one alice tells reimu to stop being a bitch and give her some damn food
since Reimu doesn't give her any, Alice decides to leave the nest and provide for herself
Reimu trails Alice but never interferes or offers assistence
Alice learns for herself how hard the outside world is it for her
Alice tells Reimu to fuck off and go home, doesn't she have other children to worry about?
Reimu tells Alice that they can see their next from where they are
Alice realizes that she hasn't made it very far at all. She realizes her own ineptitude and tells her mother to forget about a failure such as herself.
but Reimu is forgiving and takes her back
This is probably an allegory to children who move out of their parents house as soon as they hit 18 only to move back in several months later with a mountain of credit card debt (and in worst cases, a pregnant girlfriend)
There's a fine line between tough love and sadism. If you ever have children it's better just to tell them to watch out for cars instead of waiting for them to learn through experience.
Nope you don't realize that children won't agree with everything you say. That's especially true for teen age. They just believe that they know better than stupid adults, and no amount of convincing can stop them.
In this cases, you should let them learn by their own experience, while you're still around for backup. And if it's about something dangerous, you watch them closely (openly or not) and interfere right before they actually get hurt.
Exactly what Mother Reimu here did. And all the story looks like a teen riot against parents
My point was you can't use the same parenting style in all situations, which you have yet to disprove. I had to watch over some little kids and when I told them not to go on the road they listened. I didn't watch them until they got run over so they could "learn by their own experience."
As for teenagers, you can't watch them closely. I've never seen parents that watch teenagers closely- what do you do, hide behind the bushes? You can talk to them or prevent them from going out, but you can't follow them and watch them.
Then again, it is Russia so I wouldn't be surprised if parents stalk after their kids.