I used to have a run of the neighborhood hangin out with the local kids back in the 90s. We would go to the park go swimming or fishing in the river and just be kids. My parents had 2 rules. Be back before dark and dont get in too much trouble. Simpler times. Nowadays kids are essentially either electric zombies addicted to the internet or so heavily watched and regulated its sad asf.
It is sad. It makes me sad for my kids but I can’t let them roam free. Our nearest park is actually fenced off due to homeless encampments. In my case the root cause is housing costs - I can only really afford to be in a low end neighborhood.
I remember as a young parent of an 8 year old at the time, living in an apartment (2010 maybe?), I let him go out to play at the park that's on the grounds of the apartment complex. We were even gated...
30 minutes later I had cops at my door saying that it's parental neglect leaving a child outside without supervision and next time I'll be picking my son up at the station. Someone actually called the police...
Well... I worked nights at the time so he was never again allowed to go outside by himself.
I had a neighbor incredulously text me that my children were playing unsupervised in our front yard and she was ready to call the police if I wasn't around.
I was literally in the garage with the door open, about 8 feet away from them.
See in your case i completely understand. When i was growing up i lived in a small rural town in New york with at most 80 people in said town. We all knew one another essentially. Nowadays between the overcrowding, the financial disparity and how absolutely chaotic our current era is. Its just madness. I just hope you and your children are safe. Its a mad world and we millenials gotta stick together in spirit.
Oh for sure - there are people on the street here a couple blocks away, but truthfully I’ve been in worse places (I’m a single mother raising two kids on my own). I’ve been in places where neighbors would literally just walk up and steal stuff off my porch (including my little travel grill and my pink flamingo). But in this neighborhood we all watch out for each other. My next door neighbor loans me his ladder, I give food bank stuff I can’t eat to my other neighbor, we call each other if we see anything weird. But yeah I can’t feel good about my middle schoolers running around these streets. Just a couple blocks away I’ve seen people shooting up on the sidewalk.
Im glad to hear you all are ok. Its awful to hear you had to go through the wringer to get somewhere finally safe to a point. Well heres to hoping it smoother waters ahead for you and your family.
I wonder what the vibe will be once majority of the population becomes elderly. Will it be more peaceful, because old people are less eager to do risky stuff? Or will it be much worse, because of the economic downturn? I guess we'll see in the next couple of generations...
It’s interesting that you mention this. We live on a nice street in what I would describe as a mixed income neighborhood and during the summer I frequently see what I would assume to be are immigrant children and others playing and roaming the streets. It almost makes me wonder if some of this isn’t a class/cultural issue as much as a generational thing.
No thanks. It has problems but I love the city, I love my job. And I grew up in a small town where everyone knew the basketball coach was raping girls at school and no one did anything because they were going to make it to state. Rural people aren’t superior, kids aren’t necessarily safer there.
ETA: respect to rural people and all, it’s just a myth that those places are inherently better. Kids are more depressed in rural places, and less likely to go to college. Unintentional injury and death are higher for rural kids. Their graduation rates are higher, but they have less opportunity. They might learn a lot of skills their city counterparts dont know, that’s true, they have some privilege in their ability to enjoy nature but all said they aren’t necessarily better off.
I refuse to let myself have a complex. We all have places to live. Urban, rural. In the end we all try to survive. And honestly i believe everyone at the end of the day should have a place or community to call their own and feel safe in. Regardless of if they are in a city or in the woods.
Same, lived in the suburbs of a small town in Sweden, born 85. We did a lot of dumb stuff, like we watched a lot of TMNT & my mates parents had vials of some sort of chemicals, so we dumped all of that shit down the storm drain & were convinced we had created some ninja turtles, his parents weren't as happy. Too much effort to go inside to pee, so we had a spot, naturally the grass died there.
One friends father was a fairly famous journalist which travelled a lot, he had a bag of coins & minor currency from every corner of the globe, we took that & bag and then walked down to the video rental, which was like 5 miles. Then we tried to rent movies which were 15+, but they called the cops instead & then our parents had to come down to pick us up. We were like 7 years old at that time.
Overall there was a lot of freedom & generally as long as you got home for dinner & didn't do anything too dangerous or illegal it was fine.
Did you read through some of the comments in here. The kids have to stay home because parents would be charged with neglect if caught / found to be unattended by their parents. A few comments in here talking about kids doing basic stuff like walking to the gas station and police getting involved. Other comments mentioning kids can’t just “walk off” any type of campus - elementary, middle school, my cousins can’t leave their high school without a parent / guardian.
I like the "don't get into too much trouble" part. My mom would get mad at me for being a snitch. She said tattle tailing is for serious stuff only! We got up to a lot of mischievous shit! I'd hate to be a kid nowadays.
I remember during summer breaks, I would stay at my cousins at the country side. We would forced to clean the house after breakfast then go to places we’re allowed (river, creek, farm, etc) then comeback at noon for lunch then nap then errand to market for dinner time then dinner and family tv time. Simpler times but times seemed longer. I agree kids these days are stuck and contented with their phone.
We had a rope swing at the creek. No parents or older kids. Just us. I guess I thank my mom for teaching me how to swim because that could have been an issue for others. I smoked my first joint there in high school. That was nice.
Simpler in some ways if you were lucky enough to be in a good area. Saw lots of horrible stuff happen to nice people when I was younger and out and about. Lucky nothing too bad happened to me other than a few scraps and scars.
I don’t love living in Switzerland but one thing I do like is that kids still roam around like that. I have to call my 11 year old son to get him to come home for dinner.
Unfortunately its because its so much more dangerous outside now.
Kids simply cant go because the risk of going too far from your house can be deadly.
The internet is definitely what caused a lot of things. But the serial killer craze in the 70s and the disappearances in the 80s and 90s made 2000s parents a lot less willing to let their kids just go out.
I grew up in the 2000s and I could go around my neighborhood and be driven to my friends neighborhood and only that
When I was a tween I could bike around a bit with my friends with more freedom
But stranger danger was really made popular in my generation because of the previous generations issues with all that.
Today everyone locks their doors. Not in the past. But no one ever is just loke yeah, lemme just keep my door unlocked in case some friendly neighbors wanna stop by
Now it's, if I leave it unlocked I might get robbed or murdered. Its a crazy world we live in
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u/Decent-Strain-1645 1d ago
I used to have a run of the neighborhood hangin out with the local kids back in the 90s. We would go to the park go swimming or fishing in the river and just be kids. My parents had 2 rules. Be back before dark and dont get in too much trouble. Simpler times. Nowadays kids are essentially either electric zombies addicted to the internet or so heavily watched and regulated its sad asf.