A blogger writes the following:
If kids 10 and older need to be accompanied by adults when walking to school, at what point do they have any autonomy? Kids differ and if parents aren’t comfortable letting their kids go somewhere without supervision I’m fine with that, but there are tremendous cultural pressures to monitor children up to the day when they get sent off to college. A typical 10-year-old in a decent walking environment can get him/herself to school.
This is a useful observation that rings true to many of us. The same blogger doesn’t seem to remember writing the following just a couple of days ago, however:
If you’re the kind of person who wonders why kids today can’t put themselves through college without any debt, you probably think they’re living with their parents because they’re pampered and lazy. Of course, if you’re that kind of person you’ve completely blocked out any memory of what people in their 20s would actually like to do if they had the resources.
Or maybe he simply isn’t capable of making the connection between young people not being allowed to develop any autonomy or maturity by their parents and these same young people remaining dependent and immature after the age of 18.
Blaming the economy is an easy, knee-jerk response of those infected by vulgarized Marxism. I, however, came of age in an economy which was so bad that no American 18-year-old can even begin to imagine it. And in that economy, some people allowed their parents not only to keep them but also to wash their underwear, cook their food, and take out their trash until “the babies” turned 30 while some looked for any opportunity to make money and become independent.
Of course, these distinctions were not and are not about being lazy and pampered. They are always about being raised in a way that deprives you of autonomy and prevents you from growing up.
Clarissa's Blog 
Yes! Blaming the economy is so easy, but all the adults I know who still live with their parents have jobs and could easily afford to move out!
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Among my students, the ones who are living with their parents also always happen to be the same people whose homework keeps suffering from many mysterious misfortunes. 🙂 🙂
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They claim their parents ate their homework??? 🙂
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I’m a senior with several health problems and a very limited income. I would be homeless if my child wasn’t living with me. The real economic situation even in the western world makes it less viable to live on your own, whoever you are.
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It’s really great to see a parent who acknowledges that the cohabitation is about her or his need more than the child’s. You are a good parent who raised a good child!
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Not teaching your kid how to clean up, cook, repair clothes/simple repairs around the house is just laziness. I walked to school my whole life, my parents took me to kindergarten till I was 5, after that they figured out I was old enough.
Could you help me understand something ? Are kids in US discouraged from playing without adult supervision (I am talking about kids 8-12 years old, old enough to have some common sense and responsibility).
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It might be laziness. Or it might be an attempt to infantilize the child and make sure s/he never escapes from one’s control.
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Speaking as someone who had to physically force my mother to teach me how to use an oven… it was laziness for me.
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When I finished high school, I traveled to another region of the country to visit relatives. I arrived on this two-week visit with no suitcase, no belongings, not even a toothbrush. Since I never received a command that would give me permission to remove my clothes and underwear from the place assigned to them and put them into a suitcase, it did not occur to me to do that.
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Getting to School on Their Own Two Feet
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