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My childhood was a lot happier and more social because our neighbors had a big front lawn we could run around and play on. It was effectively a meeting space fo
by apatters 10y ago
My childhood was a lot happier and more social because our neighbors had a big front lawn we could run around and play on. It was effectively a meeting space for all the kids on our street.
Instead of a front lawn our property had a dense growth of evergreen shrubs and all these excuses were used by my parents - easier to maintain, less water used etc.
Our backyard was nice enough but fenced in and not social at all. If I could have had one or the other as a kid it definitely would have been a front lawn.
To me this front lawn hate is all about changing demographics (families are getting rarer) and the tragic paranoia and hostility that now is so prevalent in American society--even though it is safer than ever.
- csense 10y agoThis. - People don't have as many kids as in decades past - The "stranger danger" mentality -- which the parent post aptly described as "tragic paranoia [1] and hostility even though it is safer than ever" -- means kids aren't as free to roam the neighborhood. - Increased amounts of homework, organized activities and indoor entertainment means kids spend less time outside and have other ways to socialize [1] Children's services can take kids away from parents with minimal due process. Whether this is, on the whole, good or bad is a debate I'm not going to get into here. But I will note that sometimes the system screws up and targets well-meaning parents who give their kids too much freedom. Which leads to a chilling effect where even parents who recognize that giving the children more freedom is the rational thing for us to do as a society, it's irrational for individual parents because some idiots think otherwise, and the system sometimes listens to them, and it's just not worth the risk of having the authorities break up your family.