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I had plenty of access to play without driving anywhere. I spent hours and hours playing on my driveway and in my yard with minimal supervision.

amrocha 3y ago
I hope you see how sad that statement is. Kids in truly free places ride the train around the entire city by themselves.
- 93po 3y ago
  "Free" is probably the wrong word. They get to do that in places that have a strong social fabric. The diversity of America combined with a capitalism-induced culture of pitting people against each other makes that impossible in the US.
  - amrocha 3y ago
    I think free is the right word. A "strong social fabric" is necessary for a truly free place. The US is not very free.
palm-tree 3y ago
Wow, a yard AND a driveway? I think the idea here is that children need to have the opportunity to explore the wider world independently, not just a 50 metre circle around their home.
Broken_Hippo 3y ago
Playing in your yard isn't really "minimal supervision". You probably just didn't know how often your parents checked on you. And you would have known that your parent could just look outside and see you. As a 8 or 9-year-old, could you go to a friends house, to the store, or to school without parental supervision? Did you have safe bike lanes to do this? Was there safe public transportation? Sidewalks on busier streets? Safe crosswalks where the cars are supposed to stop by law - and are those laws enforced heavily to keep you safe? Could you play independently outside of your yard?
- wincy 3y ago
  I live in the USA and we picked our neighborhood specifically because of these things. My kid has been going to her friend’s houses by herself since she was 5. She goes down the block (sometimes a couple of blocks! Friends of friends) to her friend’s houses. I feel like we changed the culture in the neighborhood. Kids come out and go to our house and other houses all the time. It’s a good, safe neighborhood. Of course it just takes a few people to screw this up. Some busybody lady who felt the need to tell us she was a foster mom (okay? Maybe trying to signal what a moral person and upstanding person she was?) called CPS on us saying we were “neglecting” our child which meant a visit to verify we were not abandoning our child on the street. She later lost her job and had to move away, let me tell you I was very sad to hear it. To avoid such spurious accusations, we got our daughter an Apple Watch with cellular service, which we generally use to call her when it gets dark out. She’s eight now, and went to Walmart by herself earlier this year several times on her bike to buy a few things. I was very proud of her! This is extremely important to us that she be able to have this autonomy. It’s definitely not the default, though. There are a half dozen or more kids that regularly dip in and out of our house. It’s sad that some parents absolutely don’t allow their children out of their sight. There are kids just next door my daughter basically never sees because they aren’t allowed to leave their houses, despite being the same age as my kid.
  - tarboreus 3y ago
    Good for you. I wish everyone were like this. Waiting for the birth of my daughter next month and worried about this chance in the culture.
  - qball 3y ago
    >Of course it just takes a few people to screw this up. The root of the vast majority of modern problems is hysterics/heckler's veto/concern trolling backed by state power.
  - jrnichols 3y ago
    > Some busybody lady It does seem that women are by far the biggest offenders in this space. They're also the biggest consumers of murder/mystery and true crime podcasts & media. I wonder if any studies have looked into why women are reacting like this more and more.

amrocha 3y ago

I hope you see how sad that statement is. Kids in truly free places ride the train around the entire city by themselves.

93po 3y ago
"Free" is probably the wrong word. They get to do that in places that have a strong social fabric. The diversity of America combined with a capitalism-induced culture of pitting people against each other makes that impossible in the US.
- amrocha 3y ago
  I think free is the right word. A "strong social fabric" is necessary for a truly free place. The US is not very free.

palm-tree 3y ago

Wow, a yard AND a driveway? I think the idea here is that children need to have the opportunity to explore the wider world independently, not just a 50 metre circle around their home.

Broken_Hippo 3y ago

Playing in your yard isn't really "minimal supervision". You probably just didn't know how often your parents checked on you. And you would have known that your parent could just look outside and see you. As a 8 or 9-year-old, could you go to a friends house, to the store, or to school without parental supervision? Did you have safe bike lanes to do this? Was there safe public transportation? Sidewalks on busier streets? Safe crosswalks where the cars are supposed to stop by law - and are those laws enforced heavily to keep you safe? Could you play independently outside of your yard?

wincy 3y ago
I live in the USA and we picked our neighborhood specifically because of these things. My kid has been going to her friend’s houses by herself since she was 5. She goes down the block (sometimes a couple of blocks! Friends of friends) to her friend’s houses. I feel like we changed the culture in the neighborhood. Kids come out and go to our house and other houses all the time. It’s a good, safe neighborhood. Of course it just takes a few people to screw this up. Some busybody lady who felt the need to tell us she was a foster mom (okay? Maybe trying to signal what a moral person and upstanding person she was?) called CPS on us saying we were “neglecting” our child which meant a visit to verify we were not abandoning our child on the street. She later lost her job and had to move away, let me tell you I was very sad to hear it. To avoid such spurious accusations, we got our daughter an Apple Watch with cellular service, which we generally use to call her when it gets dark out. She’s eight now, and went to Walmart by herself earlier this year several times on her bike to buy a few things. I was very proud of her! This is extremely important to us that she be able to have this autonomy. It’s definitely not the default, though. There are a half dozen or more kids that regularly dip in and out of our house. It’s sad that some parents absolutely don’t allow their children out of their sight. There are kids just next door my daughter basically never sees because they aren’t allowed to leave their houses, despite being the same age as my kid.
- tarboreus 3y ago
  Good for you. I wish everyone were like this. Waiting for the birth of my daughter next month and worried about this chance in the culture.
- qball 3y ago
  >Of course it just takes a few people to screw this up. The root of the vast majority of modern problems is hysterics/heckler's veto/concern trolling backed by state power.
- jrnichols 3y ago
  > Some busybody lady It does seem that women are by far the biggest offenders in this space. They're also the biggest consumers of murder/mystery and true crime podcasts & media. I wonder if any studies have looked into why women are reacting like this more and more.