To Helicopter, or Not To Helicopter...

[Speaker to Animals]

It depends where you live. A lot of liberals helicopter their parents because they live in liberal cities, and liberal cities are dangerous places (by definition, really).

Small town parents can free range their kids no problem.

How you keep track of your kids depends upon the degeneracy and social dysfunction of your social environment, which in turns depends upon who is governing it and what types of people predominate there.

[Smitty-48]

My parents pretty much turned me loose into downtown Toronto, no supervision at all, when I was like seven years old, the only caveat was; "be home when the street lights come on", I certainly got up to some trouble, but without mummy and daddy around, I just figured my way out of it.

[Kazmyr]

My parents pretty much turned me loose into downtown Toronto, no supervision at all, when I was like seven years old, the only caveat was; "be home when the street lights come on", I certainly got up to some trouble, but without mummy and daddy around, I just figured my way out of it.

Can't do anything like that these days.

Have your kid walk to the bus stop/school alone and next thing you know, the Po-Po are at your house and DCF are on the phone.

[Smitty-48]

My parents pretty much turned me loose into downtown Toronto, no supervision at all, when I was like seven years old, the only caveat was; "be home when the street lights come on", I certainly got up to some trouble, but without mummy and daddy around, I just figured my way out of it.

Can't do anything like that these days.

Have your kid walk to the bus stop/school alone and next thing you know, the Po-Po are at your house and DCF are on the phone.

Back in the early 70's, the rule was "if you think you're in trouble, alert the nearest adult, if you're really scared, find the nearest police officer... and make sure you're home when the streetlights come on" and that was about it.

[Smitty-48]

Should point out tho, when I didn't show up by the time the streetlights came on? That was all hands on deck, I remember one time I overstayed at my friends house, and I walking home along the avenue, and boom, Metro Police cruiser pulls up at a high rate of knots, slams on the brakes, two cops jump out, and they knew who I was by name, just be the description my parents gave them, "come with us, you're dad is looking for you" and they drove me home. At that was probably at about me being one hour overdue.

[Kazmyr]

Back in the early 70's, the rule was "if you think you're in trouble, alert the nearest adult, if you're really scared, find the nearest police officer, and make sure you're home when the streetlights come on" and that was about it.

My old man used to lament how when he was a kid, my grandmother would give him a lunch and boot him out the door with a similar caveat: "Be home before it gets dark." He'd usually grab a fishing rod and park himself down at the pond and fish all day. Not like he could go screw off; my grandfather knew everyone in town and vice versa, so any shenanigans would get back to his father before he even got home. Come to think of it, not much of a sense of community like that anymore, either.

[Smitty-48]

Back in my day, there was the deterence of punishment, you got free reign, but if you screwed up, you knew the hammer was coming down, I was never afraid of any adults, except my old man when he was spooked, pissed off, and on the warpath.

By in the day, when they said "grounded", they weren't kidding, you can go to school, and then when you come home you can do chores and then go to your room to do homework for the rest of the night, no tv, no stereo, no phone, no going to play with your friends, nothing, confinement to barracks, and that shit could go on for weeks, so it was no joke,

[apeman]

I was raised similar to smitty, get lost and come home when the street lights come on, #1 rule in the household was never lie to your parents, so come home on time and tell the truth and I got free reign.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I was turned loose, but we lived way out in the sticks until I was about 11. At that point, I was fine on my own, around the neighborhood.

I guess my question is really about the 3-11 age range. It’s really hard to know how much they can handle on their own.

[Smitty-48]

I remember one time I crossed checked this kid in the face playing hockey, it was total cheap shot, broke the code, broke the tough guy code, you can drop the gloves, but you don't crosscheck him in the face blindside shot.

Oh man, my Dad fuckin' lost it, I was grounded for a month, and to this day, that's one of the longest months of my life. Grounding was no joke, just the word "grounded" put the fear into you, there was no parole hearing, once "grounded" came down, however long my dad said, that's how long it was, and not one second off for good behavior after the fact, and no slacking off on the defaulters neither.