AIBU to think 80s parenting was often hands-off and unsupervised?

Yes i loved it is wasn't micromanagement nor did my parents get hysterical if I ate a packet of crisps or didnt go to my school all guns blazing because I wasn't lead in the school play or interfer in friendship dramas

Parents back then just got on with things and dodnt have endless guilt or a need to control

And somehow most of these children managed to become literate, independent adults!

There was just enough independence for their childhood to be interesting and stimulating, but enough adult involvement that they learnt to be responsible and independent

Yep, that all sounds familiar (apart from the drinking).
Playing outside for hours - in rivers, streams etc. Going for bike rides as far as we could go.
They just didn't seem to worry about things like drowning.

I wonder, have rates of mental illness in young people really soared? Or do we just listen to young people now, take notice of their anxieties and problems, care how they feel, gather more data about them, and try our best to help/get help for them?

My children were born in the 70s. I definitely didn’t drink alcohol but did have friends over for a cup of tea! My children didn’t go out to play either but would play in each others gardens (with us mums there). Food was much more limited and home cooked as ready made food was so much more expensive. It probably sounds boring now but didn’t feel like it at the time 😂.
They were happy days. I did not go to work and was able to stay at home with my children so was always around and I am sorry that so many mums today do not have that choice as finances are so much tighter now sadly.

But we are seeing it a generation who can't cope with the real world

You literally said that the parents of the 70s/80s were just as lazy as the parents of today. I massively disagree. I think giving kids ipads as a way of not having to deal with them is lazy. I think the way we were raised was healthy.

Are you saying that mental health in young people is no worse than it ever was, we're just recognising it more? I'm not sure that's generally accepted as being the main cause.

The thing I would say about access to tv in that period is that it did not include 24 hours a day of children's tv. You had some set times, early morning, a bit at lunch, Saturday. Daytime tv if you were sick from school was cooking shows and soap operas. Evenings had adult sit come and dramas.
So if you wanted to watch tv with your parents in the evening you learned to enjoy adult tv. But often kids did something else rather than get mesmerised by 24 hour kids tv.

This is a lot like my upbringing in the 80s. My parents looked out for us, provided a good environment, and we did some family things together, dinner every night, bike rides on some weekends, we had some extracurricular activities. We were ready to before bed and usually went to see a play once a year.
But to they didn't play with us, (why would they?) we were quite free to go wherever wanted on our bikes, generally expected to figure out our own problems and friendships, if we took the bus somewhere and lost our way we had to find out own way home.
Overall, I think it was much better for kids than it is now.

My mum was always busy. Busy decorating. Cooking. Sorting. Helping old people. Doing pt time work. Gardening.
We were encouraged to go out to play all the time, even though much of the time it was boring and the other kids were boring. But they were also more strict than other parents, so we weren't allowed as far as other kids- which made us he weird ones. Never saw my mum really drink. Rarely saw my dad at home after 7pm. I thought all dads preferred the pub. Blew my mind that other dads stayed in. I used to be very shy around them.

I think some of my parents' parenting was better than mine. I think some of mine is better than theirs.

Kids blame their parents for everything anyway.... until they become parents and grow up and realise that we can move on from our childhoods. Whatever mine did, they gave me the tools to become a competent and happy adult. If my kids manage that, I've done ok.

Personally, I think there's a huge difference. Back then, they knew we were out having fun with our friends, bonding with our siblings, playing in nature, riding bikes, being creative building dens, laughing, socialising, developing independence. Parents who hand their kids a tablet and leave them to it are knowingly causing damage to their kids, turning them into zombies, hindering their development. There is a massive difference. I wouldn't put them anywhere near in the same class as "lazy".

I'm actually quite bemused tbh that you think it's the same.

I posted this on another thread today which I found really interesting!
https://siliconcanals.com/d-research-says-the-1960s-and-70s-accidentally-produced-one-of-the-most-emotionally-durable-generations-in-modern-history-not-through-better-parenting-but-through-benign-neglect-that-forced-ch/

But that's just because there isn't a stigma attached to it. It certainly isn't all young people.

I'm a 60s child and my mother spent a lot of time doing things with me. I was an only child and would play outside a lot with my friends, but our parents always knew where we were, we didn't just wander off whenever we liked as children. We didn't have a TV for several years of my childhood, I remember watching it at my grandmother's house but not very much. I don't believe my parents, or my friends' parents, were lazy. They encouraged us to amuse ourselves, but also did things with us. I used to go to the library with my mother, and we would go for walks, visit her friends, go shopping together. My parents weren't drinkers though. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, which I loved to do.

Sounds like my childhood and I was born in 96 lol

Pretty much the same. Born in 1967 so it was the 70s, but the experience sounds similar.

Both parents worked, so I spent a lot of time especially holidays with my gran. There was a burn or small river by her house so I spent a lot of time playing there. Rock pooling making dams, falling in.

Children at school always seem to have had stookies or plasters from fractures - we all wrote and cartoons on them. Scraped knees and bruises.

On holidays dad would take me fishing in his 12 foot boat - great fun.

Bicycle rides, tearing down the hill down to where we lived. Brakes aaaaasaaagh. A brother who enlisted my sindys into the parachute regiment with handkerchief parachutes. Mary Queen of Scots Barbie - remove head!

I was 7 in 1980 and this sounds a lot like my childhood, except my parents weren't big drinkers and going outside was a choice. My mum read lots of stories and we went to the library every week - I grew up with a great love of books. I don't remember her reading to me once I could read myself, but I didn't want that anyway.
My mum was very present around us, but not usually playing with us. She'd be gardening or lying on a sunbed reading while we roamed around in the garden and the streets nearby. She spent longer doing household chores than I do, but we would often follow her about and chat to her. I didn't expect her to play - I had my sister for that, and the neighbourhood kids, and I was quite creative. We did play board games as a family though, and I loved that.
We spent a lot of time watching TV - there were no restrictions on that in our house. It could be quite bonding as a family because the whole family would watch the same evening shows at the time they were broadcast. We definitely spent more time in close proximity than my family today.
I liked the way my childhood was, with the 'benign neglect', and I always encouraged my children to go and play outside. Unfortunately the lure of computer games etc. meant that they were often desperate to come back inside though and so they ended up with less freedom than I gave them!

To put in perspective.. I was fortunate to be in Africa recently and the very knowledgeable guide told me that when they got home from school village mothers would kick them out and they would go and track lions !

I was born later, in the early 90s and this was my childhood too. No idea if this stemmed from the thread about screen time or not but I said something similar on there anyway. My brother and I watched lots of TV, he also had consoles so played on those a lot and when I was older we got a PC so I’d be on that constantly. On long car journeys we had personal TV/DVD things when they were invented. At the weekend my Mum went to the pub and we were forced to socialise with the other kids there. We never went to museums, art galleries, on walks, to the cinema, theatre, library etc. I was like Matilda and took myself to the library as soon as I could. The only time I went anywhere remotely cultured was with school. I didn’t go to an art gallery till I was an adult. I also did play out a lot, yes and my Mum had no idea where I was (nor did she care to be frank).

So my DC spend more time than ideal on screens but at least I know they are, they’re safe and they regularly go to museums and art galleries!

The way your op describes it, it doesn't sound like you were very happy, almost comes across to me that you think your parents were a bit neglectful? Sorry if I've interpreted it wrong. I think kids and parents alike were happier in the old ways of upbringing. Nobody is happy anymore. Parents are stressed, teenagers are anxious and depressed, young kid glued to ipads.