Each generation is formed by the actions of the previous generation. Why are the parents of millenials over involved? Because when those parents were kids they were latch key kids who had little supervision. Growing up they said they will never do that when they had kids so they swung the pendulum all the way to the other direction. The pendulum will swing back for the next generation.
Exact opposite for me. I was born in '62 and my parents split up in '71, so no dad around after that, plus my mom was a "functional alcoholic," meaning I had no supervision after about the age of 9 - and I mean no supervision. Started smoking weed and drinking at 12, never had a curfew (and took full advantage of that), and could do basically whatever I wanted, as long as I kept my grades up - my parents always held that out as a potential crackdown scenario for me, but it was never needed.
I absolutely loved the independence and when our son was born in 1994, I fought strenuously to allow him his independence (my wife was reasonably well aligned with me on that). They'd have friends over and be essentially unsupervised in the basement and the yard and even within a few blocks after they were about 11 or so.
Some other parents were horrified that we weren't more involved and didn't monitor everything he did. And yeah, by the time they were 16, we know there was some drinking going on in the basement, but we had a non-negotiable rule that nobody left the house incapacitated and nobody drove home. To this day, they always have a designated driver, which is way better than what we did at their age (I'm very lucky to be alive is all I'll say).
I do not think any pendulum is swinging back, though, as the mindset has become that, for safety and liability reasons (and peer pressure around it), parents can't afford to allow unsupervised time for their kids. I feel bad for the kids.
Our son, who turns 21 shortly, is very thankful for the independence we gave him. He just completed a transfer from the New School to Rutgers for his senior year, in which he did 95% of it himself, such as moving out of his apartment, finding a new one in NB with friends, owning the communications of the transfer process/paperwork completely, talking to profs at both schools, etc. We have friends whose kids would never been "allowed" to do all that without oversight (he consulted with us to check himself, but that was all).
