When I was a kid

[Night Elf]

I used to play outside for hours without ever checking in with my mom. We would go wherever we wanted, even blocks away to hang out with other friends. And when I was a young teen, we used to walk along a very busy road to buy candy and soda at the gas station. We also used to tell our moms we were spending the night at each other's houses and then actually stay outside all night long.

 

I'm not sure why I started thinking about this today. But I'm kind of impressed that none of us ever got hurt in all our shenanigans, although we did some pretty stupid stuff.

[Night Elf]

I couldn't go wherever I wanted.  I had to stay on the street and be within ear shot of hearing my mom yell for me to come home.  The other parents seemed to have the same requirement.  We were also not allowed to go into anyone's house without letting my mother know.  But we did spend a ton of time outside.  Things were definitely different for me growing up than my kids.

 

Yeah, that's how I did for my kids when we lived in a neighborhood with kids. My kids played in front of our house or at certain other houses with permission of other parents. There was one family who let their kids run around anywhere. I didn't like that. They often showed up and made trouble. I asked the mom about it once and she told me that boys will be boys and aggression was just part of being a boy.

[kahlanne]

Yep, my mom would lock me out of the house so she could clean and get her work done. No dirty feet tracking through mopped floors,etc. We lived in the country with 200 acres of family land which bordered the Mississippi game reserve, thousands of acres. Almost daily I would ride my horse for hours on end in the reserve. The rule was I had to return home when I heard the dinner bell. It was a huge old iron liberty style bell that you could hear for miles. I began riding alone at 10.  I remember once being in the reserve and not coming back for the bell. My dad met me at the curve in the road with a belt. He was so scared! There are many wild animals that could harm a person in the woods alone especially at night. I returned right at sunset, 6 hrs later. I had my older cousin with me but he was a city boy from Texas, who didn't know how to ride by himself. You could also get lost in those woods quite easily. I did once as an adult. We rode for 10 hrs before finding our way back home. I remember one little boy being lost in the woods while family was camping. There were helicopters, search parties, and dogs searching for him before finding him a few days later. I can't imagine letting my kids be out of sight for hours at the time especially in woods with animals and who knows what dangers. Times sure have changed.

[HRAAB]

My friends and I roamed the neighborhood and biked all over.  We would walk the 1 1/2 miles to the nearest gas station to buy a pop or to the canal to wade around.  I'd tell my mom where I was going - that was required - but otherwise we roamed, played and had fun all summer.  We slept outside all summer.  We'd pitch the tent, and that would be our home for the next couple months.  Summers were great.  It's funny though.  I live in the same house (bought it from my parents), but I don't allow my children the same freedom.  It is so different.  The population has almost tripled, and it isn't as safe.  We do have 1.5 acres so the girls can have the free run of that, and I do let them take walks - with a phone - when they're older.  It makes me sad that I feel I have to have so many more limitations on them than I did at that age.

[QueenCat]

We had free reign in our neighborhood, which was huge. It was a huge loop, about 4 miles around. By around 9-10, we could walk to the village center, in another neighborhood. Mostly by path/sidewalk but there were roads to cross. I'd go to the pool by myself at that age too. By around 11, I rode the city buses by myself, to go to friends houses, winter swim team, the mall, etc. At the time, the city (Columbia, MD), had a smaller population than it does now but it was still a decent size city. I graduated in 1983 so this was mostly 1970s to early 1980s............

 

When my own kids were younger, we lived in another town with paths (Peachtree City, GA). The kids could walk to the village centers to go to Blockbuster, get ice cream, and small bags of groceries. It was about a 15 minute walk. It was a pretty normal thing for older elementary kids to do..... This would have been 2000ish to 2005. In other words, this century.

 

Where we live now, no.... They are too old to go out and play now, but when we first moved here, they did have free reign within the neighborhood but there are no sidewalks, paths, etc so you can't really walk to other places. Biggest risk is getting hit by a car due to lack of shoulders.

[SKL]

Yep.  I distinctly remember being 7yo and going to a store at least a mile from my house to buy my own school supplies.  I remember the age because the store clerk asked and then said "I thought you were at least 9."  There was no thought of calling cops or whatever they do nowadays to report an "unattended kid doing nothing wrong."  I thought it was cool to be mistaken for an older kid, but the activity of going all around the neighborhood and doing whatever I wanted was perfectly normal by that age.

