> American parents tend to be overprotective when children are young, acting as if kids are going to live at home for a long time, like parents do in Italy. An

> American parents tend to be overprotective when children are young, acting as if kids are going to live at home for a long time, like parents do in Italy. Anecdotal data point. I grew up in south italy in the early 90ies. At ~11-12 years old I was independent enough to go to the countryside near home (we lived in a small town) with my dad's axe to cut down small pieces of wood, go back home and work them with table knives. It was fun. Needless to say, my parent's hadn't realized i was taking out my dad's axe (they found out later...) and my mum definitely wasn't glad i had destroyed most table knives (using them for cutting olive tree wood -- and olive tree wood is hard). To add some context: my dad was a clerk and was out most of the day, and my mum had to care about my younger sister and my older brother besides me... and I was the one making a new mess every day.