It's crippling children, and therefore us, by robbing them of their resiliency.

A majority of people in the western world can't afford to have more than one child, even with both parents working 1.25 jobs.

Fear surpasses reason and as AP points out, there's no responsibility of an elder child for another, no compromise, no middle child negotiator and no youngest child to challenge the system by wanting to catch up.

Even worse, parents become playmates and 'friends' rather than distant sages. And schools and now society at large have become 'allies' inculcating the tyranny of the easily offended.

My younger sister, an ankle-biting, shin kicking red-haired battle demon, once got so angry at me that she threw a pair of scissors at my head.

They thunked into the plaster near my left ear.

I guarded those scissors until my Northern Irish Mum came home. I called her upstairs and not just informed her of the crime, but also proudly showed her the evidence.

"Now, Daryl, what did you do to your sister to make her do that?"

Now that was parenting.