I don’t think of myself as an overprotective parent. I began letting my kids stay home alone for short stints when they were around 10. I let them wander our neighborhood alone starting when they were 11 or 12. I don’t heavily monitor their social lives or phone usage, nor do I check their grades constantly or make them give me access to their Google Classroom to monitor their schoolwork.
But I don’t do things the same way that my generation’s parents did things.
I’m Generation X, and in my generation, there were no “playdates.” Parents didn’t track your grades, and they definitely didn’t track your location. You’d be walking around the…
