• swtprg
    • 1 year 15 days ago
    • Posts: 10
    		 When i grew up as a kid we walked every where or rode our bikes. I can recall that almost every where we went we had a shortcut worked out. Through back alleys, fields, neighbors yards, ect.. We even gave some routes names such as "snake path". It seems today kids do not get out much or get to wonder around. I started walking to school in kindergarten and by the end of the first week already had a shortcut worked out. Did any one else do the same?
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    • Drahken
      • 1 year 14 days ago
      • Posts: 2168
      		 Not really, I always took the most direct route from place to place as the "normal" route (and in most cases, it truly was the "proper" route. There simply weren't any viable shortcuts). There were some places where I would cut through a parking lo instead of going "all the way around". but those rarely saved me more than say 1/10th of a block.
      signature*WARNING: The above post may be highly opinionated, read at your own risk.

      Gee Caspah, you're a twicky one!
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      • Alyssa Branen
        • 1 year 14 days ago
        • Posts: 4248
        		 Kids are not allowed to do ANYTHING these days, and as a parent if you let them, your a "horrible" parent. People think there are more dangers today than there were back then, but there are not. We are just more aware now. Don't get me wrong, I am one of the most super paranoid worrier parents EVER, but I let my 8 year old walk up to the bus stop from our house (a small hill you can see from our upstairs window) by himself and let him ride on OUR street on his bike alone with his friends (alone as in without me or my husband) to and from each of the parks on our little street. Many, many parents these days consider that bad parenting, because i'm not up his butt every second. He has rules where he has to check in, and we let him take our old tracfone in his jacket in case of emergency, but we don't want him to NOT have a play outside childhood because we're super paranoid. Other parents are so judgemental.

        I've actually had discussions with other parents who say they will be walking their 13 year olds to the bus stop and they don't care if they don't like it or their friends make fun of them, and that it would serve me right if my son got kidnapped. I'm like look, of course I don't want my son kidnapped but at 8 and a half he doesn't need his mom to take him to the playground a few houses down, especially when no one else is out there with their 8 and 9 year olds. Do I think four and five year olds should be wandering the street alone? No, that isn't something _I_ would have let my son do, but at 8 and 9 they should be able to play outside a lone, at least _I_ think. My son rides his bike on this street, plays football with the older boys, plays on the playground, etc. If that's bad parenting, then whatever I guess. The reason I let him go to the park with his friends, is not because i'm lazy, but because I don't think an almost 9 year old boy needs his mom to sit on the park bench and supervise while he and his friends swing or slide or play with nerf swords. None of the other moms are sitting there. I don't want my son to be known as a baby. I mean if it was an unfamiliar park we had driven to, then yes, obviously we're going to all sit and watch the kids play, but a park a few houses down? I don't think it's unreasonable to let 8 and above go play with the other kids.


        I know it's not like it was when we were younger. We'd ride our bikes quite a ways down our rural road and walk to the thrift store by ourselves at age 10.
        :)
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        • keerjeerclacko
          • 1 year 8 days ago
          • Posts: 702
          Alyssa Branen wrote:
          Kids are not allowed to do ANYTHING these days, and as a parent if you let them, your a "horrible" parent. People think there are more dangers today than there were back then, but there are not. We are just more aware now. Don't get me wrong, I am one of the most super paranoid worrier parents EVER, but I let my 8 year old walk up to the bus stop from our house (a small hill you can see from our upstairs window) by himself and let him ride on OUR street on his bike alone with his friends (alone as in without me or my husband) to and from each of the parks on our little street. Many, many parents these days consider that bad parenting, because i'm not up his butt every second. He has rules where he has to check in, and we let him take our old tracfone in his jacket in case of emergency, but we don't want him to NOT have a play outside childhood because we're super paranoid. Other parents are so judgemental.

          I've actually had discussions with other parents who say they will be walking their 13 year olds to the bus stop and they don't care if they don't like it or their friends make fun of them, and that it would serve me right if my son got kidnapped. I'm like look, of course I don't want my son kidnapped but at 8 and a half he doesn't need his mom to take him to the playground a few houses down, especially when no one else is out there with their 8 and 9 year olds. Do I think four and five year olds should be wandering the street alone? No, that isn't something _I_ would have let my son do, but at 8 and 9 they should be able to play outside a lone, at least _I_ think. My son rides his bike on this street, plays football with the older boys, plays on the playground, etc. If that's bad parenting, then whatever I guess. The reason I let him go to the park with his friends, is not because i'm lazy, but because I don't think an almost 9 year old boy needs his mom to sit on the park bench and supervise while he and his friends swing or slide or play with nerf swords. None of the other moms are sitting there. I don't want my son to be known as a baby. I mean if it was an unfamiliar park we had driven to, then yes, obviously we're going to all sit and watch the kids play, but a park a few houses down? I don't think it's unreasonable to let 8 and above go play with the other kids.


