Given that I notice the same phenomenon in Sweden where school shootings are rarer than hen's teeth I do not think that this is true. Parents - or maybe I shoul

Given that I notice the same phenomenon in Sweden where school shootings are rarer than hen's teeth I do not think that this is true. Parents - or maybe I should say 'mothers' - want to be able to get hold of their offspring to tell them to come home in time/tell them to water the horses when they walk by the field/tell them they will collect them at the station/etc. The assumption that people are supposed to be reachable wherever they are really has permeated through society. I for one am glad that I was not assumed to be reachable when I cycled to and from school, paddled my inflatable boat over the river to the next village at 12yo, cycled through the Netherlands at 15yo and more. Not only did this add to the sense of freedom - being all by myself in that boat or cycling past places unknown to me without the risk of that stupid phone starting to blare at any moment - but it also helped in 'growing up' since I had to make decisions on my own without being able to call for help and advice at any moment. I was free, children nowadays are tethered - the opposite of what The Waterboys sing about in This is the Sea [1]: once you were tethered now you are free that was the river this is the sea This has turned into: now they are tethered, once they were free If you have children - I do - allow them the freedom you had yourself or the freedom you would have liked to have. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx--j1F5Ppg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx--j1F5Ppg