I guess George Carlin’s current HBO special got me thinking about hyperparenting and over-scheduled kids.  He said something along the lines of, “When does a kid get to just sit in the back yard with a stick?  Do they even have sticks anymore?”

As somebody without kids–who doesn’t even want kids–I’m not trying to give parenting lectures or anything.  But when I saw this clip, the metaphor for kicking the can down the street for the can’s own good kind of leaped out at me, and I wrote it from there.