Helicopter Parents and the Worlds Longest Umbilical Cord

Are we creating a generation incapable of taking care of itself?  Former Stanford Dean Julia Lythcott-Haims thinks so.  

“We want so badly to help them by shepherding them from milestone to milestone and by shielding them from failure and pain. But overhelping causes harm,” she writes. “It can leave young adults without the strengths of skill, will and character that are needed to know themselves and to craft a life."

 She also attributes the rise of depression, mental and emotional health problems to overparenting.  MSN

A study at California State University Fresno, by two management professors found:

The study showed that those college students with “helicopter parents” had a hard time believing in their own ability to accomplish goals. They were more dependent on others, had poor coping strategies and didn’t have soft skills, like responsibility and conscientiousness throughout college, the authors found. 

When I was a child I lived in a neighborhood with an alley that ran in back, all the neighborhood kids played there.  At first, when very small, I was allowed to play on our patio and in the driveway, as I grew older my domain expanded to the alley, end-to-end.  When I started elementary school I walked the three blocks to get there and my realm expanded accordingly.  Soon after I could walk the six or seven blocks to the main shopping district.  In Junior High my friends and I used to ride our bikes twelve miles to a reservoir to hang out and go fishing, in High School we'd take the train into center city. No parents or cell phones were involved.

Do you even see kids out alone today?  

Are we raising a generation incapable of caring for itself?