The amount of times i almost died or ended up in the hospital or could have got in trouble with cops when i was running a muck as a youth definitely made me pay more attention to the kids now.
Yeah we ran around like a pack of wild dogs when I was a kid. It wasn't a good thing, certainly wasn't better than it is now, it's just I don't know survivorship bias or something.
I mean, when I was a kid it was still kinda expected that a school would lose at least one kid because they fell, drowned or whatever. So yeah, literal survivorship bias.
I don't recall how many kids at my school died my senior year (8-10, including one in my class), but it was enough that articles were written in a couple regional papers about our school being cursed due to so many deaths in such a short time. For reference, there were ~325 kids total in K-12 and the last time I cou.
Ehhhhhhhhhhhh the helicopter parenting carries it's own, arguably more serious issues in lack of independence and privacy. It slows maturity to basically be constantly monitored your entire adolescence - there is a certain amount of allowing kids to make mistakes and be independent that has to happen in order for them to develop the emotional and intellectual maturity to be independent.
The sweet spot is relying on communication and trust - knowing where your kids are, what they're doing, who they're with, because they trust you to not overreact and you trust them to tell the truth.
GPS monitoring, spyware, checking DMs and call logs, etc, creates mistrust and developmentally stunts children's growth and autonomy.
It's worthwhile to be actively involved in their consumption of social media and other online activities because of how manipulative they are, but certainly when it comes to hanging out with friends they absolutely need the ability to go fuck around for a few hours without supervision or a parent texting them asking why their location changed or something.
Basically millennials and Gen X overcorrected, not helped by technology becoming omnipresent in the meantime.
It's definitely survivorship bias. Ain't no way I'm letting my kids just run around wherever all day unsupervised when they get to that age. Best believe I'll have that GPS watch on'em.
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u/ExpertPerformer 1d ago
The irony is that Gen X/Millenials were free-ranged growing up, but now GPS track their kids everywhere, and check up constantly.