204. Advice from "The World's Worst Mom" — A Conversation with Lenore Skenazy

Faith Matters

Faith Matters Foundation

Morality, Lds, Ethics, Mormonism, Latter-day Saint, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints, Christianity, Philosophy, Mormon, Religion & Spirituality

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Lenore Skenazy’s son was nine, he asked her repeatedly if she would let him have a solo adventure in their hometown of New York City. Her son had a specific plan for this adventure: he wanted her to take him somewhere new in the city and then let him find his own way home. Lenore took the leap of faith, and when her son burst into their apartment later, he was practically “levitating with pride and joy” at what he had accomplished.

Lenore then wrote an article in the New York Sun called “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone” — and a media firestorm ensued. We’ll let Lenore share more about that particular time, but she realized then how radical and important an idea it was for modern parents to “let go.”

In 2017, Jonathan Haidt, co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind reached out to Lenore with two others, all of whom shared concerns about the increasing fragility they’re seeing in young people in America, and the poor outcomes that follow. They went on to launch Let Grow, a non-profit organization that promotes childhood independence.

Lenore’s message is that parents can sometimes become compulsive about protecting children from every possible danger, but blind to the trade-offs: decreased independence, resilience, social skills, and creativity, and increased anxiety and depression.

But this message also has broader implications for our lives and our faith: while we often tend to try to micromanage everything with the mistaken belief that we can prevent anything bad from happening, deep faith can help us see that there’s Something Bigger going on — and we don’t always need to be in control.

We found Lenore to be delightful—she’s sharp, funny, and has profoundly important things to say for anyone interested in helping our next generations to be resilient and happy. We really hope you enjoy this conversation with Lenore Skenazy.

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0:00.0	Hey everybody before we get started I just wanted to let you know that Wayfair Issue 3 is about to be released so now would be the perfect time to subscribe
0:07.2	We are so excited to dive into this new issue which features pieces from Terrell given Steve young Catherine night Young, Catherine Knight-Santag, and many, many others.
0:14.6	And just like every issue of Wayfair, this one is so visually stunning and it's spiritually
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0:19.5	And as one of our reviewers put it, Wayfair is a great link between head and Heart. You can become a digital or a print subscriber
0:26.0	at wayfair magazine.org or click on the link in our show notes.
0:30.0	Hey everybody, this is Aubrey Chavez from Faith Matters.
0:33.0	When the Norse canes's son was nine, he asked her repeatedly if she would let him have a solo adventure in their hometown of New York City.
0:40.0	Her son had a specific plan for this adventure.
0:42.0	He wanted her to take him somewhere new in the city and then let him find his own way home.
0:46.4	So Lenore took the leap of faith and when her son burst into their apartment later,
0:50.5	she says he was practically levitating with pride and joy at what he had
0:53.6	accomplished. Lenore then wrote an article in the New York Sun called Why I Let my
0:57.8	nine-year-old ride the subway alone and a media firestorm ensued. We'll let
1:02.0	Lenore share more about that particular time, but she
1:04.2	realized then how radical an idea it was for modern parents to let go. In 2017,
1:10.4	Jonathan Hite, co-author of the Coddling of the American Mind, reached out to Lenore with two others, all of whom shared concerns about the increasing fragility they're seeing in young people in America, and the poor outcomes that follow.
1:22.0	And then they went on to launch Let Grow, a nonprofit organization that promotes childhood independence.
1:27.0	Lenor's message is that parents can sometimes become compulsive about protecting their children from every possible danger,
1:33.0	but blind to the trade-offs, decreased independence,
1:36.0	resilience, social skills, and creativity,
1:38.0	and increased anxiety and depression.
	...

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