My childhood has become illegal

[Politico]

Why are so many parents being arrested? - The Week

My own childhood seems to have become illegal. I was the son of a single mother. During summers I would explore my neighborhood, visit friends' houses, walk to a pond to fish, ride my bike from our home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to the abandoned lots of Newark, and jump it over curbs. I could be unsupervised from 10 in the morning until 8:30 at night, when the streetlights started coming on. If I was home with my grandmother, sometimes she would leave me alone to do grocery shopping.

As early as seven years old, I was allowed to walk over a mile to school. I traveled long commercial streets like Bloomfield Avenue, and went under the overpass of the Garden State Parkway, all during a time when violent crime rates were much much higher than they are today

I can't even begin to express the irony in this post coming from you.

I thought the same thing.

 

[NoNukes]

Why are so many parents being arrested? - The Week

My own childhood seems to have become illegal. I was the son of a single mother. During summers I would explore my neighborhood, visit friends' houses, walk to a pond to fish, ride my bike from our home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to the abandoned lots of Newark, and jump it over curbs. I could be unsupervised from 10 in the morning until 8:30 at night, when the streetlights started coming on. If I was home with my grandmother, sometimes she would leave me alone to do grocery shopping.

As early as seven years old, I was allowed to walk over a mile to school. I traveled long commercial streets like Bloomfield Avenue, and went under the overpass of the Garden State Parkway, all during a time when violent crime rates were much much higher than they are today

It's a miracle we are still alive and our parents aren't in jail.

I remember:

- sitting in the car while my dad made a quick stop at the market
- standing up in the back seat (no seatbelt or childseat)
- riding in the back of pick up trucks
- riding my bike without a helmet (and seeing how far I could go with "no hands")
- disappearing for hours on end with my friends with the caveat to "just be home in time for dinner"
- babysitting other kids when I was 10

and on and on

Encouragingly, there is a movement to get back to "Free Range Kids".

Here's a good read on overprotecting kids:

The Overprotected Kid - The Atlantic

My kids are encouraged to be as independent as we were.

 

[NoNukes]

Another thing that bothers me today is sports

Kids have to be carefully organized in sports leagues with uniforms, coaches, refs, rules and yes, trophies all around

We used to play pickup baseball games and changed the rules based on conditions. We played tackle football with no helmets or pads and nobody got hurt (much). We played hockey on a local pond. Basketball in a driveway. Swam in a local creek

We went out at night and played capture the flag

The key was...no adults allowed

Y

We played in the creek, climbed trees, explored all over the place.

I remember when I was about 9 or 10 going to the beach. My youngest sister, who was 3 or 4, was hanging onto my back while I swam out as far as I could.

We had no water wings - just my rather rudimentary swimming skills and strength. It took me a long time to get back to shore as my sister was nearly strangling me.

My parents just sat on the beach waving at us.

It's A Miracle We're Still Alive!

Do you have kids? If so, have you given them the freedom that we had?

 

[NoNukes]

I had a similar experience

I would go camping with my friends when I was 11. I could ride my bike for miles to visit friends and explore. Go swimming and fishing without supervision

My mom would often leave us alone to go shopping or run errands

Do that now and it is lead story on the 6 o'clock news

Did you give your kids the independence that we had?

 

[DGS49]

In the "suburban" lifestyle, kids can do very little without being taken someplace by their parents in a car. They can't walk to a playground, a library, a store, or even most of their school-friends' houses. Growing up in the City, you can walk to all of those things, and more. So suburban parents have the ability (and the burden) of managing all of their childrens' activities, except for those that happen in the immediate neighborhood. And in my experience that is not much.

The main difference is not the attitudes of the parents it is the difference between being raised in a place where everything you need to entertain yourself is within walking distance, and living somewhere that requires a car trip to do anything interesting.

When I was growing up, I walked to school, to church, and to my part-time jobs. I lived within walking distance of virtually all of my school friends, plus other neighborhood kids who went to public schools (I went to parochial school). I could walk to the library, several parks, the museum, four college campuses, several movie theaters - hell, I could even walk to the railroad tracks and have an "adventure" or two down there. I could participate in Little League, school sports, cub scouts and boy scouts, and go to the Boys Club with essentially NO SUPPORT from my parents (and I got none). Can you imagine that happening today in the suburbs? Never happen.

