Abigail Shrier: "What Kids Need Is RULES"

Why It Matters

If parents continue to relinquish moral and disciplinary roles to schools, Shrier warns it could deepen youth behavioral and mental-health problems and shift cultural influence away from families, with implications for education policy and community outcomes.

Summary

Journalist Abigail Shrier argues that modern parenting has been weakened by a cultural shift that demoted parents into passive “caregivers” who shuttle children between experts while ceding moral and disciplinary authority to schools. She contends robust research shows children thrive on clear rules, authority and accountability, and that abandoning those norms has contributed to worse outcomes. Shrier also claims conservative parents—more skeptical of progressive school messaging—tend to see better mental-health results for their children because they retain parental control over values. The piece frames this decline in parental authority as both a social and developmental problem requiring a reassertion of boundaries at home.