Boards
how protective were your parents of you when you were a kid?
my parents forced me into taking public transport everywhere alone from the age of 10 or 11. they would have LOLed me out of the house and bitchslapped me around the face had I ever told them I was worried about being kidnapped by a paedo or anything (and as those of you who know where I grew up can confirm, I grew up in a country that is basically famous for paedophiles and not much else).
compare this to the experience of one of my brother's (former) best friends. his mum would follow us in her car, driving at an excruciatingly low speed with all the windows rolled down and car doors unlocked in case we needed to make a speedy getaway from a rapist or something. she would do this everywhere we went, including the 200m walk to the local park. she would then sit in the car from a few yards away and watch everything.
this was still going on when they were about 12 or 13.
I have no idea at what age she stopped doing this cos needless to say, my brother got better friends.
and my 15 year old cousin is not allowed to watch sex scenes in films and has only just been allowed to go to the local shop alone. and when she does go to the shop everyone sits in a circle around the phone until she gets back, more or less. lol.