There's a difference between raising your child to be well and capable but never letting them off on their own versus not raising your child at all and abandoning them without any skills, knowledge, or money.
There's a big difference between abandoning them, and having them go learn how the world works while being supportive.
Thanks, both! I was trying to say this.
@Woggie's child bride: I can see
in a vacuum how my last comment might sound like Abe Simpson shaking his fist at a cloud. But
in context I was talking about Jack's take on Rumspringa. I was not making a general statement about Boomers, Millennials, bootstraps, avocado toast, etc.
Re: Rumspringa, Jack's tone says he thinks the Amish would be better off not letting their children experience the real world. As if it's a bad idea to expose them to its temptations and vices after so much has been poured into raising them well.
What he's missing is that the literal whole point of raising someone well is to enable them to encounter temptations and vices and still make "the right choice." He misses this point because he's got the EQ and IQ of a mongoose, and cannot possibly comprehend how hearing and seeing things you don't already agree with could be good for you.
But the Amish, unlike Jack, do understand this,
which is why they do Rumspringa at all. The Amish have so much conviction (also unlike Jack) that they
encourage their next generation, at their most curious and hot-blooded, to experience non-Amish life -- baseball games, movie theaters, Halloween, porn, Chipotle, reruns of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, etc. -- and trust they will make "the right choice."