Hersch, a writer for The Washington Post who lives in Reston, the town she writes about, begins by noticing that this comfortable, planned community is essentially empty of families from morning to evening. Keys in hand, they open doors all over the community. Then, the doors shut. It's their world now. With the exception of a few lone outposts where adults await their return, nobody's home but the kids.
Parents imagine that teenagers prefer to be left alone.
Hersch doesn't buy it. The eight kids she followed for three years are not a scientific sample, but they seem to be a cross section of families in Reston, Va. There are children of divorce and remarriage, wholesome kids who are lucky enough to have involved, affectionate moms and dads, and fringe kids, who look normal on the outside but are engaged in highly destructive behaviors. The absence of parents from the lives of many of these children has an effect even on those who come from solid, intact homes. They allow their daughter to smoke pot or at least seem amused when they discover that she is high.