So much of what everyone is saying on this thread also varies significantly by area. I don’t see the children out playing around here but did during lockdown - likely due to the lack of traffic!
I’m finding this thread really interesting.
I was a 90’s child - primary school across the 90’s, started secondary school in 1999.
I remember even at infant school, the teacher would just open the classroom door at the end of the day and we would all run out. My mum waited outside the school gate! No checking who was collecting. I understand and support that changing now! I do think walking to school alone can be a good thing but obviously dependent on child and area. Some areas have masses of kids going to school so much less chance of danger. Location plays a role.
I used to just go “out with my friends, but not until I think year 5, so about 9/10. Before that, I could go to a friends house yes and would sometimes walk myself and be picked up. I lived on an estate but not a council estate, me and my friends all lived about a 3 minute walk from each other.
Once I was just allowed out to play, no phone, I had physical road boundaries (or essentially between one friends house and another) and we stuck to them, played on the green or in a cul de sac. We certainly didn’t play on the railway or with fireworks like a previous poster! I’m not really sure what we did! Sometimes there was a ball, sometimes we were on bikes....I think we just chilled! Definitely wasn’t dawn till dusk, I always had a fixed time to be home and initially I used to have to present myself back at home every hour or so.
I was allowed in my friends houses and certainly taught not to go into a strangers house - I suppose it toughened me up a bit because we certainly came across children who were either older or just a lot more rebellious so temptation was definitely there. I agree that there generally just used to be more eyes everywhere. I probably knew people very 5 or so houses along.
By secondary school, year 7 I would just go “out” but obviously this is when it started to get more interesting and I think everyone knows what unsupervised preteens can get up to. I tbh was lame - my biggest rule breaking was going further than I was meant to. I had to text my parents my location periodically, and certainly if I went tinto houses. Tbh this freedom allowed me to decide who I wanted to hang out with, but as we went into year 8 just “going out” seemed to stop anyway (in my group and this was when it was clamped by my dad- he wanted to know exactly where I was. I don’t blame him or any parent for thinking this. I still went to town etc with friends but it stopped being a case of just going out straight after school to the park.
I was taught to be street wise though by my dad and I’ll do the same with any child I have - so for example in the summer term of Year 6, knowing that I would be getting the bus to school, he took me out to show me the bus time table, how it worked, and took me on a bus ride to town. The next day, I had to do it alone, he gave me some stuff to buy, and told me when to be back. He and a couple of friends parents started letting us go to town for a Mac Donald’s and straight back again on the bus to get us street savvy. I don’t think this was a bad idea. From Year 7 I had a door key and was home alone in the morning and after school for an hour either side.
I definitely think I’ll be more strict in terms of just letting any child of mine just go “out” - I hope I’m not too overprotective though! Time will tell!
One thing I do think has changed in the “freedom to play” aspect is more along the lines of allowing a child to get bored and giving them a chance to make their own fun. Maybe I’m wrong, one thing I do notice these days is the constant need for entertainment among many children.
I use my time in nurseries as an example. A common issue was one parent dropping off and the other collecting. Frequently, the dropper off would hand me an iPad. This is the iPad their child “needs” for the journey home so can I pass it to collecting parent. None of our children lived more than a ten minute drive away but many of them had to have iPad or such accessible for the journey. This is the kind of change I mean - Most of us grew up having to occupy ourselves in the car by staring out the window or talking - no “on demand” entertainment available. Waiting for food in restaurants - similar. Or just time - less time at home to due to so many clubs/ activities / day trips - this is what I think has changed. How many times do I remember saying “I’m bored!” At home as a child and being told to make my own fun - even a lot of children’s toys now have squashed the chance to be creative - Lego is all sets with instructions to make the perfect model - it was once just a load of blocks!
It’s really fascinating to compare the good and the bad aspects of how we all grew up and how times have changed. And how every generation gets their chance to say “In my day.....””We never did that when we were kids.....””Kids today just have no idea....” And i already know as a parent that I’ll likely cave into the screens!
