Chicago mom shocks neighbors by making seven-year-old daughter walk to school alone as she ditches 'American parenting' for 'benign neglect'

A Chicago mother who spent ten years in Switzerland and learned their relaxed parenting style shocked her US neighbors by letting her young daughter walk to school alone. 

Chantal Panozzo moved back to the US from Switzerland when her daughter was three years old. 

While she was abroad she said she picked up the Swiss approach to parenting which prioritizes a child's self-sufficiency and independence.

So when she moved back to Chicago to care for a sick parent, she started letting her daughter walk to school alone.

She said: 'The biggest shock to the community was when I decided that my 7-year-old daughter was responsible enough to walk five blocks to school alone.'

Chantal Panozzo shocked her US neighbors by letting her young daughter walk to school alone

Panozzo said that in Switzerland parents take a 'benign neglect' approach to raising children, giving them the space to 'learn to manage themselves'. 

She said brought the approach back to the US and said it has given her daughter 'freedoms that many of her coddled American peers' don't have. 

But Panozzo said she has been criticized by the community for her hands-off approach. 

One neighbor who saw her daughter setting off to school alone even reportedly told her 'we'd be happy to drive her in the morning'. 

Despite the criticism, Panozzo said she and her her husband 'can't bring ourselves to join' the 'seemingly never-ending' school car line. 

She said: 'In the cars sit devoted parents who want the best for their children, which also seems to include polluting the air and constipating the streets.

'But beyond the environmental consequences of the car line, something feels even more detrimental: American parenting culture.

Panozzo said that in Switzerland parents take a 'benign neglect' approach to raising children, giving them the space to 'learn to manage themselves'

'Opposite the Swiss version, which promotes independence from the time a child can walk, American parenting culture seems to say to the child: I'm in charge of getting you to school — you have no agency. 

'If it's cold, I'll keep you warm. If it's raining, I'll keep you dry. If it's snowing, sure, wear your sneakers, I'll drive you. If you're late for school, it's not your fault, it's mine.'

Panozzo compared the American approach to Switzerland where 'children as young as 5 walk or bike to school alone'. 

She added: 'They wear rubber pants and boots if it's raining. If there is ice on the streets, they fall and get up again. 

'Parents don't drive children to school or hover at the playground while constantly telling their child to share, to say they're sorry, to be nice.' 

Chantal Panozzo is the author of Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I'd Known and the founder of Cross Border Content.