‘World‘s worst mom’ - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

Lenore Skenazy’s New Show Brings Free-Range Parenting to Your TV Screen

Show airs Thursdays at 9 pm on Discovery Life

Robby Soave|Jan. 22, 2015 3:52 pm

Reason contributor and super-star Lenore Skenazy will be dousing the flames of parental paranoia on her very own show, “World’s Worst Mom,” beginning Thursday (tonight) at 9:00 p.m. EST on the Discovery Life channel.

The title is a satirical jape at Skenazy, who has embraced that distinction as a form of protest against helicopter parenting. Readers of her work here at Reason—and at her blog, Free-Range Kids—know that Skenazy is dedicated to the cause of helping parents put aside irrational (often debilitating) fears regarding their children’s safety. On her show, Skenazy meets with real parents whose anxieties have made them stifle their kids’ independence—such as a mother who spoon-feeds her 10-year-old son because she’s afraid he will choke, and won’t let him ride a bike. Skenazy’s mission is to show these parents that the healthiest thing they can do for their children is let them try new things, spend time alone, and discover that the world isn’t such a scary place, after all.

“World’s Worst Mom,” is real: the hyper-protective parents featured on it are real, worries and all. And while they represent the far-end of helicopter parenting, too many adults share some of their fears—even though kids are growing up today in the safest time in world history.

https://reason.com/blog/2015/01/22/lenore-skenazys-new-tv-show-brings-free

‘World‘s worst mom’ urges parents to loosen up
By Jane Ridley
January 13, 2015 | 9:14pm

Stepping off the school bus just two blocks from home, Manhattan sixth-grader Amedeo White follows the exact same drill every afternoon — the 11-year-old pulls out his cellphone, dials his mom and delivers a running commentary while walking back to their apartment.

“Passing the deli now,” he reports. “Waiting for the walk signal.”

Literally giving a step-by-step account of your movements is par for the course when your mother is as overprotective as Amedeo’s. The ultimate “helicopter mom,” who hovers above her three kids 24/7, Cayle White would prefer that they’d never left the womb.

Amedeo’s closely monitored after-school routine is among a number of cringe-worthy moments featured on Discovery Life Channel’s new reality TV series “World’s Worst Mom,” which premieres Jan. 22 and reveals how paranoid today’s parents have become about their children’s safety.

In the show, a bunch of obsessive Type As are subjected to an intervention from Queens author and public speaker Lenore Skenazy. The 55-year-old famously earned the title “World’s Worst Mom” in 2008 after she let her then-9-year-old son ride the New York City subway alone, and then wrote about it in her newspaper column.

https://nypost.com/2015/01/13/worlds-worst-mom-urges-nyc-parents-to-loosen-up/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow