Sure, some might say we grew up roughing it by today’s standards…but maybe we were the ones who actually gained in the end.  Is it possible, as the author says, that “we just don’t have the cojones our parents had”? 

“If you haven’t noticed, we’re getting a raw deal where this parenting gig is concerned.  When did adults start caring whether or not their kids were safe, happy or popular?  I can assure you that Ginny and Big Jerry were not wiling away the hours wondering if my brother and I were fulfilled.

Big Jerry was stoking the fires of his retirement savings and working, and working some more.  Ginny was double bolting the door in order to keep us out of the house, and talking on the phone while she smoked a Kent.  Meanwhile, we were three neighborhoods away, playing with some kids we’d never met, and we had crossed two major highways on bicycles with semi-flat tires to get there.  Odds are, one of us had crashed at some point and was bleeding pretty impressively.  No one cared.  We were kids and if we weren’t acting as free labor, we were supposed to be out of the house and out of the way.”

Are Today’s Parents Getting a Raw Deal? | The Huffington Post