To think children are no longer allowed to live their own lives?

[gussy123]

The ‘what was wrong with the 70s’ thread made me think of this:

I grew up on a council estate in the early 2000s, and I see a lot of what posters were saying about their 70s childhoods in mine. It was basically get out the house, don’t come back until tea— not that anyone would’ve dreamt of doing anything different. On Saturday morning we had to walk into town to do a big shop with our mums, on Sunday some of our grandmas took us to church. Sometimes we were sent out to town to buy things that were needed then and there. Meals, holidays (if we got one), clothes, etc. were dictated by parents and we just got on with it.

I have a significantly younger sister, and the change in lifestyle is astounding. Everything is based around what she’s doing (clubs and things), her friends are only allowed to play in each other’s houses and gardens, just about everything she and her friends do closely supervised— not one of her or her friends is allowed to walk to school (~10 minute walk) alone.

I think children seem to be treated like a separate species! Something that needs to be coddled and made happy at every moment. I know that from about 6/7 onwards I could not wait to get out and do whatever I liked with my friends. Also, crime has consistently gone down if anything, so why are we more and more scared of letting children out alone? It makes so little sense.

I’m not suggesting we start locking kids out from 8 til 8 every weekend, or to make their lives miserable, but I feel as if they don’t get a minute to be completely free and just live!

"
Some children might have experience of what you call "freedom", but don't generalise!
"

Most did, so we can generalise actually. Your family is not typical.

@Gwenhwyfar

" Some children might have experience of what you call "freedom", but don't generalise! "

Most did, so we can generalise actually. Your family is not typical.

so YOUR experience makes it the majority does it If it makes you feel safer, knock yourself out !

Lucille - not just my experience is it? Not just the majority here, the majority in 'real life'. We still have people alive from those days remember, you can't really change history. I suggest you write to a social historian researching your parents' and grandparents' time if you want to prove that your example was the most typical.

I think social media also plays a part, everyday we are bombarded with images of people out doing exciting activities with their kids #makingmemories and all that stuff. It has taken parenting to a whole other level of competitiveness and we feel guiltily if they are not entertained or engaged in some sort of enriching activities 24/7. The kids are usually pretty ok about it, it's the parents that struggle.

@Gwenhwyfar

Lucille - not just my experience is it? Not just the majority here, the majority in 'real life'. We still have people alive from those days remember, you can't really change history. I suggest you write to a social historian researching your parents' and grandparents' time if you want to prove that your example was the most typical.

We don't all come from the same village from the same little island, you do realise that don't you?

"We don't all come from the same village from the same little island, you do realise that don't you?"

If you're talking about a totally different country with a totally different culture (where exactly?) then you can't tell people not to generalise about life in Europe can you?

I don't know the answer and it does appear to be a very different world now in terms of both risk and opportunity. However, as someone with a (somewhat) free range childhood myself I look back with nothing but immense gratitude that I had the chance to do so and did not pay too high a price for it.

I wouldn't swap it for a childhood today. But maybe every generation says that.

Gwenhwyfar

I am talking about plenty of people who have not been left feral in the streets in the 70s. I know it's a big shock for you, but your experience (and even the experience of a few posters on here) don't make it the majority.

That, added to experience from different countries too. This is not "England Mumsnet", even if the main language is English and many posters are from the UK.

I still see that where I am from, kids are so different almost more mature no offence as I love living here as well but they play out more, eat out with family so well behaved compared to what I’ve seen here, out until much later enjoying life. Neighbours still helping out and better sense of community. I can’t move back but in all honesty as much as I like The beauty of Britain I sometimes wish I could.
I see parents taking their kids everywhere here clubs, soft plays expensive days out we do it but it doesn’t make them any happier or seems and definitely something in society has changed but not sure how it will turn out in future for younger generation.

Gwenhwyfar plenty of people, myself included, have said on here that they grew up in an English village, in the 70s and 80s, and were not left to run riot. We played, supervised, in our friends’ houses and gardens. Not out in the street, not off all day with nobody having any idea where we were. My DM did that, in the 1950s, but it had all changed by the 70s.

My parents’ generation were teenagers in Yorkshire during the Moors Murders though, so perhaps families near me were more circumspect about stranger danger.

I was a kid in the 80s and i had none of those freedoms. Only the rough kids played out unsupervised in my corner of East London. I was pissed off at the time but actually i think my mum did me a favour. Lots of them got into drugs, sex etc really, really young.