>>The modern world is making special little snowflakes out of our kids.
People fall into the trap of letting the 24/7 news industry localize every single event. So, when a child gets snatched in a state 1500 miles away, the local news everywhere makes it into a local story and weak-minded parents begin to believe that the child was snatched from THEIR local grocery store and the kid went to their kids’ elementary school.
This is the basic driver of the snowflake generation.
Remember when many of us were “latchkey kids” who rode the bus home from elementary school, walked from the bus stop to the house, let ourselves in, and did chores and played until the parents got home at 5?
But now, the motivation for the parents of snowflakes is, “what would people think of ME if my kid got hurt?” So, they won’t let their kids be kids. They can’t explore, have adventures, get cuts, maybe even break a bone in the pursuit of having an awesome childhood.
Now, they wrap them up in bubble wrap, walk the kids on leashes, and never let them out of their sight.
To put it into perspective I remind myself that, at age eleven, I was a farm hand when not in school. I learned to work with a draft horse before turning eleven and by eleven could work the fields, cut firewood with an axe or pull my end of a sixty inch two man saw and was able to do many other jobs around the farm. My youngest brother was born three months before I turned twelve and I was sometimes left alone with him and expected to take care of him. In the winter I went squirrel hunting with a .22 rifle.
I see that occasionally and wonder what type of psychological damage the parent is doing to their kid...
Hard to imagine a parent can't control their small child with voice commands and need to put them on a lease like a animal...
My kids were latchkey kids who walked home from school when they were 8 and 9. Lots of grandparents lived on our cul de sac block who always kept a watchful eye out. But that was during the early 1970’s when the environment wasn’t as dangerous. Didn’t have to worry about keys either because we didn’t even lock our house.