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Indeed! I grew up in a typical suburb where my agency as a child was strictly limited by my parents' ability / willingness to drive me places. Most parents do

Indeed! I grew up in a typical suburb where my agency as a child was strictly limited by my parents' ability / willingness to drive me places. Most parents don't realize how hard this is for their kids, mine certainly didn't. It's no wonder kids trapped at home end up spending so much time on the internet. I'm not old enough to really be thinking about kids, but I would never, ever inflict the suburban lifestyle a child of my own.

foreigner 5y ago
Counterpoint: I moved to England to a walkable town, but my kids still want to spend all their time on the internet. When I limit "screen time" they just want to hole up in their rooms and read the same books over and over again.
CalRobert 5y ago
I grew up in suburbia, but starting in high school just rode my bike everywhere. In retrospect it's hard to believe I survived, taking the lane on 55 mph roads (around northeastern Sacramento suburbs) was really dumb, in retrospect.
refurb 5y ago
Sounds like your parents? The suburbs were great childhood for me. Lots of families so other kids to play with, lots of big parks, with a bike you could go anywhere.
- benrbray 5y ago
  Yeah, you're right there are other factors. My neighborhood had busy roads on both ends, and was mostly empty-nesters. There are certainly worse places to grow up, but I don't think we should be satisfied with the baseline set by suburbs either. In places like Germany and Japan, children walk themselves to school as young as 6 years old! I only experience that freedom after getting a license at 16!
  - dfadsadsf 5y ago
    I live in fairly typical wealthy US suburb, my kid is 7 (1st grade) and goes to school on her own - school is around 0.5 miles away. I have to pick her up from school (parents are required until 3rd grade to check out kid) but often just leave her on playground to play with other kids (unless she has activities that day - which frankly she has more and more of - chess, math, soccer, gymnastics and ballet right now). She walks back home whenever she is done playing. I see kids 10-12 years old biking everywhere and hanging out in Starbucks/restaurants on their own. There are busy roads but you can go around them on secondary roads with low/non existent traffic. While not majority, there are quite a few people who give the same freedom to kids as us. So far we had zero problems but i am thinking about getting smart watch with GPS for piece of mind.
    - CalRobert 5y ago
      Might I ask roughly what region this is, or when it was developed? This sounds kind of like old-style suburbs, which were indeed quite nice. In most of California you can't buy a quart of milk without going over half a mile.
      - dfadsadsf 5y ago
        It’s in Westchester, NY - built mostly around 1920-1940 or about that time as train commuter suburb. I think it not unique - Palo Alto and Menlo Park in Bay Area are very comparable and very walkable/bikeable too. For us closest grocery is 0.8 mile away which is borderline walkable but we bike quite a bit (highly recommend Radwagon - great for shuttling 2 kids around and light groceries). Town is still car centric so still lots of driving but we carve out enough for us by biking/walking to not need car every day.
        CalRobert 5y ago
        Sounds lovely. My favourite suburbs are streetcar suburbs - South Park in San Diego for instance. Narrow streets, shorter setbacks, rowhouses, and just nicer places to exist.

foreigner 5y ago

Counterpoint: I moved to England to a walkable town, but my kids still want to spend all their time on the internet. When I limit "screen time" they just want to hole up in their rooms and read the same books over and over again.

CalRobert 5y ago

I grew up in suburbia, but starting in high school just rode my bike everywhere. In retrospect it's hard to believe I survived, taking the lane on 55 mph roads (around northeastern Sacramento suburbs) was really dumb, in retrospect.

refurb 5y ago

Sounds like your parents? The suburbs were great childhood for me. Lots of families so other kids to play with, lots of big parks, with a bike you could go anywhere.

benrbray 5y ago
Yeah, you're right there are other factors. My neighborhood had busy roads on both ends, and was mostly empty-nesters. There are certainly worse places to grow up, but I don't think we should be satisfied with the baseline set by suburbs either. In places like Germany and Japan, children walk themselves to school as young as 6 years old! I only experience that freedom after getting a license at 16!
- dfadsadsf 5y ago
  I live in fairly typical wealthy US suburb, my kid is 7 (1st grade) and goes to school on her own - school is around 0.5 miles away. I have to pick her up from school (parents are required until 3rd grade to check out kid) but often just leave her on playground to play with other kids (unless she has activities that day - which frankly she has more and more of - chess, math, soccer, gymnastics and ballet right now). She walks back home whenever she is done playing. I see kids 10-12 years old biking everywhere and hanging out in Starbucks/restaurants on their own. There are busy roads but you can go around them on secondary roads with low/non existent traffic. While not majority, there are quite a few people who give the same freedom to kids as us. So far we had zero problems but i am thinking about getting smart watch with GPS for piece of mind.
  - CalRobert 5y ago
    Might I ask roughly what region this is, or when it was developed? This sounds kind of like old-style suburbs, which were indeed quite nice. In most of California you can't buy a quart of milk without going over half a mile.
    - dfadsadsf 5y ago
      It’s in Westchester, NY - built mostly around 1920-1940 or about that time as train commuter suburb. I think it not unique - Palo Alto and Menlo Park in Bay Area are very comparable and very walkable/bikeable too. For us closest grocery is 0.8 mile away which is borderline walkable but we bike quite a bit (highly recommend Radwagon - great for shuttling 2 kids around and light groceries). Town is still car centric so still lots of driving but we carve out enough for us by biking/walking to not need car every day.
      - CalRobert 5y ago
        Sounds lovely. My favourite suburbs are streetcar suburbs - South Park in San Diego for instance. Narrow streets, shorter setbacks, rowhouses, and just nicer places to exist.