Kids need the time and space to make bad decisions, take the knocks and learn to deal with them - keep them safe, but not wrapped in cotton wool.

Yes, no wonder there is so much depression amongst the young when Mummy and Daddy are no longer able to rescue them from life.

I’m a proponent of “lazy parenting.” I regularly asked “can you do that yourself?” I’d talk him through a new thing - from how to make a sandwich to how to talk to a teacher about a problem - and he did it himself. He always knew I was there to back him up if he needed me, and he developed the skills to manage his life himself. He’s 20 now - responsible, competent, confident. And still comes to mom for advice!

Yup cocoon them and they are prepared for nothing

As a parent, we focused on two key questions that helped us teach Claire self-responsibility:

1. Is it physically safe?

2. Is is morally safe?

If Claire refused to wear a coat to school in winter, fine. We drove her to school. Let her experience natural consequences during recess.

She only left a coat behind once.

"You and dad taught me self-responsibility from birth," Claire, 29, said recently. "My friends who never learned to take responsibility for their own behavior can't hang onto a job. They constantly make excuses and play victim."

I cherish the time I had as a kid to do nothing. How else can you learn to imagine and think free? I’m not a parent but I always try to remind people of the great need for kids to be free. I always remind them that Einstein was unschooled till he was 9. I truly believe that was an important part of him being able to think new and bold thoughts.

They truly are doing a disservice to their kids who will not be able to function on their own as adults.