: [email protected]. – L