I think the article misses a crucial component of this tendency--working parents who have to fill the time left by summer vacation from school. If you don't ha

I think the article misses a crucial component of this tendency--working parents who have to fill the time left by summer vacation from school. If you don't have a high school aged child, you really can't leave them completely to their own devices for eight hours a day (yes, there probably are some 10 year old kids that are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but I don't know many parents who leave elementary school aged kids at home every day, alone). That said, I do know some parents who don't need to over-schedule their kids' time (that is, one parent does not work, or has a flexible schedule), but still do it because they don't know how to just their kids be kids. Every wasted moment is a moment their kids aren't being prepared for college.