[MomtoCandJ]

I was free range growing up as well, 1990s early 2000s (graduated 2002). Lived on an island so not much happened, we had a store next door, a bar across the street from that (I worked there from 1999 to 2002). There was no side walks but there are lots of marked snowmobile/ ATV trials that we rode our bikes on.

Where we live now, I allow dd to play outside by her self, we live on almost 2 acres. All her playthings are in the backyard where I can see her and well off the road. We don't live close to anything she could walk to safely so she won't be able to do that (we live on a fairly busy state highway). Kind of sad but there isn't much we can do about.

[Lara in Colo]

I made a pie and rode the bus to downtown Denver to give it to my mom ---all by myself.-- yikes!!

 

[Jeannie in NJ]

I grew up in Texas.  In the summers, my brother (1 1/2 years younger) and I and the rest of the neighborhood kids (around ages 10-12) would jump on our bikes right after breakfast and ride out into the country.  There was a very large ranch that we would climb over the fence and just explore.  THe rancher had a large pond for his horses that we would swim in.  We would not come home until dinner time just before dark.  Our parents never knew where we were and never asked.

 

Once as a teen, my friend Connie and I decided to spend the night at Debbie's house.  My mom dropped us off at the corner to Deb's house.  Then her mom said we could not spend the night.  No way was I going to call my mom and have her pick us up so Connie and I went to a house down the street that was under construction and were sleeping there on the bare wood floor.  THe roof had not been put on yet and it started to pour a Texas downpour.  We went and knocked on Deb's bedroom window, she let us in and we made a bed in her closet.  THe next morning, Connie and I went to the corner to wait for my mom to pick us up as had been arranged.  None of our moms even knew each other so they never found out what we had done.

[Dandelion]

Another free range kid here.

 

I grew up in the 70's-80's.  My mom was a single mom, and I was a latch-key kid from the age of 7 on (only child - no older siblings to take care of me).  She would leave for work around 7:30am and not be home until 5:30pm.  During that time, I'd get myself to school (15 min. bike ride away), back home, do my homework, and then go out and play with my friends.  We rode our bikes all over the neighborhood.  Our favorite places to hang out were the large woods on the edge of our neighborhood as well as an old abandoned rail yard with broken down trains.  Neither of these places were especially safe in retrospect.  

 

At age 11, I had my first regular babysitting jobs.  At age 12, I worked for a French guy at a farmer's market every Saturday morning selling garlic braids and olives from huge barrels.  Best job ever!  At age 15, I got a job at McDonald's.  I lined up all of these jobs myself, and rode my bike or light rail across town to get there.  

 

My mom had no idea where I was or what I was doing all day.  

 

My kids are definitely growing up in a different environment.  They're free to roam on our property (5 acres), but they don't roam around the neighborhood for hours on end.  DS10 has Asperger's and the relative lack of common sense/judgment that comes with that, so I have to be much more watchful with him.  I do allow him to ride his bike up and down our street (we live out in the country on a dirt road - there's very little traffic).  As he becomes more responsible, we're extending the time and distance.  Maybe DD5 can be more free range as she gets older - she has loads of common sense, doesn't take risks, and reads people very well. 

 

Definitely interesting to think about how different things are for this generation.  

 

[swellmomma]

I had to tell my mom who I was with and where I would be but outside of that did what I wanted.  I would ride my bike to the convience store which was several blocks away and across a busy road.  Spent more time at my friend's place than at home.  At 16 is when i got really stupid.  5 seater car, 1 teen with a license and 10 of us to get to the party, well that's what laps were for and when everyone but the driver had someone else on their lap one of us would ride in the trunk.  Or the day I sat on the hood of a truck that was doing donuts in the parking lot after school.  Or getting a ride to school with all my friends all piled into the bed of a pickup truck being driven by the big brother of one of the girls.  I had an 11 pm curfew technically in high school, but it was easily thwarted with a phone call home saying I was staying over at a particular friend's house, she did not have a curfew at all.  So I would stay over at her place when we got there at sometime between 1-3 am.

Now I was a responsible kid generally.  I was a latchkey kid from age 9 on, when I would get my siblings home from school and watch them.  I held several "jobs" in the school.  Worked in afterschool car starting at age 11 everyday.  babysat all the time all over the neighborhood.  blah blah blah which made it that much easier to be stupid as a teen.  No one expected it.