You don’t need to plan every minute of their day.
by Lenore Skenazy
Reason.com
Not to be a Free-Range Pollyanna, but one possible (small) upside to this world-wide pandemic could be that kids become more independent—and less anxious—if we let them use their time differently.
Bear with me, and with research psychologist and fellow Let Grow co-founder, Dr. Peter Gray.
Gray points out that over the past generation or so, kids have been losing their “internal locus of control,” the feeling of being in control of their lives. Obviously, when you don’t feel in control of your life, you are more likely to feel depressed and anxious. And in fact, childhood anxiety levels have been shooting up long before the virus hit. Almost one in three adolescents has an anxiety disorder.