[Torplexed]

It looks like we have at least partly raised a generation of young people who have not been given the chance to learn how to solve their own problems. They have not been given the opportunity to get into trouble, survive a few cuts and bruises and find their own way out, to experience failure and realize they can survive it, to be called bad names by others and learn how to respond without adult intervention. So now, here’s what we have. Young people,18 years and older, going to college still unable or unwilling to take responsibility for themselves, still feeling that if a problem arises they need an adult to step in and solve it.

Could be all that helicopter parenting is coming back to haunt us. I think these students haven’t developed skills in how to deal with temporary setbacks, probably because their parents have solved most all their problems and removed the obstacles. As a result hey don’t seem to have as much grit as previous generations.

In a way it's parallel to the popular practice among some young parents of slathering both their child and their environment with all manner of anti-bacterial products. Reduces the odds of the kid getting sick, yes, but also causes their body's defenses to atrophy making their lives miserable when they start to live among other children in school. There are mental defenses you need to develop when growing up too.