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

[god shamgod]

Facts

No smart phones with weirdos recording everything,no gps, no texting , no surveillance everywhere etc

I caught a greyhound bus to Cleveland when I was 13

nikkas was outside for real in the trenches

90’s was the GOAT era of history and I miss it everyday but glad to experience it.The whole decade was my youth I was literally a young boa from 1990-1999

 

[ItsPeople]

I was born in 86. For me it depended on your age, but by the time I was around 9 or 10 basically yes lol. Also I remember when my dad was out doing errands or ordering food he would make me interact with people and order my own shyt lol.

He would also make sure I learned how to do the other things he was doing like write a check. Sometimes kids aren't getting these types of experiences I think you need in life now.

Facts. Little stuff like letting your child order what they want and giving them the money to give to the cashier goes a long way in creating confidence and being able to talk to anyone.

They get a little less shy each time. It’s one gem my uncle passed onto me and I let my son do it whenever we out.

 

[timeless]

Circumstantial.

There are kids now who are allowed to roam free. I mean no supervision at all. It just depends on the parent and every kid of the 70s and 80s didn't have a free pass to adventure like movies portray.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

I caught a greyhound bus to Cleveland when I was 13

I live in cleveland and have fam in canton/akron

When i was around that age i used to catch the greyhound to akron on the weekends. It was $16.50 round trip.

My parents would give me $20 on Friday morning and wouldn’t see me again until Sunday evening. And in Akron it was mostly older cousins so i was out doing all types of shyt i ain’t have no business doing. 16 at the strip club cause my older cousin was the bouncer

I couldn’t imagine putting my teenage boy on a greyhound and just saying “see ya later”

shyt sound crazy to me right now

 

[Dzali OG]

As an 80s baby my parents did not allow me to roam free. Had to be within earshot. If I couldn't hear when mom was calling me I was too far.

Did you live in a notoriously bad community?

 

[Dzali OG]

We were outside living off the land like Johnny Rambo.

Eating berries and fruits off bushes. Scraping up 50 cents to get candy for all us. Performing preventive maintenance on our bikes.

When you lived in the city and found a patch of trees by the road you treated that shyt like a safari. Swearing you saw a bear! When there's patch like 50 x 50 of trees in the middle of the city .

 

[nieman]

Born in 80, but "roam free" still had some restrictions. Summer time, during the day, you pretty much were wherever - bike riding to who knows where miles away with your friends, at your clubhouse (we used abandoned lots and houses), at the community centers, the parks, the schoolyards, friend's blocks, malls, arcades, movies...BUT you still had to be back on the block by the time the streetlights came on. But in the summer, that was like 9pm, so...

Throughout the school year, it was on the block or over your friends house, or wherever you normally went coming home from school - most of us walked to elementary/middle school - so the way home was the deli, the arcade, the food shop. Still had to be home before the lights came on, or within yelling distance.

As some others said, while we did roam free, the neighborhood was different and community was a real thing. Unless you were riding your bikes miles away, anywhere else you went, you were definitely seen and someone from the neighborhood kept an eye on you. They all saw you go to the store, wherever you were hanging out, knew your family, knew who you were with last time you were seen, so it wasn't really as "free." You were up to no good, and someone saw you...depending on the level of mischievousness, your parents were told.

The irony is that my gen - the last of the latchkey, we grew up fast. We were grocery shopping as kids, cooking, tending to the house, helping raise the younger siblings all the adult ish, learned how to get around - walk, bike, public transportation - so we were old when we were young. But in some instances, we didn't have full childhoods, but we knew how to navigate. These kids are enjoying childhood longer - a great thing - but they're not adapting to the world as quickly. A 25 year old now, and a 25 year old 20 years ago are worlds apart.

 

[razassin]

Born in 88

I been out on these streets since I was like 5-6

Good thing back then was that everybody knew each other in the hood, so everybody took care of each other

I had a good childhood, I was cool with all the kids, store clerks, crackheads and the old timers posted on every corner



Edit: did have a curfew, had to be back at the crib by 7-8 pm or else had to expect a whoopin from my momma or big momma

 

[Ziploc]

Yes it was but we(speaking for my siblings and kids around us) were more cognisant of our surroundings,the space we moved in and there was more social cohesion in our neighborhood. We knew the people around us and socialized more with the grown ups,they knew who we were so more of a community that we could move through. I moved to a small town age 7 and had freedom to roam around with my friends,build treehouses,climb buildings,build our own bikes, picked fruit from trees,bought cheese,eggs,milk,potatoes from the local farms and played till after dark,we had to be in for dinner but in the summer it wasn't unusual to come home around 9pm,wash up and go to bed. I moved back to the big city at 13. Cried and hated every minute of it for the first year. I had an amazing childhood. My mother moved to the small town because my older brothers got into serious trouble as teens running the streets and she wanted a different life for us.

It made us way more self reliant and independent. I could cook,clean,sow,wash my own clothes and use power tools at age nine. My twin sister could run a household at 10 if she wanted to. My mother was heavy on being able to take care of yourself and not depend on anyone to feed,dress or do anything that you couldn't do for self, that was a cultural thing as well,boys had to know how to be men early, just like girls had to be independent and not rely on anyone to take care of them.

 

[Ziploc]

Born in 80, but "roam free" still had some restrictions. Summer time, during the day, you pretty much were wherever - bike riding to who knows where miles away with your friends, at your clubhouse (we used abandoned lots and houses), at the community centers, the parks, the schoolyards, friend's blocks, malls, arcades, movies...BUT you still had to be back on the block by the time the streetlights came on. But in the summer, that was like 9pm, so...

Throughout the school year, it was on the block or over your friends house, or wherever you normally went coming home from school - most of us walked to elementary/middle school - so the way home was the deli, the arcade, the food shop. Still had to be home before the lights came on, or within yelling distance.

As some others said, while we did roam free, the neighborhood was different and community was a real thing. Unless you were riding your bikes miles away, anywhere else you went, you were definitely seen and someone from the neighborhood kept an eye on you. They all saw you go to the store, wherever you were hanging out, knew your family, knew who you were with last time you were seen, so it wasn't really as "free." You were up to no good, and someone saw you...depending on the level of mischievousness, your parents were told.

The irony is that my gen - the last of the latchkey, we grew up fast. We were grocery shopping as kids, cooking, tending to the house, helping raise the younger siblings all the adult ish, learned how to get around - walk, bike, public transportation - so we were old when we were young. But in some instances, we didn't have full childhoods, but we knew how to navigate. These kids are enjoying childhood longer - a great thing - but they're not adapting to the world as quickly. A 25 year old now, and a 25 year old 20 years ago are worlds apart.

Sounds like the childhood of everyone I grew up with.

 

[Peak]

Did you live in a notoriously bad community?

It had a reputation, yes

 

[Concerned Citizen]

All facts. Parents used to just let me go “outside” with the back by night rule. Used to get into so much fukkery with my friends. Once bikes entered the mix the city was like a GTA map

 

[triplehate]

My dad worked 2 jobs and my mom worked and was going back to get her master's so i was on my own since like 7 years old. One of the reasons I started fukking early,no parents was home in our neighborhood

 

[patscorpio]

as an 80s baby..i will say my parents were more restrictive than most

as kid my parents would not let us leave our street like that...i grew up on a dead end street but it was a street full of kids so wasnt lacking in the aspect..but yeah outside until my mom would call us in to take afternoon naps..then if we went back outside after that, it was until the lights came on

 

[xXOGLEGENDXx]

Fact.
I mean the fact that this was a real commercial on TV almost every night should tell you everything.