*SOLO-Youth Press Release: Stop Mollycoddling Our Children!

Callum McPetrie* October 19, 2008

So says one British early childhood expert, Tim Gill, who's in the country at the moment, and is becoming increasing worried about the state of NZ children. He says:

"If we're constantly telling kids you can't do that, it's too dangerous or you can't talk to strangers or everybody out there is trying to get you, well then it's no surprise that kids are increasingly growing up anxious and afraid."

And he's right. Like their counterparts in Britain, Kiwi kids are growing up over-protected, which damages their self-esteem and causes them to be reckless, and not think about what they're doing. This can be seen in the rising rates of youth crime and teenage suicide around the country, and indeed, around the world.

Back before political correctness got a stranglehold on public opinion, most children were left relatively free to discover the world. They knew the risks involved, and developed out of their own experiences, not at the discretion of their parents.

Instead, as Tim Gill says, it is the mollycoddling of today's society which is preventing them from enjoying life to the full, and political correctness, with its attempt to remove risk from life is behind that mollycoddling.*Callum McPetrie callummcpetrie@yahoo.co.nz

ENDS

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