They have to be though. It's a conundrum. I agree that it's not been great for the kids. I think k kids today are both stifled and delayed somewhat due to their raising.
But there's also no doubt that there's a lot more out there that can cause them harm.
When I was a kid, it was come in from school, change clothes, go outside and play till dark thirty. Come on for dinner, then homework, bath, TV or games for an hour or so, and then bed. You could read for a little while in bed.
Much as I would have liked to have given my child that same freedom to become independent, you can't anymore.
Nobody would have dreamed of calling up CPS and teporting me for neglect for letting me as a 10 yr old play unsupervised or ride my bike to the pool or tramp around the neighborhood or whatever.
They would me when my daughter was a 10 yr old.
I was mostly left alone, pretty much, as long as I wasn't causing problems.
My daughter had drug dealers out trying to sell to her at 10 yrs old.
Even outside of nefarious sorts of things, the roads are more congested, there are more hazards of all sorts to contend with, socially we've practically criminalized youth, etc.
Parents and moms in particular didn't become "overprotective" just cause. We didn't wake up one morning with a wild hair up our butts.
This dynamic was done just as much to mothers by society at large as it was to kids. And we've suffered for it too. Not many women want to have children anymore, and this dyna.ic isn't the sole cause but it's a huge contributing factor.
Nobody wants to raise a helpless and incompetant child. But you can't let them run loose anymore either. So where does that leave us?
I don't know. I do know it's pointless to blame parents alone, it's shitty to moralize against struggling young people, and whatever happens next parents, particularly moms, will be trying to figure it out alone while society does the equivalent of form up an harassment circle and lob dirt clods at them while jeeeing.
Because that's about all society is really good for these days.
