The Washington Free Beacon’s Drew Holden is very, very good at threads.
Usually, his threads involve holding the mainstream media and Democrats accountable for hypocrisy and bad/awful/stupid things they say. But recently he switched gears a little bit and did a thread on something that is just plain bad/awful/stupid: parental paranoia.
I hadn’t really been aware of this up until Holden tweeted about it, but apparently there are a lot of parents out there who have become extremely anti-sleepover. Washington Post feature writer Caitlin Gibson wrote a whole article about it, and Holden decided to take a closer look at just how ridiculous things have gotten out there:
The most persistent thought I have lately is that, in recent years, a large segment of well-to-do American adults has become breathtakingly neurotic. https://t.co/pPqSPmmL4s
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
After reading the article, I’ve gotta say that Drew Holden’s got a point.
It wasn’t enough to rob children of the school experience; now some parents want to rob them of the friend experience, too.
This just seems like a preposterous way to think about one’s kid having a sleepover. pic.twitter.com/Ikkn3Xekvz
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
That’s because it is a preposterous way to think about it. Seriously, what the hell?
No doubt Covid is a contributing factor here but I think we’re only scratching the surface of how social media usage like this drives the ambient neuroticism. pic.twitter.com/qEFlhz9D5l
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
“I’m wary of sleepovers because my kids are multiracial” seems like a surefire way to mess up your kids’ childhoods. pic.twitter.com/Ff5CuIIUv6
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
Because a generation of kids hasn’t been screwed up enough already. Good Lord.
I think the idea that “we live in a perilous time” is a self-important fiction that people concoct to justify their irrational fear of what they see on the news, similar to religious predictions that the end times are at hand. pic.twitter.com/5HM1R3PRJd
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
Paranoia is a religion, too, if you think about it.
It is somewhere between inconceivable and evil that, after all the ways adults have needlessly stunted the lives of kids in recent years, that anyone would think it makes sense to subtract from the remaining ways kids “can build social fluency and resilience.” pic.twitter.com/VFv9ChQV6t
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
This is just another form of child abuse. Not all pain and scars are physical.
Not sure whether to laugh or cry at these two paragraphs pic.twitter.com/HOMRlW5AD2
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 18, 2023
Both laughing and crying are acceptable responses to what you’ve just read. These poor kids deserve so much better.
Part of parenthood is reassuring your kids that the world isn't overwhelmingly scary. Also, Covid destroyed kids' social lives for a long time. Why take this away too? https://t.co/RHzykSzTe1
— Melissa Braunstein (@slowhoneybee) January 19, 2023
Bad parenting comes in many different forms. At some point, you’ve got to let kids be kids. Otherwise, they’ll grow into paranoid psycho parents.
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Related:
Drew Holden’s WaPo shot & chaser highlights narrative backpedal about the 2016 election
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