It’s not isolationism, that’s been around forever and this fear for kids thing is more recent. I’d argue it has a lot to do with the increasingly far-flung sub

It’s not isolationism, that’s been around forever and this fear for kids thing is more recent. I’d argue it has a lot to do with the increasingly far-flung suburban housing that most people live in, and how dangerous the roads are. 1. Parents don’t want their kids getting hit by cars. 2. As they get older parents let them walk around the neighborhood —— but there’s nothing there except boring locked houses and front yards that, if you try to play in, you’ll get yelled at or worse. 3. The sprawl means even in these burbs there often aren’t many other kids around. This terrible sprawl creates the reality that if you want your kids to get to hang out with other kids, or go to school, or go to a friends house, or do ANYTHING, you have to drive them there. And that’s such a time suck it’s not realistic to do all the time. Thus the helicopter parenting shuttling kids from one activity to another and then when exhausted saying “just watch Netflix.”