As far as kids changing, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey - yes, they have. They often don't listen like they used to. They often don't follow directions like they used to. They often don't understand consequences like they used to.

Hmm. That begs the question: why? My observation is that kids learn responsibility if and only if they are *given* responsibility, preferably quite early.

Mind, none of my musings are intended to fault any individuals. Mostly, I'm concerned that, as a society, we seem to be falling into a rather scary-looking spiral of coddling children more and more, which means that they wind up *needing* more coddling, so we swaddle them ever more tightly, putting off the need to grow up ever longer. That seems likely to have poor long-term effects on our culture...