[单项选择]
Smother Love
Every morning, Leanne Brickland and her sister would bicycle to school with the same words ringing in their ears: "Watch out crossing the road. Don’t speak to strangers". "Mum would stand at the top of the steps and call that out," says Brickland, now a primary-school teacher and mother of four from Rotorua, New Zealand. Substitute boxers and thongs for undies (内衣), and the nagging fears that haunt parents haven’t really changed. What has altered, dramatically, is the confidence we once had in our children’s ability to fling themselves at life without a grown-up holding their hands.
Worry-ridden Parents and Stifled Kids By today’s standards, the childhood freedoms Brickland took for granted practically verge on parental neglect. Her mother worked, so she and her sister had a key to let themselves in after school and were expected to do their homework and put on the potatoes for dinner.
A. standards of the children’s proper dressing
B. worry about the children’s personal safety
C. ways to communicate with children
D. confidence in the children’s ability
