I think there has been a complete schism in parental behaviour recently, and both extremes, I believe can cause a lot of harm to the child. On the one hand there are parents who do seem to abandon responsibility for them and let the go whereever they want whenever they want and have no control over them. On the other hand in recent years the blaze of national publicity given the child abduction and murder cases has seen an increase in children constantly being chaperoned by their parents, being kept indoors to play and being driven everywhere. Besides contributing to lack of exercise and obesity in children, i also believe this stunts their growth in learning independent skills and confidence in the world around them.

Bagpuss