Regardless of Eastern bloc vs West, or anywhere else, I think the biggest issue might simply be era.

Parents in the States were much more permissive in the 80s, and to a certain extent the 90s. That started to change in the 2000s, with far greater "helicopter parenting."

So are these descriptions of idyllic life in ex-Yugoslavia five years ago, or twenty?

I grew up in central Europe in the 80s and was given plenty of freedom, but I don't know whether kids there have the same amount as before, or if it has been changed like in the US.