10 ms·

Are you saying there weren't overprotective parents before? This thread is full of a lot of confirmation bias / society is going to hell in a hand basket type o

• graeme 13y ago
  Talk to some older folks. My dad describes walking to school with other schoolchildren in Montreal in the 1950s. They'd be alone, without adults, going miles. When playing, they were out dusk to dawn on city streets with no adult supervision.
  • enjo 13y ago
    That proves nothing other than your dad grew up in a particular way. The question the post you were replying to posed was: is this actually a new phenomenon? Or is it simply good ole day syndrome? I suspect it's more the latter.
    • graeme 13y ago
      Well, the whole city was the same. It wasn't just his parents. And any other adult of the same age I've asked has described similar experiences. Now I see daycare children on leashes in Montreal. Quite often. That didn't happen in the 1950s. This isn't something' easy to quantify, unfortunately.
    • fr0sty 13y ago
      Do you have any anecdotes (or stronger evidence) to show that the sort of behavior lamented by some in our day existed (or was indeed rampant as your suspicions suggest) N years ago? (where N is anywhere between 20 and 200)?
    • svachalek 13y ago
      It's not just his dad. Watch Lassie or Leave it to Beaver or Andy Griffith and take notes on what was considered good wholesome parenting at the time. When I grew up in the 70s I'd say if anything the typical parent was even more hands-off. It was absolutely nothing like what is considered proper now.
      • munin 13y ago
        they generally wouldn't show the beatings on broadcast television...
  • alayne 13y ago
    I have talked to older people. I'm sure the 1930s were really when kids were raised right and learned the value of a dollar! And in the 1910s kids contributed to society by doing agricultural work. And in the 1890s... I would absolutely not prefer to be living in the 1950s than in the 2010s. Society has improved in many ways in the U.S., particularly if you are not a white male, even if perhaps children aren't allowed to wander as freely in large cities. Perhaps Canada is different.
    • graeme 13y ago
      That's a straw man. No one said we should return to 1950. The point was that, on the specific issue of attitudes towards risk, we should be more like we were in 1950.
      • daemin 13y ago
        Like being afraid of Nuclear Armageddon? But I get your point, the whole helicopter and intensive parenting should go. Though I do think it's caused somewhat by the excessive need to make children excel in a successively difficult and competitive society.
  • mhurron 13y ago
    I did the same thing in Toronto in the '80's, except for the walk to school bit, I was bussed then. I walked to the bus stop, across roads and whatnot. You don't have to talk to people that old, the mass retardation of parents is a relatively new thing.
  • purplelobster 13y ago
    I did that and I'm born in the mid 80s (not the US). Today I don't ever see kids going anywhere by themselves.
• deerpig 13y ago
  There have been a number of studies -- middle class children in Western countries now never go more than a couple of meters from their front door on their own. Growing up in the late 60's in New England, my parents kicked us out of the house in the morning during summers and no one thought twice about us unless we didn't show up for dinner. Children in American live under house arrest, they are used to having people with guns in their schools. They have no freedom to play, think or do much of anything which isn't scheduled. The whole concept of a "play date" is so twisted and sick as to be beyond comprehension. And all of this is because of some weird belief that children are in more danger today than any time in history. It's not true, the rates of child abuse, kidnapping, and everything else that parents are scared of haven't changed much from when I was a kid. I would never ever raise a child in the States....
  • jonny_eh 13y ago
    Where would you raise a child? It's no different in Canada.
  • mikeash 13y ago
    I don't understand your last sentence. For most of what you list, nobody is forcing American parents to do this, they just choose to. Nothing stops you from letting your own children do things on their own.
    • graeme 13y ago
      There are lots of social pressures to conform. It's also a lot harder to let your child spontaneously play with others if all the other parents require playdates before your kid can see their kids.
      • sigkill 13y ago
        >Play date or playdate is an expression primarily used in the US for an arranged appointment for children to get together for a few hours to play. This is from wikipedia. Pardon my language, but what the actual fuck. An arranged appointment for playing? I really feel sad for kids now in America.