Which in turn reminds me of the mysteries and puzzlements of child-rearing. Which in its turn reminds me, once again, why I am a cultural conservative. Some of that is obvious. You simply recall the self-absorbed carelessness of yourself as a young man. Young women were better socialized, which made them at once more self-possessed and more vulnerable.
Most reasonable people shudder, in retrospect, at their adolescence.
All those potential disasters so narrowly avoided. Little wonder that those same people, looking back, substitute for their juvenile demands for more freedom an adult suspicion that their parents should have been more strict. But that is only the beginning. At the heart of conservatism is a sense of human limits, an understanding that life is fragile and uncertain and that we are fools to suppose that we are in control of our destinies. Child-rearing makes evident, more than most enterprises, the futility of thinking we can shape life to our desires.