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Raising self-reliant children does not start when they are 18. children should be empowered and required to take care of themselves as much as possible all along. Both of my children learned to do their own laundry when they were about nine and accepted more freedom and responsibility for themselves as they got older.

My daughter is a third generation college grad, and she says she knew that she was expected to go to college when she was in kindergarten.

The current practice of scheduling children and driving them from one organized activity to another is probably not as good as having them go out to play on their own. Schools tend to treat young people as babies right up to graduation. They demand notes from mommy, and this is so out of synch with what I had achieved with my maturing senior that when he was a senior, I gave him a stack of "notes" that corresponded to the number of allowed absenses, so he could judge what he was doing and did not have toi crawl to mommy for permission. In general, I think limiting families to two children has created an enviornment where parents treat their children as if they are precious bone china and must be protected. some are over-protected.