Well, you're right. I does seem that kids today are raised totally differently than we were (born 1950) but I do often wonder about parenting choices and styles being the reason for it. My brother, and I love him, but he lived on 5 acres in Nelson County, off the main road. His two boys weren't allowed to go outside unsupervised. In the day time. On their own property. The list of fears were almost ludicrous, but what do you say to a concerned parent? The kids weren't bored often, I guess, because they had all the games and such, though TV time was limited and mostly educational. My mother kicked us out of the house for a lot of the day and it was up to us to entertain ourselves. Yes, we had kids in the neighborhood though we lived in the country, and we did play together often, especially baseball and football, but we also spent a lot of time with one or even no friends doing things like exploring the woods and in my case, fishing. But yeah, we rode our bicycles miles away from home on skinny country roads to get to fishing holes, swam in a local pond unsupervised (after passing an easy swimming "test" and getting parental permission), and generally showed up in time for supper or got punished if we didn't. I'm not sure parents today are willing to do that for their kids, and I know in some places shouldn't do that to their kids. What a world, what a world?