When filmmaker Melissa Sweazy came across a statistic that American children have, on average, less than 300 yards to roam unsupervised, she made a movie about the dangers of helicopter parenting. When she realized she was making her own daughter a statistic, she understood the truth to be a lot more complicated. In this short, funny talk, Sweazy ponders how we are to give our children the freedom they deserve in a world where parenting has become a full contact sport.

Melissa Anderson Sweazy is an award-winning screenwriter, film and music video director, essayist, photographer, and mother living in Memphis, TN. (She has yet to win awards for mothering, but she could medal in making up bedtime songs on the fly.) She is a recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission grant, and her most recent film The Department of Signs and Magical Intervention is making the festival rounds, having its international debut at the Oaxaca Film Festival this fall. Her parenting/photography blog Thoroughly Modern Medusa was recognized by Blogger as a “blog of Note” (back when people still blogged) and you can see her movies and catch up on her sporadically updated adventures at melissasweazy.com

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx