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Smother Love Every morning,Leanne Brickland and he sister would bicycle to school with the same words ringing in their ears: watch out crossing the road.Dont speak to strangers . Mum would stand at the top of the steps and call that out, says Brickland,now a primary-school teachet and mother of four from Rotorua,New Zealand.Substitute boxers and thongs for undies(内衣),and the nagging fears that haunt parents havent really changed.What has altered,dramatically,is the confidence we once had in our childrens ability to fling themselves at life without a grown-up holding their hands. Worry-ridden Parents and Stifled Kids By todaysstandards,the childhood freedoms Brickland took for granted practically verge on parental neglect.Her mother worked,so she and her sister had a key to let themselves in after school and were expected to do their homework and put on the potatoes for dinner.At the familys beach house near Wellington,the two girls,from the age of five or six,would disappear for hours to play in the lakes and sands. A generation later,Bricklands children are growing up in a world more indulged yet more accustomed to peril.The techno-minded generation of PlayStation kids who can conquer entire armies and rocket through space cant even be trusted to cross the street alone. I worry about the road.I worry about strangers.In some ways I think theyre missing out,but I like to be able to see them, to know where they are and what theyre doing. | 
