What part of your childhood do you wish your kids could experience, but they won’t? (1 Viewer)

[MAC_32]

This. I watch Stranger Things and see kids riding their bikes home after dark and remember doing that hundreds of times as a kid. My kids have never done that and probably never will. 

This all begs the question, how do we foster that self reliance and independence in this brave new world we have all freely adopted? What can we do to help them experience more of what we did as kids without letting them roam the streets till all hours?

Talking about it with other parents.  I don't think it's effective if you force the subject, but anytime an opportunity presents itself in which I can say how we didn't have to worry about X when we were kids and it's too bad society demands differently from our kids.  I usually leave it at that unless it actually initiates a conversation though.  I get that other parents may be in their own current reality and need time to absorb that thought before doing anything about it - if they do.  There have been instances in which I could tell by their response that I was talking to a dead end.  But I've also noticed more frequent engaged dialogue whenever I say something like that over the last few months - and I've also noticed more of my kid's friends having more independence at some events we attend.

I have no idea if what I've been saying has influenced any of it or if it will continue, but I'm confident it hasn't hurt.  Because ultimately kids haven't changed.  Only adults have.  

 

[comfortably numb]

This. I watch Stranger Things and see kids riding their bikes home after dark and remember doing that hundreds of times as a kid. My kids have never done that and probably never will. 

This all begs the question, how do we foster that self reliance and independence in this brave new world we have all freely adopted? What can we do to help them experience more of what we did as kids without letting them roam the streets till all hours?

Start by letting them walk to a friends house instead of driving 30yds.

We have friends 2yd, 20yds, 200yds and a mile away.

At 5 we weren't letting kids walk alone anywhere.  At 7 it was walk with them to so and sos house. At 8 it was walk with x to so and sos house. At 9 it was walk all the way to Ys house. At 10+ it was bike alllllll the way to Zs house.

Usually it is always with another kid or my kid will meet a other kid halfway type of thing

 

[comfortably numb]

Sounds dumb but writting letters.

I had family/friends and even a gf overseas as a teen and the excitement of getting a letter with the lastest street news or just random BS was fun.

Waiting around for days/weeks while not as efficient as today left a lot for the anticipation. 

Or your gf lining the letter with her perfume...well i guess 22 nudie pics kids can get today is probably better but rubbing that perfumed laced letter on face made it real to me, dammit!!!

 

[TheFanatic]

Start by letting them walk to a friends house instead of driving 30yds.

We have friends 2yd, 20yds, 200yds and a mile away.

At 5 we weren't letting kids walk alone anywhere.  At 7 it was walk with them to so and sos house. At 8 it was walk with x to so and sos house. At 9 it was walk all the way to Ys house. At 10+ it was bike alllllll the way to Zs house.

Usually it is always with another kid or my kid will meet a other kid halfway type of thing

My problem is the closest kid to them is a good mile away and my kids don't even like that kid all that much. 

 

[Gary Coal Man]

Sounds dumb but writting letters.

I had family/friends and even a gf overseas as a teen and the excitement of getting a letter with the lastest street news or just random BS was fun.

Waiting around for days/weeks while not as efficient as today left a lot for the anticipation. 

Or your gf lining the letter with her perfume...well i guess 22 nudie pics kids can get today is probably better but rubbing that perfumed laced letter on face made it real to me, dammit!!!

In a way we’ve come full circle as a society with writing to each other.  We started with writing letters.  We then completely abandoned that and went to phone calls.  And now most people have abandoned phone calls in favor of texts which are essentially immediately delivered mini-letters.

 

[shuke]

No worries.

Tell you what, though ... even if I had chosen that battle with my wife, won it, and threw the doors open for my kids to "go play with your friends!", they'd have come back ten minutes later bored to tears. There would've been no other kids outside to play with -- it's not a one-family issue, it's a broader societal issue in the community. ALL (or close enough to all) families have come to a tacit agreement that free-range 1970s-style kids are no longer to be a thing.

That's unfortunate.  Where do you live? What type of neighborhood?

 

[Don't Toews Me]

Going to a baseball game taking 46 all star voting cards and punching in your favorite players at your seat.

Now kids can vote 8million times while taking a dump and having never watched a baseball game in their lives.

That must be one long and painful dump. I remember when my dumps were nice and easy as a kid

 

[jb1020]

Having a Nokia cell phone that only held 100 names and number then having to figure out what friend you had to delete when you got number 101.