When he was a boy, my dad rode his bike all over downtown Los Angeles. My friends and I had more supervision, but our moms still got us out of their hair by ordering us to play outside until dinner. My mom kindly let me read in my room, but the philosophy was the same: Entertaining myself was my job, not hers. Today, I almost never see kids playing outside without a watchful parent—and several have told me they wouldn’t have it any other way. Parents spend their weekends bringing their children to activities I never heard of when I was a kid: Tae Kwon Do classes, Pokemon tournaments, Mandarin
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