Some Saturdays and Sundays, sun up to sundown and often beyond, our parents never saw us. Playing all day, all over, before it got called exercise or physical activity.
Frankly, it was the bicycle helmets in the '70s that started the trend towards helicopter parenting. It was still fairly benign until the first picture appeared on a milk carton in 1984, instilling more fear in parents every time they saw another picture. The parent-guided play date followed, then....
By the way, Etan Paz, the first picture, had been dead for two years by the time his image started the wave of over-parenting.
I too am a Boomer and so glad to be one of the last generation of folks who got to really be free-range as a child. My mother’s mantra on Saturday morning at 8am was, “Go out and play and don’t come home unless you’re bleeding profusely or on fire”. LOL
She said the same thing every weekend and we always laughed at it as we laced up our
PF Flyers and raced out the door! We loved the freedom of no parents around. And yes, we got in fights and often got hurt but unless we were afraid of dying we never went home. And someone’s mother always fed us lunch. And we drank out of the hose and survived. And when the street lights came home we wandered home…dirty, tired and happy.
I feel bad for kids today who don’t have the creativity or imagination to invent their own street games. Heck, they don’t even know what street games are because they’re not allowed in the street!
As for chickens…I live on a ranch and keep lots of chickens. They love it in the morning when I open the coop and they get to be free all day. But at sunset they happily head back inside knowing it’s safe and comfortable until the next day. Much the same as we did as human children.
Some Saturdays and Sundays, sun up to sundown and often beyond, our parents never saw us. Playing all day, all over, before it got called exercise or physical activity.
Frankly, it was the bicycle helmets in the '70s that started the trend towards helicopter parenting. It was still fairly benign until the first picture appeared on a milk carton in 1984, instilling more fear in parents every time they saw another picture. The parent-guided play date followed, then....
By the way, Etan Paz, the first picture, had been dead for two years by the time his image started the wave of over-parenting.
I too am a Boomer and so glad to be one of the last generation of folks who got to really be free-range as a child. My mother’s mantra on Saturday morning at 8am was, “Go out and play and don’t come home unless you’re bleeding profusely or on fire”. LOL
She said the same thing every weekend and we always laughed at it as we laced up our
PF Flyers and raced out the door! We loved the freedom of no parents around. And yes, we got in fights and often got hurt but unless we were afraid of dying we never went home. And someone’s mother always fed us lunch. And we drank out of the hose and survived. And when the street lights came home we wandered home…dirty, tired and happy.
I feel bad for kids today who don’t have the creativity or imagination to invent their own street games. Heck, they don’t even know what street games are because they’re not allowed in the street!
As for chickens…I live on a ranch and keep lots of chickens. They love it in the morning when I open the coop and they get to be free all day. But at sunset they happily head back inside knowing it’s safe and comfortable until the next day. Much the same as we did as human children.
https://x.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1857572990097174873
Times have changed, not for the better. My link on Odysee is about another mother treated the same way.
Starting in first grade I walked to school, a little less than a mile. I crossed a state highway (not a huge one). It's what all the kids did.