This is…amazing.

I don’t know how this has changed over time, but these figures sure seem strange. I played on my own in front of my house when I was five, but today’s parents think you need to be 10—and a substantial fraction think you need to be over 12 to play in front of the house unsupervised.

Like Kevin, I played in the front yard on my own when I was five, often for hours with no supervision. All my friends — some with much more engaged parents than mine — did the same.

I was going everywhere I could get to on my bike alone by the time I was 9.

Anyone who did not do this was considered a real weirdo.

It’s such an odd thing that as safety has increased paranoia has also increased.

Behaviors and child-rearing practices that were utterly normal in the 1980s and prior now get you thrown in jail.

This person has no idea how evolution works — they appear to be a Lamarckian of a particular dumbassed variety. In the case of obesity there is probably a mild selection pressure against it over the long term for modern humans.

Obesity leads to fewer pregnancies, worse pregnancy outcomes and the chance of a an earlier death to list merely are a few causes, as well as sexual selection occurring.

Over the long term — ceteris paribus — this will cause some selection pressure against it.

So most likely the exact opposite is occurring, even ignoring the Lamarckianism and stone-stupid stupidity.