VANDERBILT POLITICAL REVIEW
DOMESTIC
The politics of parenting
Reexamining the role of government in child-rearing
C
hildrearing in America is complicated. With the economic and
technological changes of the 21st
century, American parents are adjusting their parenting styles to ensure their
children are prepared for new times. The
most prominent response by parents has
materialized in the form of Helicopter
Parenting. Coined in the 1960s, but revitalized at the turn of the 21st century, this
phrase describes a parent who is overinvolved in their children’s lives. Recent
studies connect this style to depression
and incompetence in children, but the
intentions of these parents are good. In a
parent’s mind, ensuring your child is on
the right track may be the difference between the unemployed son in the garage
or the investment banker on Wall Street.
But there is another option that has slowly
crept its way into the national schema.
Crafted by Lenore Skenazy in 2008 after
writing her highly controversial “Why
I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway
Alone”, the Free Range Parenting Movement is the antithesis of the Helicopter
Parenting craze. If the helicopter parent is
waiting by the bus stop to walk her 9-year
old home, the free-range parent is waiting
in line at the grocery store when school lets
out. When the helicopter parent asks her
17-year old for an itinerary of their night,
the free-range parent slips her child a twenty, gives him a hug, and heads out for the
night too. In a society where the innovative
thrive and the independently minded are
heralded, free-range parenting is actually
preparing a son to better survive on Wall
Street than Helicopter Parenting; it better
instills the problem-solving skills and independence that helicopter parents often
rob their children of. For some, however,
including state governments, the Free-
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by CAYLYN PERRY ‘16
Range Movement and similar practicing
styles are synonymous with child neglect.
In the years since Skenazy’s piece,
parenting and childrearing have become
critical topics of debate. Conversations
surrounding the over involvement of the
authorities in parenting and the increasingly apparent criminalization of parenthood
are among the most prominent topics, but
race and class have flowed in and out of
discussions as well. There are a number of
ties, counties, and state governments in
allowing this reevaluation to happen. In
Maryland, a couple is, as of January 2015,
being investigated by Child Protective
Services for letting their children walk
home alone from a park near their house.
Last June, writer Kim Brooks shared her
story of being arrested for leaving her son
in a car for a few minutes. In both situations, it was a “concerned bystander” who
intervened. In the case of the couple in
From a top-down approach, police and child
protective service offices must be more
critical of what constitutes neglect and
abuse
reasons for this topic’s relevance, but the
one most pertinent to state officials should
be that childrearing is connected to the social welfare of the state. Education is often
cited as the most important approach to
addressing social ills, but education stems
far beyond the classroom and teachers are
not the only educators. “Poor parenting,”
as scholar Val Gillies notes in her work,
“has come to be held accountable for a
wide range of social ills, establishing an
enduring link between the well-being and
rearing of children and the welfare of society as a whole.” Poor parenting is correlated with higher juvenile delinquency
rates and childhood obesity, amongst other issues. From this perspective, it makes
sense that governments, and communities, should feel compelled to reevaluate
how Americans think about childrearing.
Unfortunately, 2014 and 2015 were
marked by the intervention of communi-
Maryland, someone saw the children and
instantly called the police. In the case of
Kim Brooks, a bystander video taped her
walk into the store and contacted the police
who then put a warrant out for her arrest.
The story that really highlights the disconnect of the government and community however took stage in South Carolina
last June when another bystander chose
to involve the police instead of engagin