Decline in independent activity as a cause of decline in child mental health

He's refering to the episode near the beginning with Lord Dorwin.

"Then why rely on him? Why not go to Arcturus and study the remains for yourself?"

Lord Dorwin raised his eyebrows and took a pinch of snuff hurriedly. "Why, whatevah foah, my deah fellow?"

"To get the information firsthand, of course."

"But wheah's the necessity? It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs. Look heah, now, I've got the wuhks of all the old mastahs - the gweat ahchaeologists of the past. I wigh them against each othah - balance the disagweements - analyze the conflicting statements - decide which is pwobably cowwect - and come to a conclusion. That is the scientific method. At least" - patronizingly -"as I see it. How insuffewably cwude it would be to go to Ahctuwus, oah to Sol, foah instance, and blundah about, when the old mastahs have covahed the gwound so much moah effectually than we could possibly hope to do."

[...]

As they left the room, Hardin said suddenly, "Milord, may I ask a question?"

[...]

"No. It's this: Last year we received news here in Terminus about the meltdown of a power plant on Planet V of Gamma Andromeda. We got the barest outline of the accident - no details at all. I wonder if you could tell me exactly what happened."

Pirenne's mouth twisted. "I wonder you annoy his lordship with questions on totally irrelevant subjects."

"Not at all, Doctah Piwenne," interceded the chancellor. "It is quite all wight. Theah isn't much to say concuhning it in any case. The powah plant did undergo meltdown and it was quite a catastwophe, y'know. I believe wadiatsen damage. Weally, the govuhnment is sewiously considewing placing seveah westwictions upon the indiscwiminate use of nucleah powah - though that is not a thing for genewal publication, y'know."

"I understand," said Hardin. "But what was wrong with the plant?"

"Well, weally," replied Lord Dorwin indifferently, "who knows? It had bwoken down some yeahs pweviously and it is thought that the weplacements and wepaiah wuhk wuh most infewiah. It is so difficult these days to find men who weally undahstand the moah technical details of ouah powah systems." And he took a sorrowful pinch of snuff.

Playing in your yard isn't really "minimal supervision". You probably just didn't know how often your parents checked on you. And you would have known that your parent could just look outside and see you.

As a 8 or 9-year-old, could you go to a friends house, to the store, or to school without parental supervision?

Did you have safe bike lanes to do this? Was there safe public transportation? Sidewalks on busier streets? Safe crosswalks where the cars are supposed to stop by law - and are those laws enforced heavily to keep you safe? Could you play independently outside of your yard?

I live in the USA and we picked our neighborhood specifically because of these things.

My kid has been going to her friend’s houses by herself since she was 5. She goes down the block (sometimes a couple of blocks! Friends of friends) to her friend’s houses. I feel like we changed the culture in the neighborhood. Kids come out and go to our house and other houses all the time. It’s a good, safe neighborhood.

Of course it just takes a few people to screw this up. Some busybody lady who felt the need to tell us she was a foster mom (okay? Maybe trying to signal what a moral person and upstanding person she was?) called CPS on us saying we were “neglecting” our child which meant a visit to verify we were not abandoning our child on the street. She later lost her job and had to move away, let me tell you I was very sad to hear it. To avoid such spurious accusations, we got our daughter an Apple Watch with cellular service, which we generally use to call her when it gets dark out.

She’s eight now, and went to Walmart by herself earlier this year several times on her bike to buy a few things. I was very proud of her!

This is extremely important to us that she be able to have this autonomy. It’s definitely not the default, though. There are a half dozen or more kids that regularly dip in and out of our house. It’s sad that some parents absolutely don’t allow their children out of their sight. There are kids just next door my daughter basically never sees because they aren’t allowed to leave their houses, despite being the same age as my kid.

> It turned out that, despite the best of intentions, such support almost inevitably wound up with destructive emotional dynamics

See the list of "self made" billionaires who started with a small loan of a couple 100 mil from their parents for examples.

As opposed to necessary stressors in previous generations (hot and cold wars)? If not all stressors are bad, which ones are good?