'The Over-Protected Kid'

The wussification of America crowd gets an an unlikely ally: SportsJournalists.com polarizing writer Hanna Rosin.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

 

A related, but enthralling, story.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/recess-without-rules/283382/

Reminds me of our politics thread. It was very much the same kind of bold experiment.

 

If childhood in Wales is so toughening, than why did Dylan Thomas drink himself to death after only 18 shots of whiskey?

 

It's a valid point. I did 15 shots of tequila in 10 minutes at a college party, and today I write still word good things doing.

 

love the atlantic, in many ways far more than the new yorker. but this string of cover stories about social trends -- the end of men, women can't have it all, we're not raising our kids right -- nearly every issue feels like a new variation on insecurity sales. it's cynical cage-rattling, and as bad as those women's mags with 17-year old models made up to look like they're far older, setting a impossible standard for women's bodies and thus keeping the beauty-products industry humming. buy this magazine to know how you're not measuring up!
this stuff, though, is aimed at middle- to upper-middle class types who do feel or SHOULD feel guilty about any level of comfort they've reached. done once a year, i get it. it may even be important. but every issue? i know it causes discussion, so everybody in editorial there is happy. but some marketing dept. type has figured out that the best way to get high-end eyeballs is to make their owners feel bad about their lives. every month.

 

I would enjoy reading this dead on thesis as a full-length takedown, and enjoy watching it give certain people the vapors on Twitter for two days.

 

I'm just as guilty of guilt-based parenting as anyone. It's hard to say what I would have done differently over the last 20 years, but it's easy for me to say I wish I had done it differently.

 

i just get the sense that they're all just casting about for the next target: men? check. women? check. kids? check.

next up: pets! why loving cats makes you insane! why loving dogs makes you weak! and that stuff you're feeding them? it gives them pet cancer! you should feel bad! now tweet out your outrage so we can tell the world that old media still can be a player....