Warning: ill-formed rant below I'm in my mid-30's and I feel like I've seen the change in my time. Some parents of kids my age were of the helicopter variety,

Warning: ill-formed rant below I'm in my mid-30's and I feel like I've seen the change in my time. Some parents of kids my age were of the helicopter variety, but that was more of an exception. Most parents I know now have kids that would have been considered stunted or even developmentally challenged when I was their kid's age. I don't know how to describe it except to say that they lack any sort of agency and act about half their age (this may say more about my expectations). I think there are a lot of factors that go into this, like having a 24/7 tether to your parents with a smartphone (and parents that encourage this), social media and news cycles that emphasize fear and anger (that affects both the parents and the child), the "safetyism" of post-Columbine-and-9/11 America, growing authoritarianism across the political spectrum, slight deviations from behavioral norms being medicalized and requiring adjustment, and children generally being deprived of autonomy and responsibility at nearly every opportunity by removing almost any potential for things to go wrong or get difficult (IMO, dealing with these situations may be the fundamental life skill). Most kids these days have no grit and they shut down at the slightest whiff of adversity, it's like learned helplessness, except I don't think they ever learned to help themselves in the first place because their parents prevented it. They need some sort of authority figure and to be told what they're supposed to do, think, and feel. I know some people in my age group that are like this. They had helicopter parents, and it's like they completely stopped developing as a person in their teens. They practically can't wipe their own ass without calling their parents and asking how.