Free Range Kids or Cotton Wool Kids?

It's a group thing.....

Free range kids get a lot of attention, as do their parents. It's not an easy thing to do to choose this route because all eyes will be on you, the one who dared to go against the norm. Most people like to act in accordance with the norm (the group) and find anyone who acts outside of the norm to be intolerable, unfathomable or even insulting. If you act independently of your society you open yourself up to group rage because the obedient followers of the pack mentality feel threatened by renegades no matter how wrong the group may be or how right the renegade may be. The hostility aimed at the independent thinker has little to do with facts and much to do with feelings.

Why is it the West has been infected with this pervasive over-protective mentality that has gotten so extreme it must surely have permanently thwarted our latest generation? Did each individual parent choose to be over-protective because they each knew the danger was too great to risk their children's welfare? No, of course not. They copied this mentality from other parents due to assuming they, the group, must be right and they fashioned their style around what they felt they should do to be like most other people. Their style was chosen because of a lack of confidence in their own beliefs and because of the desire to fit in and be accepted by the group and not because of individual research and consideration. The group got their style from the media, which no doubt intended to see a generation of kids kept cooped up. They didn't make 'Home Alone' for nothing. The rulers of this planet want to condition your children to be captives and not free people. What do you want them to be and what are you conditioning them to become?

The first non-conformist parents in a society to break the mould and dare to be different by opening the front door and saying, 'Out you go, have fun, be back by dark' will find themselves up against a wall of hysterical reactionary abuse. Remember, the group was not formed around facts and it will not re-form around truths without first letting out a lot of toddler tantrums!


The video above explains conformity and points out that the members of the group will deny the facts in order to fit in. This is why it's going to be a long hard road to get kids back outside playing freely as they have done throughout all of history. The fact may be they are much better off in slightly risky situations than to be protected at all times but facts will not be enough to affect a change. What is needed is for the free-range mentality to become popular, fashionable, etc. People can be persuaded to modify their parenting style in the same way they are persuaded to upgrade their wardrobe. If it's all the rage, they'll go for it! 

What is going to transform the now 'world's worst mum's into trendsetters? The 'world's worst mum's kids of course! When the cooped up kids become young adults with no muscles, unused looking limbs, delicate hands (male and female), hunched shoulders, forward head posture, repetitive strain injured thumbs, reluctant conversation skills, an aversion to bacteria, an immature persona and a permanent problem with boredom the evidence will not be so easy to overlook. And when the free-range kids grow up to be strong, fit, healthy, confident, sociable, expressive, adventurous, capable, streetwise, self-reliant and easily entertained, suddenly the future has tangible projections for new parents. The likes of Lenore Skenazy will thus become the people to emulate...the new trendsetters. 

It's only when the stark reality of choosing group acceptance over what's best for a new parent's child hits home will the power of the group be broken. The product will be the proof. 'I want one of those!' is what new parents will be thinking and no amount of peer pressure will dissuade them. It's a pity so many parents treat their kids like a fashion accessory, only doing what they think is the done thing of the moment rather than doing what they deep down believe is best for their kids. Hopefully the tide will change and it will become fashionable to raise kids again and not little prisoners with Stockholm Syndrome. 

Taking the free-range route is by no means the easy route but right now it is seen as just that. No, the easy route is the one that does not expose you to the wrath of society! The wrath of society is a real and present danger that lurks in the shadows of our neighbourhoods, but behind twitching curtains and inside stony faces and not trees. There is no denying the threat posed by the majority of people around you when you choose to stand firm in your beliefs. It is the majority that poses the greatest threat to the long term welfare of children in today's world and not the very tiny minority. But, as the majority sees, little by little, the product of your defiance, little by little they will twitch their curtains less and the positive feedback will replace the negative. 

So, free range parents....stand firm in your beliefs, carry the cross of sense and be the masters of your children's destinies as you defy the curtain twitching captors!



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