          I know it's not like it was when we were younger. We'd ride our bikes quite a ways down our rural road and walk to the thrift store by ourselves at age 10.



          I for one am sick of seeing fat lazy parents scream at their kids from afar because their too fat and lazy to go get them. The reason why kids aren't allowed is because the world has gotten so dangerous. It is an unsafe place and you should watch your kids all the time and cherish them because in a second they can be gone and then you feel like a moron. Don't get me wrong in moderation you should let your child get into some mischief now and then and be on their own but I can see why and how parents are so cautious these days. If anything if I was asked which is a better parent one that's too cautious or not enough I would pick too cautious.
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          • bassman21
            • 1 year 7 days ago
            • Posts: 12947
            		 To a kid a subdivision feels like a small city and making your way to a neighboring subdivision is like visiting a whole another town. We used to cut through people's backyards by jumping their fences. Yes we got yelled at and threatened to be shot more than once. We walked across the bayou and even rode our bikes under the freeway to get to the other neighborhoods. I remember we used to take some major shortcuts to get to the Little League ball park about a mile birds flight from my house. This included walking across some fields and across a bayou. If you took the streets it would take WAY longer. My brother and I would sometimes stay past dark and walk home the same way. I was 10 and he was 16 (we might have been younger). It just wasn't a big deal as long as our parents knew where he were going.

            We used to ride our bike on the side of the road of the two major streets near our neighborhood. I only remember one kid getting hit by a car and it wasn't even on those streets. He was big boned and did more damage to the car.

            Man oh man the memories are just pouring writing this.
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            • Alyssa Branen
              • 1 year 6 days ago
              • Posts: 4248
              		 Look, here's the honest to gods truth. The world is NOT a more dangerous place now. In reality, the crime rate is actually at an all time LOW since the 70s, meaning it was higher when we were kids. I totally understand wanting to shelter kids, and if parents want to keep their kids inside all the time to keep them safe, fine. If parents want to walk their 16 year olds to the bus stop, fine. That is their peragative and I won't judge them, however, I hate hate HATE when people judge ME because I let my nearly 9 year old son play in the front yard without me. I don't let him leave our street, I let let him ride his bike to the playground at the end of our street and I let him play in the neighbors (the neighbors that have kids he's playing with) yard without me right there. That doesn't make me fat and lazy, it means I trust my almost 9 year old to play without his mom and dad right out in the front yard.



              I mean I can't speak for anyone else here, but my mom and dad weren't fat and lazy, and they kicked myself and my brother and sister out of the house to play without them while they cleaned and did god knows what, as i'm sure most ppl here's parents did. I'm sure most ppl here also had parents that yelled to them outside the door as well. Again, it's actually SAFER now than it was back then, there have been murders, kidnappings, rapes, home invasions, etc since the dawn of time.. we're just a more paranoid nation. We're all SO scared of EVERYTHING...the media jumps all over every little story and it's shoved in our faces. No one wants anything bad to happen, but I'm not going to live my life in fear like that and I don't want my son missing out on an active childhood because i'm to afraid something will happen to him.

              Things can happen anywhere, anytime, do we let the kids suffer over it? I don't. I just teach my son to look both ways, to not talk to strangers, about inappropriate touching and all the things he needs to know. I go outside with my son all the time, and my husband plays football with the neighborhood kids. However, we DO let him, at almost 9, play outside alone when he wants to. He has ground rules. I won't be the parent that walks their 16 year old son to the bus stop because i'm afraid he's going to get kidnapped. You have to let go a litle bit sometimes. Just because some parents let their kids play outside a lone does NOT mean they are bad parents. It's amazing to me, it's like when most ppl reach their 20s, they forget what it was like to be a kid. All of a sudden they have no patience and hate seeing kids do what they used to do..ride their bikes in the street, run around on the sidewalks shooting nerf guns at each other, acting obnoxious. The same shit we ALL used to do, all of a sudden a parent is a bad parent these days letting their kids do that. It's odd to me, especially considering statisticly it's a safer time than it was when we were younger. Kids are overweight now because we don't ALLOW them to be as active as we were. I honestly, to tell you the truth, kind of think that is one of the reasons WHY kids are the way they are today. They are SO sheltered, we do everything for them and hold their hands. They don't learn to do anything on their own, by themselves. It's kind of sad :( Trust me, I am NOT a bad parent. I am one of the most anxious, worrywarts you'd ever meet. I used to worry about my son having a substitute bus driver when his school was only a two minute bus ride LOL. However, my husband has taught me to losen up a bit.

              I realize this was a huge tangent slightly from the original posters post, it just sparked me thinking about how sad it is we don't let our kids have the same experiences we did.
              :)
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