Readers — As we continue to document the infantilization of young people, including how and why this trend began, here’s a  bright trail to one of the culprits: The insurance industry. Remember, insurance has nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking all freedom and  responsibility away from minors. If kids were all in cages, unable to walk to school, ride a bike, play outside or, in this case, let themselves into the house, the insurance world would rejoice, because the chances of anything “bad” happening to them would be even lower than they are now. Of course, so would the chance of anything GOOD happening to them — but that’s not the industry’s concern.

So here is how insurance  manipulates us into questioning age-old practices — and our own intuition — when it comes to our kids grwoing up. This article comes to us from Female First’s parenting blog, which got its “helpful” facts from Confused.com, a price comparison site in the U.K. that specializes in (which also suggests it is financed by) financial and insurance services:

Teens and tweens might threaten your home security, says new research from Confused.com, as more parents are leaving a set of house keys with their children.

The findings from home insurance experts at Confused.com reveal that, today, 40 per cent of parents are giving children under the age of 18 a set of keys to their home, and eight per cent of these key-holders are under nine years of age with 18 per cent aged between nine and 11.
Traditionally, children receive ‘the key to the door’ at a more suitable age, or when they reach a milestone birthday like 16, 18 or 21, but things are much different in modern society, according to these findings.
Giving young children keys to the house has been identified by Confused.com as one of the potential threats to home security that families may be overlooking.

What the heck is a “more suitable age” than the age a parent decides a child is ready for a key? And considering that throughout most of human history, children “aged between nine and 11″ were expected to pull a lot of weight when it came to family chores, why is Confused.com suggesting that kids that age (and even older!) can’t even stay home alone for a little while? Can you imagine not letting kids have the keys till age 16, 18 or 21? When was this “traditional” era of babying 21-year-olds that Confused.com is harking back to? Methinks they made it up. – L.

Can I have the keys to the house NOW, mother?

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