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Comment by shioyama | Hacker News Reader

> Today, however, if I were to learn that my young kids had left the house in the early morning by themselves to rock climb, explore the forest and encounter heaven-knows-what out in the woods, I’d probably start hyperventilating.

Why? WHY? I don't understand this sentiment at all. What is the matter with people these days? Parents are suffocating their kids because they can't get over their own paranoia.

As another commenter wrote: parents, just let fucking go.

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Because you are inundated with news/social media telling you about all the sex offenders in your area, human trafficking gangs abducting kids, and so on. Reality is these were all there before, and the probability of being a victim is exceptionally low, but most people suck at risk evaluation and understanding statistics...

I don't think it's only this. People passively contribute to this with their shock at hearing that another parent has let their kids run free. It may have started from media-stocked paranoia, but it has now blossomed into society-nurtured paranoia.

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Discussion about a six-year-old kid:

Grandparent: "Where is __?"

Parent: "Oh he's out on his bike with his friends."

Grandparent: "By himself?"

Parent: "No, with his friends."

Grandparent: (shocked silence)

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I happily live in Japan, where this paranoia has yet to strike, so letting your kids run free from a young age is fairly normal. But I'm afraid that it soon will, and there will be no turning back.

Totally agree - there is a bit of a feedback loop as media shapes the cultural expectations. It’s really unfortunate because the vast majority of people are cattle and just follow the herd - no independent critical thinking. Worse is when someone does stick their head up to buck the new norms, as you say, people are ready to guilt you or question your judgement.

Society was encouraged by policies that remove kids from danger (eg transport them in a metal box instead of walking. Don't trust anyone! Stay away from roads!) in place of removing danger from kids (eg road calming measures and shared streets around towns and schools, or pointing out the vanishingly small chance of stalkers and sex offenders being strangers outside institutions or family).

Thus letting go becomes seen as irresponsible parenting and so it escalates.

We chose to resist this trend with our kids as much as possible and to hell with what anyone else thought.

Do you have kids?

Yes I do.

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