...but fail to see that is their own fault for not giving their children the freedoms they had, but instead wrapped them cotton wool, precisely to avoid them experiencing hard knocks.
Most people I have spoken to who did National Service in the 50s hated it and thought it an utter waste of time. My father got out of it by working at a nuclear reactor that made plutonium for bombs.
We do have voluntary alternatives these days, that seem to give more positive experiences, if you bother to take advantage of them.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award kind of gives teenagers some of the more positive opportunities that national service might provide, but without those military features that might make them hate it. And is voluntary. And there are cadet corps you can join if you really want the teenage military experience. And the Sprouts and Guides, etc, for paramilitary-lite. My wife is a Guides leader, and it interesting that the people who are keenest for their children to join are predominantly recent immigrants, the same people who moved to this area to get their children into the grammar schools.