TED Health The science of raising kids (Part 1): Are you raising anxious kids? with Lenore Skenazy and Mathilde H. Ross
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Feb 10, 2026 
Mathilde H. Ross, a psychiatrist urging parents to trust their instincts, and Lenore Skenazy, author who champions free-range childhood independence. They discuss how overprotective parenting and constant supervision fuel family anxiety. They explore benefits of unsupervised play, simple parenting principles, and practical ways to give kids age-appropriate independence.
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Subway Trip Sparked A National Debate
- Lenore Skenazy let her nine-year-old ride the NYC subway home alone and wrote about it in a column.
- The experience left her son ecstatic and launched a national debate about childhood independence.
Adult Takeover Increases Family Anxiety
- The adult takeover of childhood squeezes out independent kid time and mixes adult and kid worlds.
- This blending increases anxiety for both parents and children by removing opportunities for self-reliance.
Messy Play Teaches Real Skills
- Unsupervised play forces children to negotiate, organize, and exercise executive function skills.
- Those messy interactions teach empathy, compromise, focus, and problem-solving better than adult-run activities.
