Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
A bit off-topic, but basically teens are simply held to much higher level of personal responsibility in parts of Japan - though more often when a student is accepted to a high school too far from home, they'll rent space from a relative or family friend. Parents often have to travel for their work and rely on a network of "check in on them" neighbors. But basically, the teen should rise up to it since they're basically adults anyway. In Kotomi's case, she already had the trauma of losing parents... being jerked out of her school would be completely destabilizing in a collectivist society - transfer students do not usually fare well when trying to join "new herds".
Frankly, this was the case in the UK and the USA even when I was a kid, but its like some kind of "stupid idea" switch went off in the mid-80s to coddle and retard kids and delay the onset of personal responsibility longer and longer.
That all said, from an anime viewpoint - although Lucky*Star and others have shown parents are not a derail for a series, many writers simply take what I'll call the "Peanuts" route -- parents are in some other dimension and you only hear their little trumpet noises on occasion when they actually intrude on the world-bubble of the characters.
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Yeah... when I was growing up 12 year-old girls were considered old enough to babysit, and 14 year-olds old enough to babysit overnight. I know my sisters did babysitting and stayed overnight.
Nobody thought it was strange.
And back then I'd go outside in the woods (starting at age 8) and play all day long. Usually just stopping back in at lunch and dinner. Hard to imagine parents letting their kids do that nowadays. Somehow the world has gotten messed up.
Of course when you come from a family of 5 kids and are the oldest you're used to watching out for the little ones- starting at a rather young age.