The Family Weekly: Protecting Kids—But Not Too Much

This Week in Family

Parents wish they could protect their kids from all the harm in the world, but it can be hard to tell just how much is in their control. Dawn Dow, a sociologist, is familiar with the stress this can introduce in parents’ lives. the great lengths many black parents go to to curate the books and TV shows their children come across, in order to shield them from negative stereotypes. Dow wrote: “The mothers I talked to generally weren’t confident that when they turned on the television, went to a movie theater, or visited a bookstore, their children would see empowering versions of themselves.”