Protecting the Free-Range Kid

[Smitty-48]

Safety just wasn't our primary concern, nobody said be reckless just for its own sake, but as I recall, nobody really brought safety up much at all, my parents just said, "go outside, come back when the street lights come on, don't get killed out there." Having them follow me around in a helicopter, that would have actually made me be deliberately reckless, just to let them know what would happen, if they didn't stop bothering me.

[Okeefenokee]

Not a good sign for a civilised society Okee. Maybe it's the same here, long time since I went somewhere with a high crime rate. Still can't imagine people doing nothing if a kid was involved though.

Kids being involved might make a difference, but I'm not convinced.

[Montegriffo]

Safety just wasn't our primary concern, nobody said be reckless just for its own sake, but as I recall, nobody really brought safety up much at all, my parents just said, "go outside, come back when the street lights come on, don't get killed out there." Having them follow me around in a helicopter, that would have actually made me be deliberately reckless, just to let them know what would happen, if they didn't stop bothering me.

Same here, my only rule was back in time for dinner. I grew up mostly in rural Leicestershire.

[Okeefenokee]

Safety just wasn't our primary concern, nobody said be reckless just for its own sake, but as I recall, nobody really brought safety up much at all, my parents just said, "go outside, come back when the street lights come on, don't get killed out there." Having them follow me around in a helicopter, that would have actually made me be deliberately reckless, just to let them know what would happen, if they didn't stop bothering me.

On one of our excursions, my sister and I found a big slippery rock back in the woods. It had at least a good two hundred feet of water slide effect, with a pool of water at the bottom. We had fun sliding down and running back to the top. When we got home and told Dad what we'd found, he told us that was a waste water treatment plant, and not to get back in that water. I guess we coulda got typhoid.

[MilSpecs]

It's apparently part of a broad cultural shift towards protecting our kids from any sort of physical or emotional trauma. Heaven forbid that kids might actually play "army" in the back yard anymore--no doubt someone would call the police. Probably contributed to the unfortunate development of the "safe spaces" mentality that is now so prevalent on our college campuses.

That's probably all true, but it begs the question: is their parents' generation so traumatized by their own bad memories that they're determined to avoid the same fate for their children? I mean that as a serious question. I hear a lot of "nobody cared" and "I wasn't a priority" coming from my generation and they don't want their children to feel like that. Not excusing the overparenting, but it would explain it. And it seems to hold true for all generations - they want their children to avoid what made them unhappy.

[Okeefenokee]

I think it's more an effect of a generation growing up seeing a dangerous world on the news acting as you would expect. When my dad was growing up, the danger on the news was some communist nation on the other side of the world. The news back then probably didn't tell everyone to be afraid of their neighbors. Another cold war might be good for the kids.

[Smitty-48]

I remember one time, I must have been seven or eight, and me and my friends used to play on the railroad tracks out behind the industrial area, and in one day, we both lived that scene from Stand By Me, where the train came when we were half way cross the bridge and we had to run for our lives, and then for an encore, we come upon all these paint cans behind this woodworking shop, so we decided to light them on fire, big ol fire going in the concrete stairwell, then all of a sudden, the paint cans start to explode, boom, boom, boom, boom, shrapnel whistling past our ears, so we scattered like rats, as we walked down the street away from there, the fire department goes wailing past in the other direction....

..when I got home, my Da asked "so what did you guys do?", to which I of course said "oh, you know, nothing much, just hanging out"

[Montegriffo]

I think it's more an effect of a generation growing up seeing a dangerous world on the news acting as you would expect. When my dad was growing up, the danger on the news was some communist nation on the other side of the world. The news back then probably didn't tell everyone to be afraid of their neighbors. Another cold war might be good for the kids.

I think there is something to this. Stats show it is no more dangerous for children now than when I was a kid but everyone perceives it is worse now. Good news never sold many newspapers. Same with shitty tabloids like the Express over here blowing up every story involving Muslim or immigrant crimes as that is what some people want to read.

[Okeefenokee]

Dad being a painter meant we had some fun times with flammables.

I've said it before, we used to chain a tire to the back of a four wheeler and go tubing on gravel roads. That was fun as shit.

[MilSpecs]

You all sound like you had idyllic free-range childhoods.