...bowling lane. You're there to make sure they don't go in the gutter. But you aren't there to make sure every ball is a strike. You might let them walk up to the cliff, but you grab them before they go over. I liked the descriptions.

Kids have to be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. But you obviously step in to avoid the catastrophic mistakes.

I work in the foster care field. And that's one of the biggest on-going debates. Kids in foster care live extremely structured lives - or at least the state wants them to live extremely structured lives. They have to get approval for everything they do - and everyone they do it with. They aren't really allowed to make decisions for themselves. And having the foster parents, caseworkers, assistant attorney general, guardian dad litem, and judge all watching and directing your every move can get old. But the bigger issue is that the state takes the responsibility of providing for those kids very seriously (which they should) and often they take the perspective that since this child has been removed from his/her parents, the state better do everything in their power to make sure the child is safe and well cared for (which they should). Unfortunately, this often leads to over-protectiveness and not allowing the kids to make choices - or mistakes - and leaving them completely unprepared to transition to adulthood.