10 Times That 2025 Tried To Stop Kids From Growing Up |
Free-Range Kids
Lenore Skenazy | 12.23.2025 3:00 PM
Free-range parents may remember 2025 as the year that proved just how hard it still is to give kids any independence. There were arrests, investigations, panics, and new rules that seemed designed to keep childhood on permanent lockdown. But mixed in with the overreactions and worst-case-scenario thinking were a few welcome reminders that common sense can still prevail. Here's the year in review.
A March Harris Poll surveyed more than 500 kids ages 8 to 12 and found that most have never walked or biked somewhere without an adult. At least 45 percent said they "have not walked in a different aisle than their parents at a store," and 71 percent have never used a sharp knife. Gee, I wonder why they're online all the time? At least there, they can cut their own (virtual) food.
When asking about 1,000 parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-old children were playing at a park without adult supervision, another Harris Poll found that 50 percent thought it was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that the children would be abducted. As I explain in my TED Talk, that calculation is off by about 99.99 percent.
About 57 percent also said it was likely that the parents in that scenario would be shamed for being neglectful. That, unfortunately, is much more likely to be true.
Vacation is a time when everyone is supposed to have fun and make new memories. A