I have seen it many times. Parents are very conscientious for the first children, the consistency starts to wear down as they get older. Parents start to drop the ball and take their eye off the prize. The rules become lax and the child starts to experiment with people and things foreign to the others.
I’ve noticed that as well. I think it’s human nature. The first few months you own a new car, you want a shield around it that’s about ten feet thick at it’s closest point to the car.
As time goes by, that changes.
I know it’s somewhat of a stretch, but it’s somewhat the same dynamic with kids. For your first ones, you’re sure you need to intervene every second of their life. By the time you’ve had two or more, you start to realize it doesn’t take that sort of over-control.
I’m not saying you should let your kid do whatever they want, but even with a very controlled environment, you can only do so much.