As the birth rate declined and families grew smaller, parents had fewer children and protected them more carefully. That meant not leaving them at home alone. Millennial children left to their own devices began to be stigmatized as “unsupervised,” with stories of kidnapped children filling the news even though kidnappings were no more common than they had been during Gen X’s childhood. In addition, it was more expected that teens would go to college, slowing down the life trajectory. Ten-year-olds were a dozen or more years away from adult responsibilities, not eight years, so had more time to
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