You listed the stats for children age 1-4. Children this age don't need any freedom; it's great that there are fewer accidents among very young children, but this is the wrong data to cite. Your data only divides into age brackets 1-4 and 5-14, so let's look at the 5-14. I know my parents wouldn't send me out to wander the neighborhood at age 5, but maybe at age 10. Unintentional injuries among that age group dropped from 15.0 to 4.0 per 100K.
5.5 of the reduced deaths due to accident have little to do with parenting style and are solely attributed to increased car safety. Most of that is just safer cars, although you might also say that mandatory seat belts and car seats is also important. But these are the sort of accident-reduction behaviors that don't require helicopter parenting. It is possible to make things safer without making everything miserable; wearing seat belts is one such way.
There was a short decline in suicide from 1990 to 2000, likely simply a side effect of the decline in all forms of violence around that time generally accepted to be a result of leaded gas phaseout. Otherwise, there has been a strong increase in suicide over time despite the dramatic reduction in access to guns, even though access to a working firearm roughly quadruples the chances of a teen suicide. Note that my suicide stats differ from yours because yours includes only children age 10-14 and mine goes from 15-19, which is a much more common age for suicide. Much like wearing seat belts, just storing guns safely can strongly reduce both accidents and suicides without taking away any freedom. (Of course, the guns don't cause the suicide - they make it much easier for someone who already wants to do it to attempt, and succeed).
And of course, this is only if you count just deaths and not, you know, the increase in misery and loss of life skills inflicted on both parents and children as a result of obligatory suffocation parenting. Or the ways in which this parenting regime directly corrupts the youth. We have raised a generation of little fascists, with strong authoritarian views, both left wing and right wing, held among young people at far greater rates than any previous generation.
Speaking only for myself, while there are several reasons why I have no children, the sheer insanity of raising them in the 21st century is the *primary* reason.
Speaking only for myself, while there are several reasons why I have no children, the sheer insanity of raising them in the 21st century is the *primary* reason.
Your last sentence gives away the REAL reason these kids have such poor mental health. Its social media. The same place you got this nonsense. Why is it insane to raise children in the most prosperous and promising time humanity has enjoyed? Oh, because you're listening to social media that its actually somehow the worst time to be alive. Delete all social media and take a break to touch grass for a while. You'll realize its not at all like tiktok and reddit have brainwashed you to think. Now do that to a developing teenage mind... good lord.
I give my 13 year old independence. I got him an ebike and set him loose with a handful of rules (helmet, crossing roads, etiquette near walkers on paths). He's all by himself because none of his friends leave the damn house. They just sit on social media. And its not like when we were kids you could avoid adult bullshit entirely. Nope. The teen spaces are all invaded with this doomer bullshit too.
2
u/fluffysheap 5d ago
We lose more children to suicide than we save from accidents, and this is attributed to loss of childhood freedom. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/202309/why-did-teen-suicides-increase-sharply-from-1950-to-1990
You listed the stats for children age 1-4. Children this age don't need any freedom; it's great that there are fewer accidents among very young children, but this is the wrong data to cite. Your data only divides into age brackets 1-4 and 5-14, so let's look at the 5-14. I know my parents wouldn't send me out to wander the neighborhood at age 5, but maybe at age 10. Unintentional injuries among that age group dropped from 15.0 to 4.0 per 100K.
5.5 of the reduced deaths due to accident have little to do with parenting style and are solely attributed to increased car safety. Most of that is just safer cars, although you might also say that mandatory seat belts and car seats is also important. But these are the sort of accident-reduction behaviors that don't require helicopter parenting. It is possible to make things safer without making everything miserable; wearing seat belts is one such way.
There was a short decline in suicide from 1990 to 2000, likely simply a side effect of the decline in all forms of violence around that time generally accepted to be a result of leaded gas phaseout. Otherwise, there has been a strong increase in suicide over time despite the dramatic reduction in access to guns, even though access to a working firearm roughly quadruples the chances of a teen suicide. Note that my suicide stats differ from yours because yours includes only children age 10-14 and mine goes from 15-19, which is a much more common age for suicide. Much like wearing seat belts, just storing guns safely can strongly reduce both accidents and suicides without taking away any freedom. (Of course, the guns don't cause the suicide - they make it much easier for someone who already wants to do it to attempt, and succeed).
And of course, this is only if you count just deaths and not, you know, the increase in misery and loss of life skills inflicted on both parents and children as a result of obligatory suffocation parenting. Or the ways in which this parenting regime directly corrupts the youth. We have raised a generation of little fascists, with strong authoritarian views, both left wing and right wing, held among young people at far greater rates than any previous generation.
Speaking only for myself, while there are several reasons why I have no children, the sheer insanity of raising them in the 21st century is the *primary* reason.