Lately I've been thinking about how different societies define danger and assess risk. While living in Morocco, I've seen parents give much more freedom to their children than I've seen in the US. I've seen kids running with sticks, playing with knives, walking around on their own, holding small things they could potentially choke on, etc. It's not that Moroccan parents don't see that these objects are potential dangers, it's simply that they think the likelihood of something bad happening with the object is minimal.
American parents smother their children with protectiveness, and with good reason. I think there are many more potential dangers in America than in Morocco. For instance, American homes have many more dangers (more small items, more glass objects, low electrical outlets...), people live in larger communities/neighborhoods where they don't know all their neighbors, American media hypes up dangers and cases of tragedy, and you get the idea. If you look back through American history, we perceived less dangers. People could hitch hike, kids could walk somewhere alone, and kids could play unsupervised. I read recently that statistically there hasn't been a rise in danger over the past few decades as you think would be the case. There's just a difference in perception.
How does our perception of danger and risk affect our society? This is a big question that can't entirely be answered here, but I believe there are some bad consequences. For one thing, American children aren't being as independent or gaining some of the experiences that older generations had. Also, a lot of stress is put on parents to keep their kids safe and supervised all the time. But perhaps more importantly we should ask: What can we do to change this perception?
American parents smother their children with protectiveness, and with good reason. I think there are many more potential dangers in America than in Morocco. For instance, American homes have many more dangers (more small items, more glass objects, low electrical outlets...), people live in larger communities/neighborhoods where they don't know all their neighbors, American media hypes up dangers and cases of tragedy, and you get the idea. If you look back through American history, we perceived less dangers. People could hitch hike, kids could walk somewhere alone, and kids could play unsupervised. I read recently that statistically there hasn't been a rise in danger over the past few decades as you think would be the case. There's just a difference in perception.
How does our perception of danger and risk affect our society? This is a big question that can't entirely be answered here, but I believe there are some bad consequences. For one thing, American children aren't being as independent or gaining some of the experiences that older generations had. Also, a lot of stress is put on parents to keep their kids safe and supervised all the time. But perhaps more importantly we should ask: What can we do to change this perception?
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