The trouble with kids today is society. IF kids are exposed to other influences besides their imperfect parents, especially mothers, they will reap the benefits of a broadened context and concept of the world--and I ain't talking the Internet. Problem for me and probably many is being able to afford the available activities prescribed by society. Society warns us about leaving our kids outside to play and calls us crazy for doing it THESE days. It says, "Here, send your kid through our system instead. It's what you MUST do and everyone else does it this way TODAY." What I'd prefer is to trust that my neighbors will discipline my kid if they see him too close to the street, they'll toss a ball at him when he's playing down by their house, they'll send him home when they hear me call or see it's getting late, they'll ask him if he knows what kind of tree that is over there, they'll know his name and how he's doing, they'll know my name and how I'm doing, etc. And it's likely my neighbors want what I want and are also disappointed with the herd.

My dad's generation is the one I long for. He and his friends and cousins were the neighborhood's kids--your mom wasn't as mean as your buddy's, your dad wasn't the worst drunk. The sheltering was in the works during my childhood and is now the norm with 80s kids as today's parents. The self-help revolution runs alongside us to make up for the lack of community--the isolation--we feel. We have to pay for such knowledge, which compensates for not experiencing life firsthand. We start by nit-picking our parents' parenting. This is healthy, they say: identify what about our primary relationship patterns upset and deformed us. What about being held captive by a sometimes hysterical adult creature (with everyday problems and a limited amount of money and resources, ie. not a superhero) caused our adult problems? Then our hands are held as we make "breakthroughs," breaking through the ego, which is nothing more than the shelter that housed us, kept us safe, and was our experience and filter throughout childhood. Ego is our parent's house--the walls, fences, and conventions around us. The simulated womb. And there is mom, mom, mom--the looming figure we wonder if knew the right rights and wrongs all along. Society closed us in with her, she was our ticket to glimpses of freedom, we worshiped her. We were wrong to do so. America raises individuals! False. Sheltered children learn about individuality late ... through therapy or rehab or mental breakdowns or introspection while their kids cry in their fenced-in backyard.

What the hell do I know, my mom kept me in a playpen.

I'm just saying, if society embraces children and gives them a world of their own and not one OK'd, filtered through, and paid for by their parents we'd have healthier, happier kids; a nurturing society; and a more loving, creative existence. The current sheltered world of children is harmful to them and acts to further isolate everyone and cause future generations to feel even worse shame, anxiety, and honed finger-pointing-from-afar degenerate skills.