Childhood Independence with Lenore Skenazy

As parents who often feel like they worry too much, or not enough, or have no idea what they're doing, Dara and Amber were thrillled to connect with the woman dubbed “America’s Worst Mom” only to flip it into a positive movement. Lenore Skenazy sure had a lot of deal with after unleashing a media firestorm with her 2008 column, “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone." But she didn't apologize or back down. Instead, Lenore has been tirelessly advocating for the common-sense notion that our kids are safer and smarter than our culture gives them credit for.

We talked to her about her journey as a parent, and how she so bravely swam against the current of parental anxiety, using research, data and her own experience to illuminate the dangers of keeping kids insulated from the world.

In 2018, she co-founded Let Grow, the nonprofit with a mission to give kids back the developmentally crucial independence that was deleted from childhood. She has lectured at corporations, conferences and schools across the country, and even the Bulgarian Happiness Festival. You may have seen her on The Today Show, The Daily Show, Dr. Phil, or her own reality show, World’s Worst Mom. Before all this, she was a reporter and columnist at The New York Daily News and New York Sun.

Lenore lives in New York City with her husband and beloved computer. Her sons are gainfully employed.

EPISODE LINKS

Thanks as always to Amanda Zorzi for our podcast's theme music. Find her on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4W7xuppzxE0ntRhDNncNtU?si=wR-qK7dMTy26mS80KHHaBg

Learn more about Let Grow:
https://letgrow.org/

Read the column by Lenore that started it all:
https://www.nysun.com/article/opinion-why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-subway-alone

Get Lenore's book, Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow:
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/free-range-kids-giving-our-children-the-freedom-we-had-without-going-nuts-with-worry_lenore-skenazy/291195/item/3850903/

Music by the talented Amanda Zorzi. Find her on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4W7xuppzxE0ntRhDNncNtU