Today's children are at risk of becoming "snowflakes" because of current attitudes towards standards of care, a crown court judge has suggested.
During a hearing, Judge Rupert Lowe told the court that modern attitudes were "not doing children any good."
The comments came as a father had breached a court non-molestation order which prevented him from entering an exclusion zone within 100 metres of his estranged partner’s home.
Kevin Reynolds pleaded guilty after breaching the order when he dropped off his two children, aged eight and nine, at their mother’s home by driving within 30 metres of her house.
Today's children are at risk of becoming 'snowflakes' because of current attitudes towards standards of care, a crown court judge has suggested
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Gloucester crown court heard that Reynolds did not feel it was safe to let his two children walk home without supervision.
After hearing the justification for the breach, the judge said: "They know the way, don’t they?"
Defence solicitor, Steve Young said that the father wanted to watch his children arrive home in a bid to reduce the risk of anything happening which could put at affect his access rights to them.
Judge Lowe said: "Yes, but children are not to be turned into snowflakes. They have to learn to live a life. In 1971, 80 per cent of children walked to school and by 2023 it was 25 per cent."
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He added that current attitudes were "not doing children any good."
"Then we wonder why everyone is complaining about anxiety and depression," he said.
Discussing the reason for the terms of the exclusion order, the judge said that he thought the 100-metre exclusion zone was "perfectly OK."
He said: "They [the children] are old enough and it would do them good."
Kevin Reynolds pleaded guilty after breaching the order when he dropped off his two children, aged eight and nine, at their mother’s home by driving within 30 metres of her house
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Speaking to Reynolds, the judge said that he "should have attempted to have the terms of the order changed to make sure you were not in breach".
He added that he was not going to punish Reynolds "because it is not a very serious breach".
Reynolds was conditionally discharged for 12 months for the breach and was ordered to pay £150 towards the costs for prosecution.