Have been doing some interesting reading lately. Looking into the history of childhood and parenting! It's fascinating stuff...
Specifically, I've been trying to find out how we got to this place, where parents are paranoid, competitive, overprotective, and overwhelmed!
Seems there has been a confluence of factors that have brought us here. According to Peter Stearns, in Anxious Parents, while the 19th-century view of children was of innocents who'd grow up just fine unless corrupted by adults, the 20th-century view was of children who were vulnerable, fragile, readily overburdened, and required special handling. Among the reasons for this shift was the decreasing number of children per family, which intensified the "value" of each child. Also, child-rearing manuals began to appear in the U.S. in the 1920s, followed by Parents Magazine, which was intended to "provide answers to parental concerns but also offer standards that might lead parents to feel concerns where none had existed."
And that was just the beginning of an influx of childrearing advice from outside experts, much of which caused parents to question their own knowledge and judgment. In the 1970s there was a sharp increase in the number of childrearing books on the market and where, previously, Dr. Spock's approach had been easygoing and friendly, newer tactics wanred of dire consequences if parenthood were taken for granted.
At the same time, media reports assaulted the public with stories of tragedies befalling the young. Kidnappings were widely publicized, spreading panic over the potential for stranger abductions, leading, in the early 1980s, to the introduction of billboards and milk cartons that displayed the photos of missing children. Parents learned of poisoned Halloween candy and apples containing razor blades in 1982. In 1983, a mother (who was later found to be emotionally unstable) told police that her young son had been molested at the McMartin Preschool in California. The relentless publicity surrounding the story sparked widespread alarm and, consequently, a "witch hunt."
Over the past quarter-century, the trumpeting of a dire crisis among the young proved to be a highly effective way to gain public attention. Whenever adults sensed that their children were in danger, they responded with passion. Sociologists use the term moral panic to describe the highly exaggerated and misplaced public fears that periodically arise within a society. Eras of ethical conflict and confusion are especially prone to outbreaks of moral panic as particular incidents crystallize generalized anxieties and provoke moral crusades….[P]anics arose from legitimate worries for the safety of the young in a violent and hypersexualized society, but they were also fueled by interest groups that exploit parental fears, well-meaning social service providers, child advocacy groups, national commissions, and government agencies desperate to sustain funding and influence. If panics arise out of a genuine desire to arouse an apathetic public to serious problems, the effect of scare stories is not benign. They frighten parents, intensity generational estrangement, and encourage schools and legislatures to impose regulations to protect young people from themselves.
On Friday I'll review the additional factors of guilt and TMI (too much information). In the meantime, I'd love to hear your take on this trend...
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