For kids growing up in car-dependent suburbia, outside does not exist. If you can’t drive, you’re trapped in your home, unless you want to just go for a walk among endless identical winding cookie cutter streets.
Where is a kid in suburbia supposed to go that’s actually within walking distance? I suppose they could just hang out on the street. But homeowners seeing a group of teen loitering on the sidewalk in front of their home will call the cops. Hell, sometimes just walking around is enough to get a group of teens harassed by police.
Yes, but very few parents just let their kids run around outside. Very few kids get to walk or bike to friends houses, without adult supervision. We have all internalized “stranger danger” and the “danger” that random people are to kids.
Outside still exists…
Outside™: now with more extreme heat watches and smoke advisories!
For kids growing up in car-dependent suburbia, outside does not exist. If you can’t drive, you’re trapped in your home, unless you want to just go for a walk among endless identical winding cookie cutter streets.
Where is a kid in suburbia supposed to go that’s actually within walking distance? I suppose they could just hang out on the street. But homeowners seeing a group of teen loitering on the sidewalk in front of their home will call the cops. Hell, sometimes just walking around is enough to get a group of teens harassed by police.
“Hell” sound like an accurate description. I wouldn’t want to live in such a place as an adult, much less a minor.
Not really.
I’m old enough to remember when grade school kids could get on a bus or subway alone without anyone saying anything.
If you made ‘Stand By Me’ today all the parents would be locked up for child endangerment.
Sure… but it’s not so much that places have changed, but that parenting has.
I mean, if you can’t just show up, than the places have changed.
Most kids today can’t just go outside with all their friends and come back when the streetlights turn on like many of us did as kids.
Yes, but very few parents just let their kids run around outside. Very few kids get to walk or bike to friends houses, without adult supervision. We have all internalized “stranger danger” and the “danger” that random people are to kids.