Yes, no wonder there is so much depression amongst the young when Mummy and Daddy are no longer able to rescue them from life.

I’m a proponent of “lazy parenting.” I regularly asked “can you do that yourself?” I’d talk him through a new thing - from how to make a sandwich to how to talk to a teacher about a problem - and he did it himself. He always knew I was there to back him up if he needed me, and he developed the skills to manage his life himself. He’s 20 now - responsible, competent, confident. And still comes to mom for advice!

It’s difficult to compare my childhood to my daughter’s.
I was one of the original latchkey kids - I was on my own after school from second grade on.
My daughter never walked to school until she was in Jr. High, and rarely left the house to roam about without a parent, in a small town in Montana, compared to me riding my bike miles away from home, in suburban Denver.
As a student at Vassar now, she navigates the subways in NYC with ease, she’s comfortable on a mountain trail as well as a concert hall or art gallery. (Like the time she said “that’s an original Picasso you just walked past, Dad:/)

Kids are smart, creative and resilient - they’ll develop the skills they need, regardless of the handicaps we place on them.

Yup cocoon them and they are prepared for nothing

As a parent, we focused on two key questions that helped us teach Claire self-responsibility:

1. Is it physically safe?

2. Is is morally safe?

If Claire refused to wear a coat to school in winter, fine. We drove her to school. Let her experience natural consequences during recess.

She only left a coat behind once.

"You and dad taught me self-responsibility from birth," Claire, 29, said recently. "My friends who never learned to take responsibility for their own behavior can't hang onto a job. They constantly make excuses and play victim."

I cherish the time I had as a kid to do nothing. How else can you learn to imagine and think free? I’m not a parent but I always try to remind people of the great need for kids to be free. I always remind them that Einstein was unschooled till he was 9. I truly believe that was an important part of him being able to think new and bold thoughts.

They truly are doing a disservice to their kids who will not be able to function on their own as adults.