Yeah, that. All the criticism of the 'Blackberry moms' at the park, who keep the kids in peripheral vision but don't engage. Hello, the kids are at the park to play with other kids. Sure, I'll be the dragon/prince/whatnot if no one else happens to be around, but that's my chance to talk to other adults, thank you very much. Even at home it's apparently really weird that I can and do hand my kids a palette of paints and smocks and put them on the porch and don't engage for up to two hours (the girl, boy maxes out about 45 minutes). I might be sitting out there doing my own thing, watching through the bay window while I do dishes or whatever, but I'm definitely not out there cooing over every brush stroke.

Also - you're absolutely right on the neighborhoods thing too. As I grew and my 'free range' area increased, I now realize that I personally knew at least one person on every block that got added, whom I would not hesitate to ring their doorbell if I needed help of whatever kind - bathroom, bandaid, bullying kids, anything. That was almost certainly a factor for my parents.