Reply to Parenting limits different now than in the 90s?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My oldest is 11, so I'm barely entering the tween zone with him.  Maybe my question will come off the same way questions from parents of babies come off to me, when they're like "I'll never let my child go to bed past 8pm" and "just offer them a rainbow of foods and they'll eat what their body requires, it's not that hard for me to do this with my 8 month old, you're just lazy!"

My question is basically, why are teens not allowed the same freedoms and responsibilities that we had when we were younger?  I see on this board, and in some cases with the teenagers in our neighborhood, that they aren't allowed to drive more than a few hours away, aren't allowed to babysit past 10pm even on weekends, have parents stay at their sports practices, have their parents coordinating their college apps for them, etc.    Obviously this stuff is a few years off for me, but what's changed?  I let my 11 year old walk the half a mile to school alone with a friend, on a residential 25mph road with sidewalks and a crossing guard present at the 4 way road intersection he needs to cross to get to the school. Even if it's cold, or rainy, they walk.  But barely anyone else does this even on gorgeous days.  Kids get driven the half a mile by their parents.  On rainy or cold days, the line to drop off in the morning is blocking traffic because it stretches down the 4 lane road that the school is on.   Next year they'll be at middle school and the middle school is a mile away as opposed to a half mile away, but also completely on residential roads with one street crossing at a traffic light and his friend's mom has said she won't allow her kid to walk to middle school because of that street crossing. It's disappointing to me but am I in the minority here that I think that walk would be safe and fine, with a friend, at age 12?[/quote]

I have teens but I’m puzzled by the limit you mention of “they aren’t allowed to drive more than a few hours away.” What kind of road tripping were you expecting teens should be able to do? Since you will have a teen soon: they usually don’t get their license until late 16/early 17, and even then they can’t legally drive other teens for 6 more months. [/quote]

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