Myth or Fact: Parents of the 70s and 80s allowed kids to roam free?

[SunZoo]

Absolutely.

And it grew up in the hood, the hood hood so it wasn't like I was in a safe neighborhood moving about.

But I remember being outside ALL day, little to no supervision, like from riding Big Wheel age on up. Once you got to grade school you were basically on don't go past here, home by streetlights, anything in between up to me.

 

[Luke Cage]

Weren't kids getting snatched like hot cakes back then too, I remember seeing bare missing children posters like it was going out of style.

I never heard of anyone going missing in my community. But i remember missing kids on the milk cartons being a thing

 

[malbaker86]

Yup, your parents' friends were just as much the law as your parents too. I'm an early 90s baby and I definitely remember having that kind of freedom too. I think Gen Z is when the helicopter parenting really started.

Lol remember getting scolded if you were with your parents and you walked by an adult yall knew and DIDN’T speak to them? Or if you were without your parents and walked by an adult you all knew and didn’t speak and said adult would call you out? Good ole days!!

also, bonus points for the old school drug dealers who DID NOT allow you to be anywhere near them when they were doing there thing and would send you away with a few dollars to go to the corner store.

 

[patscorpio]

Times were the entire neighborhood knew each other lol.

that's the one thing i shake my head at myself about...i grew up like that...everyone knew everyone, a whole lot of trust...street would shut down for birthdays even cookouts..i dont know none of my neighbors today..total 180

 

[Kasgoinjail]

I wasn't allowed to go just anywhere, that didn't stop me.


Roller skates and bicycles were speeding when you knew you had to get home in 20 minutes and you miles from where u said u were gonna be.

fukk it if u drop u drop

 

[Givethanks]

I never heard of anyone going missing in my community. But i remember missing kids on the milk cartons being a thing

I knew 2 kids that went missing in my neighborhood, one was found and the other I have 0 idea about. This girl told me the year before I was born they found the body of missing girl in the basement of someone's house.

I make fun of my coworkers for air tagging their kids, but I can understand it.

You know things were messed up when their would be commercials about child abductions.

 

[datnigDASTARDLY]

My parents used to send me to the store to buy them cigarettes. We'd come with a signed letter. They stopped that around 1990 though. Plus you'd have friends in like grade 5 or 6 who smoked.

My pops smoked but never sent me for cigarettes. He did send me to get the damn newspaper tho

Every Sunday morning messing up my sleep because you had to get up early before all the papers was gone

 

[Apollo Creed]

From what I heard yes. I grew up in the 90's (preteen and teen years) and we were always outside and I mean OUTSIDE!

We'd leave the house and be gone for hours without anyone knowing where the hell we were.

We didn't come back until dinner time or the street lights came on. It was survival of the fittest

Latch key kids

 

[Apollo Creed]

I knew 2 kids that went missing in my neighborhood, one was found and the other I have 0 idea about. This girl told me the year before I was born they found the body of missing girl in the basement of someone's house.

I make fun of my coworkers for air tagging their kids, but I can understand it.

You know things were messed up when their would be commercials about child abductions.

.kids going missing/running away was huge in the 90s one of them white rock bands had a song I remember about it

 

[8WON6]

I was a kid in the 80s and 90s

We basically woke up saturday mornings, watched cartoons and by noon we was out the house on our bikes. Came back when the sun started going down.

 

[Mordith]

Ah i almost forgot when you had to print out map quest directions for road trips. feel like we;ve been using gps/phones forever now.

This reminds me of when I drove solo from Denver to Virginia Beach in 1997. I had to buy a map from Walmart to plot my own route for the trip.

Shyt used to be real before cellphones and the internet.

 

[Luke Cage]

This reminds me of when I drove solo from Denver to Virginia Beach in 1997. I had to buy a map from Walmart to plot my own route for the trip.

I never used a real map myself.That was a little before my time. i wasn't driving cars until like 2002. Map quest was already a thing at that point

 

[NYC Rebel]

Yes. I was 9 years old, going uptown two hours away from Brooklyn to hangout.

As long as I got back before 9, what could my mom do? Call me? No cell phones.

We had a time

 

[downtheline]

My parents used to send me to the store to buy them cigarettes. We'd come with a signed letter. They stopped that around 1990 though. Plus you'd have friends in like grade 5 or 6 who smoked.

Don’t forget the cigarette machines in the grocery store

 

[NYC Rebel]

Yea. 80s parents def gave more leeway but neighbors were like surveillance so they could always report back of you were cutting up.

Plus, Reagan cut so much shyt that parents literally had to rely on us to do grown ass shyt.

The term “latchkey kids” was born out of that era. Every morning, as a 9 year old, I had to make sure my younger siblings ate and got dressed before walking 10 blocks with them through what was then notorious ass Franklin Ave in Crown Heights to drop them off to day care before walking 13 blocks back to get to my school. All while having my house key tied on a shoelace hung around my neck. Then I had to pick them up before 6 of moms was doing overtime.

“Dont answer the door when Im not here” was the rule.

Crazy shyt.