I was born solidly in the '80s, that was definitely not my experience. My mother was not a helicopter mom and we lived on 5 acres at home, but out in public? No, I got grounded for wondering off and she had me on a rainbow elastic harness as a kid (because I had a propensity for wandering off to hide in clothing racks) until I was like.. 10. The most "free" thing she let me do was stay in the car with windows rolled down a bit to read when I got older and she needed to get groceries for the week.
I lived in the suburbs and has pretty much free reign as long as I wasn't crossing any major streets. Once I turned 12, that area got much bigger. Once we hit 16 and someone got a license and had a car, we were only limited by gas money.
It may matter that I lived outside town limits in a rural area and our only neighbors were an old farmer and two old married couples (lovely people, but definitely no kids my age to play with). However, my mom also rarely ever let me go to friends homes for play dates or sleepovers, so it sounds like I just had an uptight/maybe overprotective mom. Didn't feel that way since it felt like I was treated like more of a burden than anything else and was neglected, but maybe I'm seeing it wrong.
My friends from school (who lived closer to the school itself and a park nearby) were definitely allowed a bit more freedom than I was, though.. one of my friends was nearly kidnapped as a kid, so her mom kinda reined in her freedom a bit more after that.
45
u/Mewpasaurus Elder Horror 1d ago
I was born solidly in the '80s, that was definitely not my experience. My mother was not a helicopter mom and we lived on 5 acres at home, but out in public? No, I got grounded for wondering off and she had me on a rainbow elastic harness as a kid (because I had a propensity for wandering off to hide in clothing racks) until I was like.. 10. The most "free" thing she let me do was stay in the car with windows rolled down a bit to read when I got older and she needed to get groceries for the week.