My son, on the other hand, lived within walking distance of only three or four of his school friends, and could not walk to school, church, any stores, any library or parks, etc., etc., Virtually everything interesting in his life was facilitated by a trip by car or bus.

Essentially ALL of his sports-play was supervised: either a formal practice or a game. 10% of my sports-play was supervised. It was mainly pickup games of baseball, basketball, and touch football. A never-ending "sports" season.

Huge difference. Much less room for self-determination and development.

When I had a "problem" with a neighborhood kid, it had to be resolved in one way or another. Our parents knew each other (probably went to school together), and we were all going to be living in the same place, playing with the same kids, for the entire foreseeable future. When my son had a problem with someone, they were just cut off. WGAS? The parents didn't know each other and who cares if there is one less neighborhood kid to play with?

Whole different world.

 

[Chuckt]

Why are so many parents being arrested? - The Week

My own childhood seems to have become illegal. I was the son of a single mother. During summers I would explore my neighborhood, visit friends' houses, walk to a pond to fish, ride my bike from our home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to the abandoned lots of Newark, and jump it over curbs. I could be unsupervised from 10 in the morning until 8:30 at night, when the streetlights started coming on. If I was home with my grandmother, sometimes she would leave me alone to do grocery shopping.

As early as seven years old, I was allowed to walk over a mile to school. I traveled long commercial streets like Bloomfield Avenue, and went under the overpass of the Garden State Parkway, all during a time when violent crime rates were much much higher than they are today

The same ones say that complaining about their values makes you and everyone disturbed and it means you aren't in America anymore to be free.

 

[longknife]

When I was 8 or 9, my Mom would give me about a dollar in change and I would walk about 6 blocks to Venice Blvd and the Red Car. Think it was a dime to ride all the way to Venice Beach where I'd walk down to the beach with my towel and a little tin pail with a scoop. Played all day, swam in the surf, and had nothing to fear.

Would ride the Red Car back home in time for dinner - having spent a quarter for 2 great hot dogs at the beach.

Another great trip was to catch the Olympic Blvd bus out to Santa Monica and spend a day on the big pier.

 

[whitehall]

I haven't seen "a rash of stories" about parents being led away in handcuffs for leaving children unattended in parks. Not many parents are dumb enough to leave a kid in a car in 90 degree heat either but if they do they deserve to go to jail.

We used to just roll down the window if we got hot

If you were smart enough to roll down the windows you were smart enough to go into the freaking store. An ambient temperature of just 82 in the sun can rise to 119 inside a car in 20 min. Leaving a toddler in a car is a felony.

 

[rightwinger]

I had a similar experience

I would go camping with my friends when I was 11. I could ride my bike for miles to visit friends and explore. Go swimming and fishing without supervision

My mom would often leave us alone to go shopping or run errands

Do that now and it is lead story on the 6 o'clock news

Did you give your kids the independence that we had?

Did I give them independence? Yup
Did they use it? Nope

Damned video games

 

[Rikurzhen]

I haven't seen "a rash of stories" about parents being led away in handcuffs for leaving children unattended in parks. Not many parents are dumb enough to leave a kid in a car in 90 degree heat either but if they do they deserve to go to jail.

We used to just roll down the window if we got hot

If you were smart enough to roll down the windows you were smart enough to go into the freaking store. An ambient temperature of just 82 in the sun can rise to 119 inside a car in 20 min. Leaving a toddler in a car is a felony.

So now an 11 year old girl is a toddler in your neck of the woods?

A Bristol mother was charged with leaving her 11-year-old child alone in a vehicle that was not running, and had the windows up, police said.​

 

[dblack]

it takes a village....

 

[pismoe]

I remember riding the bus to the YMCA by myself at about 7 so I could take swimming lessons [1956] . Ditto on riding my bike all over the place to the library and the coal yards where we'd look through the huge piles of shale looking for fossils . I'd disappear at 8-9 in the morning and maybe go home for a sandwich and drink of water or milk at about noon . Then back out till supper and then back out after supper till it got dark . My time frame was mid 50s to early - mid 60s starting when I was about 6 - 7 years of age . It got better at about 10 years of age when I was given my first .22 rifle and me and a few friends would head to the woods with .22 rifles and a box of shells to go shooting . After that and at about 13 the world was my oyster and I pretty much went were I wanted when I wasn't in school .

