I'm a late-age mom, I guess, having grown up in the '70s and '80s with what sounds like a similar philosophy as what you had in E. Europe and I have always let my now 15-year-old daughter be as independent as she needs to be: but the blowback! An aunt who thought that my letting my kid stand at the bus stop by herself with a dozen other kids and parents while I watched from my window was unreasonably dangerous!! Who would let their kid walk 5 blocks through an alley in the country (literally; I live in the middle of nowhere PA) to meet a friend? Not the friend's parent-- was I crazy?? Get off the bus and walk through the park to save an hour of it tooling around before it gets to our street? I was told she'd be sold drugs in broad daylight if she were to even attempt it. So far no issues lol. I held my ground I have a grounded kid, confident in her abilities and not scared of the world. Go figure.
As a kid in the NY suburbs in the 1970’s, I used to ride my bike everywhere, sometimes with friends, sometimes to a friend’s house etc. We rode along highways, at night … if I wanted to do anything, I got on the bike and went. There was almost no parental supervision. I think today all of our parents would be arrested lol.
Totally. And it makes me sad, because, honestly, if I had a kid in this culture, I'm not sure I'd be able to give them the awesome, free childhood I had.
I guess it was in the fourth grade when I rode my bike for home in downtown Palo Alto - lost I found myself at the guard house for Moffat Field. I asked which way back to PA -- he called a cop who put my bike in the trunk and delivered me to mom. She later gave him a big box of See's chocolates. (ca 1947 and about seven miles) BTW from about the third grade, I did all the grocery shopping on my bike from Cowper St. to Alma next to the tracks. PA was dry then (Leland Stanford created PA). A shock: all the aisles of liquor in Santa Barbara when we moved, I in the fifth grade.
Halfway thru I thought to post my childhood experience; impossible now! At the ranch school us older students (7 8th grade) after learning how to catch, saddle, etc our assigned horses, we became PPPs. Just sign out where we go planed, and return for dinner. We’d play capture the flag on horseback. The only injury anyone was playing capture the flag on the ground! I tripped my patella landed on a rock. Hospital one night. So fortunate to be a kid in the fifties. My favorite job was oiling and watering the ICEs that powered the electric generators. I using the huge knife switch at night changed from the 10 kW to the 2 kW gen. I liked milking two cows, especially when I squirted my visiting mother.
I'm a late-age mom, I guess, having grown up in the '70s and '80s with what sounds like a similar philosophy as what you had in E. Europe and I have always let my now 15-year-old daughter be as independent as she needs to be: but the blowback! An aunt who thought that my letting my kid stand at the bus stop by herself with a dozen other kids and parents while I watched from my window was unreasonably dangerous!! Who would let their kid walk 5 blocks through an alley in the country (literally; I live in the middle of nowhere PA) to meet a friend? Not the friend's parent-- was I crazy?? Get off the bus and walk through the park to save an hour of it tooling around before it gets to our street? I was told she'd be sold drugs in broad daylight if she were to even attempt it. So far no issues lol. I held my ground I have a grounded kid, confident in her abilities and not scared of the world. Go figure.
Well-said, Tana. Shout it from the rooftops!
As a kid in the NY suburbs in the 1970’s, I used to ride my bike everywhere, sometimes with friends, sometimes to a friend’s house etc. We rode along highways, at night … if I wanted to do anything, I got on the bike and went. There was almost no parental supervision. I think today all of our parents would be arrested lol.
Totally. And it makes me sad, because, honestly, if I had a kid in this culture, I'm not sure I'd be able to give them the awesome, free childhood I had.
I guess it was in the fourth grade when I rode my bike for home in downtown Palo Alto - lost I found myself at the guard house for Moffat Field. I asked which way back to PA -- he called a cop who put my bike in the trunk and delivered me to mom. She later gave him a big box of See's chocolates. (ca 1947 and about seven miles) BTW from about the third grade, I did all the grocery shopping on my bike from Cowper St. to Alma next to the tracks. PA was dry then (Leland Stanford created PA). A shock: all the aisles of liquor in Santa Barbara when we moved, I in the fifth grade.
Nice!!!
Halfway thru I thought to post my childhood experience; impossible now! At the ranch school us older students (7 8th grade) after learning how to catch, saddle, etc our assigned horses, we became PPPs. Just sign out where we go planed, and return for dinner. We’d play capture the flag on horseback. The only injury anyone was playing capture the flag on the ground! I tripped my patella landed on a rock. Hospital one night. So fortunate to be a kid in the fifties. My favorite job was oiling and watering the ICEs that powered the electric generators. I using the huge knife switch at night changed from the 10 kW to the 2 kW gen. I liked milking two cows, especially when I squirted my visiting mother.
There’s much more.
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