I'd also like to add, don't fall into the trap of writing out of sequence just to write all the cool/interesting scenes first. You end up filling out all the ideas you had and being left with nothing to write. You don't have to write from "In the beginning" to "happily ever after" (although that works for me), but…

As a three time NaNo winner, my number one advice is shut the hell up and write. Everything is second to putting words on paper. Opening Word or whatever program you use to write and putting words on the paper, it is that simple. All the techniques and pressure and so on is secondary, extra stuff.

It's natural. In my totally un-professional, inexperienced opinion, the simple fact that you worry about this stuff puts you leagues ahead of the truly awful parents who wouldn't care.

Ah, I'm not sure if you edited your previous post or if Kinja just screwed up, but I'll respond to the rest of this because I didn't see it at first.

"I can't source any of my claims" (But I know more than the experts!)

Ultimately, I think kids are pretty resilient. Parents like to think every minor decision they make has profound impacts but, from a practical standpoint, that can't possibly be true.

If you think your children - I'm not a parent, thank god - aren't going to be able to be on their own at eighteen, that's a serious problem. An eighteen year old who can't take care of himself or herself is honestly shocking and sad. I ran into many of those types back in college, which wasn't so long ago I can't…

On the other hand, I am taking comfort in the fact that you do not, in fact, have any actually credible source whatsoever to suggest we aren't safe. I have actual experts in the field on my side (quoted in the various links) including government agencies, including analysis of crime trends over time rather than…

I'll tell the FBI, NCVS etc to get right on that. I'm sure Random Paranoid Internet Commenter knows more than actual law enforcement agencies regarding crime trends.

What statistics have you to suggest we're less safe now than we were before? Because there's a lot of evidence to the contrary. Overprotecting kids does not help them.

Learning how to do things on your own requires you to, occasionally, be on your own.

Leaving your 13 year old alone for short times in a responsible manner etc is the gray between the black of parental negligence and the white of parental clinginess.

I'm wondering how you define this, then, if not "daring to think their kids aren't going to spontaneously die if not by their parent's side."

I dunno about kids these days, but in my day, the weirdest thing happened. I actually voluntarily played outside with my friends, and yes, I was recent enough to have video games and cable TV. In fact, I was considered a little boyish, in that I'd often go biking or play with toy guns and run around outside or venture…

This seems to have nothing to do with whether or not a parent was in the house, though. Sitting around playing video games or watching TV to the exclusion of all else is harmful whether a parent is in the house or not, so I don't understand why you're conflating the two.

And just what are we missing? Spending all afternoon watching TV or playing video games is different from not having a parent around, those are two seperate issues.

...for daring to think their kids aren't going to spontaneously die if they're not by their parents side 24/7?

Most teenaged or adult kids of helicopter parents that I know of are much, much less mature, responsible, and independent than kids who didn't always have a parent breathing down their necks.

That's interesting, with the phone ringing in a code. I guess this was before caller ID?

Sadly, I know teens - like my aunt's family - for whom that would be a realistic scenario.