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The Overprotected American Child

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Re: The Overprotected American Child

#81

Post by taeric »

closeparen wrote: post #80
taeric wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes, if richer families started having children at a higher rate, this would almost fix itself. Two major problems, though. a) By and large, rich people don't have more children and b) having a child is a good way to destroy your wealth. That is, many that are just barely in the "rich" category won't be once they have children. More, most wealth in the US does not survive generations. (And this is generally agr…

Neither of the things I mentioned are a genuine improvement to anyone’s situation, yet they would fix this metric. It’s great that the lowest end of the income distribution still has enough resources to have children. It would help no one to reduce productivity. The metric is probably not the right way of thinking about this problem.

They wouldn't, was my point. One actively works against it through feedback systems. Having kids typically lowers your income. The other isn't actually doable.

Is the metric perfect? No. But neither is attacking it in ways that it can't be attacked.

Do you have alternatives? What are they?

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#82

Post by walshemj »

Pinckney wrote: post #11

As a counterpoint, Canada (and presumably the US too) has seen a dramatic decrease in unintentional injury mortality among children over the last 70 years. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28026710

Probably due to the reduction in people working on farms which can be dangerous places - there was a documentary on Rick Hall - the founder of Muscle Shoals.

He grew up on a farm and one of his siblings was scaled to death and later when he had made money a tractor he had brought for his father overturned killing him.

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#83

Post by m_mueller »

empath75 wrote: post #69
ourmandave wrote: post #58

A wallet-sized Let Grow “Kid Card” is meant to be carried by children when they are out on their own, to calm the fears of overly concerned adults. https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-AQ358_INDEPE_M... ^This here. Except the Concerned Adults will never get a chance to read it because they'll call the police to rescue the 12-year-old dropped off at the mall by her mom. https://www.brainchildmag.com/2014/01/g…

she left a 12 year old in charge of a three year old at the mall which is a much different situation.

Seriously? Where I live I regularly see 7 year olds alone in charge of 3 year olds at the playground. I‘m talking about Switzerland, much the same in many European countries and Japan.

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#84

Post by walshemj »

closeparen wrote: post #15
viburnum wrote: post #3

Child poverty is the real problem. https://peoplespolicyproject.org/2018/02/16/americas-bizarre...

> "20 percent of US children live in families with incomes below 50 percent of the national median income" This is a bizarre metric. If richer families started having children at a higher rate, or poorer families slowed down, the problem would be fixed? What if we simply cut the pay of the upper 50%, not even redistributing the income? That would lower median income, and therefore shrink the "less than 50% of median…

I thought poor families had more kids

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#85

Post by pbhjpbhj »

matte_black wrote: post #79
empath75 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

she left a 12 year old in charge of a three year old at the mall which is a much different situation.

If a 12 year old child can’t take care of a three year old they have failed as a 12 year old.

I'd imagine most 12 yo without experience of 3 yo children wouldn't have much of a clue. Many adults, even those of grandparent age (who've had kids) seem clueless as to the abilities of pre-schoolers and hence the ability of them to get in trouble.

They might be able to stop the infant from killing themselves, it depends a lot on the 3 yo. In our case the eldest is over-protective mostly, except when bored or distracted ...

I think you've overstretched with that claim.

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#86

Post by walshemj »

Waterluvian wrote: post #6
viburnum wrote: post #3

Child poverty is the real problem. https://peoplespolicyproject.org/2018/02/16/americas-bizarre...

Geez, that article really felt light on examination, then bam, "the solution is obvious, tax the rich more!" And why wouldn't they compare the US to other countries like Canada, Germany, UK, France, etc. ? We all already know that the Nordic countries really have their act together and are effectively a cherry picked example. Maybe I'm being paranoid but is this what fake news looks like? The whole point of the artic…

No sure how taxing the rich is going to solve the nanny state problem here and I am probably more left wing that the average HN reader.

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#87

Post by autokad »

empath75 wrote: post #69
ourmandave wrote: post #58

A wallet-sized Let Grow “Kid Card” is meant to be carried by children when they are out on their own, to calm the fears of overly concerned adults. https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-AQ358_INDEPE_M... ^This here. Except the Concerned Adults will never get a chance to read it because they'll call the police to rescue the 12-year-old dropped off at the mall by her mom. https://www.brainchildmag.com/2014/01/g…

she left a 12 year old in charge of a three year old at the mall which is a much different situation.

Am I remembering things wrong, or wasnt baby sitters potentially 12 years old when I was growing up?

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#88

Post by aianus »

watwut wrote: post #35
JackCh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has there been any change in the rate of depression or other mental disorders in minors, and if so, is loss of autonomy one of the factors in this?

It is hard to say, since we diagnose more then before. Anecdotally, some say that yes there is such rise. Then again, teenagers are now less violent then before, commit less serious crime, get pregnant less often and take drugs less. It is hard to weight those against each other.

> get pregnant less often

But are they getting pregnant less often per instance of intercourse?

There were a lot of articles lately that teenagers and young adults are having less sex now than ever before which IMHO would be a failure rather than a success of overparenting.

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#89

Post by ShabbosGoy »

trentmb wrote: post #76
taeric wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this something that actually happens, in large? I'd be interested in studies that show this happens more. Meltdowns are far from a new thing in the world. I mean, they make a nice narrative to shame people for overprotecting their kids. But this basically culminates in three of the major things that give me pause. a) Nice narrative, b) appealing argument without presented evidence, and c) shaming. Combine those an…

> Is this something that actually happens, in large? No, but it lets mediocre people feel good about themselves.

The mediocrity comes from the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. Overprotecting your kids feeds into that mentality as well. If everyone gets a trophy, why should you try harder than anyone else?

Re: The Overprotected American Child

#90

Post by astura »

empath75 wrote: post #69
ourmandave wrote: post #58

A wallet-sized Let Grow “Kid Card” is meant to be carried by children when they are out on their own, to calm the fears of overly concerned adults. https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-AQ358_INDEPE_M... ^This here. Except the Concerned Adults will never get a chance to read it because they'll call the police to rescue the 12-year-old dropped off at the mall by her mom. https://www.brainchildmag.com/2014/01/g…

she left a 12 year old in charge of a three year old at the mall which is a much different situation.

A generation ago 12 year olds were thought to be fully capable of babysitting and many did.
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