some of the most developmentally important events in my life took place when my parents had no idea where i was and/or i had actively lied to them about where i was going. this has been true throughout all of recorded history
I assume my daughter is going to Harvard Square, but I don't check as long as she gets home safe.
My boomer dad refused to let my brother take online university classes during COVID (bro graduated hs in 2020), forced him to just gap year it & work an office job, bc “you learn everything important from living in the dorm” and “this is why I made you kids take the school bus”
We already knew helicopter parents were bad, and all the shitty kid hitters decided to double down.
This combined with the systematic destruction of public spaces that don't require some sort of fee is a one-two punch for any kind of normal childhood
I watch my peers do this to their kids and NOPE. Wouldn't dream of it for my kiddo. (She doesn't have a phone yet, even.)
My parents still don’t know that I snuck out to see Nirvana in 1994, or lied about that Grateful Dead show I went to in 8th grade. Still some of my favorite stories 30 years later.
I realize I'm an old man and that colors this opinion, but I feel like a lot of the kids I know are total weiners. Not in the "kids are too soft these days" way, but more in the "why aren't you drinking stolen cheap booze and smoking cigarettes, you little twerps?" way
As a former teacher, I can confidently say that a lack of unstructured and unsupervised time is one of the worst things happening to young people right now. People are up in arms about phones, but kids having no time alone to build lives and personalities of their own is worse for their development.
My mom had me under a microscope most of my childhood. Absolutely stunted my development for a long time. Kids need freedom to become healthy adults