Educational psychologist Paul Prangley reckons it's about time the kid gloves came off.He believes parenting has taken on a paranoid(患妄想狂的)edge that's creating a generation of naive,insecure youngsters whoare subconsciously being taught they're incapable of handing things by themselves.“Flexibility and the ability to resist pressure and temptation are learned skills,”Prangley explains.“If you wrap kids up in cotton wool and don't give them the opportunity to take risks,they're less equipped to make responsible decisions later in life.”

　　Parents Should Gain Proper Perspective

　　Sadly,high-profile cases of children being kidnapped and murdered--such as ten-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in the United Kingdom;five-year-old Chloe Hoson in Australia,whose body was found just 200 metres from where she lived;and six-year-old Teresa Cormack in New Zealand,who was snatched off the street on her way to school--only serve to reinforce parents'fears.Teresa Cormack's death,for example,was one of the rare New Zealand cases of random child kidnap.In Australia,the odds of someone under the age of 15 being murdered by a stranger have been estimated at one in four million.A child is at far greater risk from afamily member or someone they know.

　　However,parental fear is contagious.In one British study,far more children feared an attack by a stranger than being hit by a car.“We are losing our sense of perspective,”write Jan Parker and Jan Stimpson in their parenting book,Raising Happy Children.“Every parent has to negotiate their own route between equipping children with the skills they need to stay safe and not restricting or terrifying them unnecessarily in the process.”

　　Dr.Claire Freeman,a planning expert at the University of Otago,points to the erosion of community responsibility as another casualty of that mutual distrust.Not so long ago,adults knew all the local kids and werethe informal guardians of the neighbourhood.“Now,particularly if you are a man,you may hesitate to offer help to a lost child for fear your motives might be questioned.”

　　More Space and More Attention to Kid's Needs

　　As a planner in the mid-1990s,Freeman became concerned about the loss of green space to development and the erosion of informal places to play.In a study that looked at how children in the British city of Leeds spent their summer holidays,compared with their parents' childhood experiences,she found the freedom to explore had been severely contracted--in some cases,down to the front yard.Freeman says she cannot remember being inside the house as a child,or being alone.Growing up was about being part of a group.Now a mother offour,Freeman believes the “domestication of play”is robbing kids of their sense of belonging within a society.

　　Nevertheless,Freeman says children's needs are starting to get more emphasis.In the Netherlands,child-friendly “home zones”have been created where priority is given to pedestrians,rather than cars.And ponds arebeing incorporated back into housing estates on the principle that children should learn to be safe aroundwater,rather than be surrounded by a barren landscape.After all ,as one of the smarter fosh says in Finding Nemo there's one problem with nothing ever will.

　　1.According to Brickland,parents nowadays have changed their____________.

　　A)standards of the children's proper dressing

　　B)worry about the children's personal safety

　　C)ways to communicate with children

　　D)confidence in the children's ability

　　2.When Brickland and her sister were little,they kept the home key because_____________.

　　A)they wanted to be trusted

　　B)their mother had to work

　　C)their mother didn't live at home

　　D)they were very naughty and wild

　　3.Mayer Hillman indicates that children now have less and less_____________.

　　A)space for playing

　　B)contact with animals

　　C)concern about others

　　D)knowledge about nature

　　4.Paul Tranter finds that eighty percent of the children were allowed to visit places other than school alone in_____________.

　　A)Australia

　　B)New Zealand

　　C)Germany

　　D)Britain

　　5.What is ranked by parents as the greatest threat to boys?

　　A)Gang crimes.

　　B)Online games.

　　C)Extreme sports.

　　D)Dangerous traffics.

　　6.Bobbie Schultz points out that real learning takes place in______________.

　　A)on-the-street play

　　B)adult-organized activities

　　C)student-centered teaching

　　D)home and nature

　　7.What accident had happened to a little girl called Chloe Hoson?

　　A)She was robbed on her way to school.

　　B)She was kidnapped and murdered.

　　C)She fell a victim to domestic violence.

　　D)She disappeared for no reason.

　　8.Claire Freeman thinks that lack of mutual trust results in__________________.

　　9.Freeman concludes that kids are robbed of their sense of belonging to the society by___________________.

　　10.Netherlands has placed the rights of pedestrians before those of cars in such areas called____________.