If you look over the crime statistics from the past couple decades, you’ll notice a trend. Abuse of children is down, abductions of children are down, motor vehicle deaths involving children are down. And the list goes on. Yet, parents seem to be more protective of their kids than ever. Over the past forty years, the number of kids who walk or bike to school has dropped from 48% to 13%. In NY Mag, Jennifer Senior tries to explain why we live in an era of irrational parenting. “We’ve deferred having children for so long … and we have so many fewer children than we once did … that we assign them a far higher value and therefore fret far more about their physical well-being.” I’m not sure I buy that conclusion. My parents generously assigned me the value of $80 three times a week for my shrink, and $45 twice a week for Hebrew School.