Chicago mother shocks neighbors by forcing seven-year-old daughter to walk to school alone as she abandons ‘American upbringing’ due to ‘benign neglect’

A Chicago mother who spent ten years in Switzerland and discovered her laid-back parenting style surprised her American neighbors by letting her young daughter walk to school alone.

Chantal Panozzo returned to the United States from Switzerland when her daughter was three years old.

While abroad, she said she adopted the Swiss approach to parenting, which prioritizes the child’s self-sufficiency and independence.

So when she returned to Chicago to care for a sick father, she began letting her daughter walk to school alone.

She said, “The biggest shock to the community was when I decided my 7-year-old daughter was responsible enough to walk five blocks to school by herself.”

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

She said she brought the focus back to the U.S. and said it has given her daughter “freedoms that many of her pampered American peers” don’t have.

But Panozzo said the community has criticized her for her hands-off attitude.

A neighbor who saw her daughter going to school alone even reportedly told her, “We’ll be happy to drive her in the morning.”

Despite the criticism, Panozzo said she and her husband “don’t dare join” the “seemingly endless” line of school cars.

She said: ‘Seated in the cars are devoted parents who want the best for their children, which also seems to include air pollution and street constipation.

‘But beyond the environmental consequences of the car line, there is something that seems even more damaging: American parenting culture.

‘Unlike the Swiss version, which promotes independence from the moment the child can walk, American parenting culture seems to tell the child: I’m in charge of taking you to school; you have no authority.

‘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 take you. If you’re late to school, it’s not your fault, it’s mine.

Panozzo compared the American approach to that in Switzerland, where “children as young as five walk or bike to school alone.”

And he added: ‘They wear pants and rubber boots if it is raining. If there is ice on the streets, they fall and get back up.

“Parents don’t take their kids to school or stand on the playground while constantly telling them to share, say sorry, or be kind.”