@stevemagness: If we want resilient kids, we’ve got to give them the opportunities to flex their resilience muscles and develop their resilience skills. Too often, we’re doing the opposite, always looking over their shoulders, never giving them the freedom to dabble, explore, mess up, find their path, connect with like-minded others, and see that the world isn’t a dangerous place. While many adults lament kids retreating into video games, I think it offers one of the clearest examples of the problem. Fortnite is this generation’s sandlot. Video games are a place free of adults, where kids can mess up, talk trash, lose, and bounce back—all without an adult hovering over them. Adults have forced kids into the video game box. It’s the one area where adults can’t get in the way. It’s time to reverse course. Our kids desperately need it. We need to give kids the space to explore, mess up, and maybe even break a bone or two. Adults need to realize that the price of a broken wrist at age six is much less than the cost of a young adult who hasn’t learned the skills to manage their emotions or explore the world around them. Yet adults only see the broken wrist, not the much greater, albeit hidden, cost of safetyism. Decades of research shows that when we turn up the dial on threats, whether perceived or real, our brains listen. We’re more likely to avoid conflict instead of approach it, react instead of respond, and isolate instead of connect. Without being aware of it, adults are training kids to have hypersensitive threat alarms and a lack of tools or resources to handle inevitable challenges. The consequences are dire. Here are some tools for adults that can help reverse the trend. We need to bring back play. We need unstructured sports, games, and gatherings. Stop Hovering and Let Kids Play—Their Mental Health Depends On It. -Steve

Steve Magness

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Wednesday 05 August 2026 12:31:06 GMT