I worry about my children. You worry about your children. We all worry about our children. Worry is the fundamental condition of parenthood?I cannot imagine being a parent and not worrying. But where I?m at now is this: I worry that, by worrying, I might really be doing something worrying to my kids. I worry about how much I should worry.

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Why kids need risk, fear and excitement in play As ridiculous as this meta-anxiety sounds, it?s not just mine. Our collective state of worry is out of control, and we all know it. Recently I let my 11-year-old son walk home from his school in downtown Toronto. He walked four blocks through one of the safest neighbourhoods in one of the safest cities in the world, and he was stopped three times by other parents, who were worried about whether he was OK to be on the street by himself. This generalized anxiety over our children is, in the light of the facts and when compared against history, totally insane. Children in Canada and the United States are growing up in unprecedented safety. According to the FBI, reports of missing children went down 40 percent between 1997 and 2014. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently noted that from 1993 to 2013, the number of children struck by cars drop...