 

[pismoe]

Mother of 9 year old ARRESTED . The mother let her 9 year old play in a park while the mother worked . --- Mom Jailed Because She Let Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Play in the Park Unsupervised - Hit & Run : Reason.com ---

 

[Political Junky]

I grew up the same way, free to roam or be home alone. We never locked our front door, even when away for a day trip. The car was unlocked with the keys on the floor.

 

[auditor0007]

Why are so many parents being arrested? - The Week

My own childhood seems to have become illegal. I was the son of a single mother. During summers I would explore my neighborhood, visit friends' houses, walk to a pond to fish, ride my bike from our home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to the abandoned lots of Newark, and jump it over curbs. I could be unsupervised from 10 in the morning until 8:30 at night, when the streetlights started coming on. If I was home with my grandmother, sometimes she would leave me alone to do grocery shopping.

As early as seven years old, I was allowed to walk over a mile to school. I traveled long commercial streets like Bloomfield Avenue, and went under the overpass of the Garden State Parkway, all during a time when violent crime rates were much much higher than they are today

I don't know the real cause, but it's turned today's parents into wimps and their kids into crybabies who are afraid of their own shadow. On top of that, because of this, we have kids sitting in front of the computer or television playing ******* video games all day and eating themselves into oblivion. Want to know why America has become a bunch of fatasses? It's not because of what we eat; it's because we tell our kids that sitting in the house all day is a good thing, and that going outside and playing is scary. So now we have millions upon millions of fatass lazy little ******* kids who will be a drain on society as the become adults. Time for people to wake up.

 

[rightwinger]

Why are so many parents being arrested? - The Week

My own childhood seems to have become illegal. I was the son of a single mother. During summers I would explore my neighborhood, visit friends' houses, walk to a pond to fish, ride my bike from our home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to the abandoned lots of Newark, and jump it over curbs. I could be unsupervised from 10 in the morning until 8:30 at night, when the streetlights started coming on. If I was home with my grandmother, sometimes she would leave me alone to do grocery shopping.

As early as seven years old, I was allowed to walk over a mile to school. I traveled long commercial streets like Bloomfield Avenue, and went under the overpass of the Garden State Parkway, all during a time when violent crime rates were much much higher than they are today

I don't know the real cause, but it's turned today's parents into wimps and their kids into crybabies who are afraid of their own shadow. On top of that, because of this, we have kids sitting in front of the computer or television playing ******* video games all day and eating themselves into oblivion. Want to know why America has become a bunch of fatasses? It's not because of what we eat; it's because we tell our kids that sitting in the house all day is a good thing, and that going outside and playing is scary. So now we have millions upon millions of fatass lazy little ******* kids who will be a drain on society as the become adults. Time for people to wake up.

The sad part is that the country is probably a safer place than when we were kids.

But the 24 hour news outlets and internet constantly run stories of abducted kids and terrify parents.

 

[jon_berzerk]

that is what happens

when you become a nanny state

 

[Skull Pilot]

We have become a nation of busybodies.

What's worse is that that busybody attitude has been fostered by the government.

If all you nosy assholes would mind your own ******* business we'd all be better off.

 

[rightwinger]

We have become a nation of busybodies.

What's worse is that that busybody attitude has been fostered by the government.

If all you nosy assholes would mind your own ******* business we'd all be better off.

I think the opposite is true

We have become a nation that is afraid to tell parents that their kids are little monsters. It used to be that if a kid was getting into trouble he would be first yelled at by the neighbors and then his parents were told. Parents would actually discipline the kid

Now, all parents stand up for their kids and make excuses.

 

[Skull Pilot]

We have become a nation of busybodies.

What's worse is that that busybody attitude has been fostered by the government.

If all you nosy assholes would mind your own ******* business we'd all be better off.

I think the opposite is true

We have become a nation that is afraid to tell parents that their kids are little monsters. It used to be that if a kid was getting into trouble he would be first yelled at by the neighbors and then his parents were told. Parents would actually discipline the kid

Now, all parents stand up for their kids and make excuses.

Then why are people having parents arrested for the "crime" of letting a kid walk to the corner store?