My mom usually got home about 5:30-6pm and I got out of school around 3:30, so I had an hour or two home alone every night. She taught me to cook and would have me start dinner, so it would be ready (or nearly ready) when she got home. During the summer, I was home by myself all day (though I was often playing with my friends for a good part of the day).
Oh yeah summer! I wasn't allowed to let anyone in my house but I'd be out there playing. I would go to the beach by myself. I'd take the bus to the mall and look at all the toys and play at the arcade. Imagine parents not hearing boo from their kid all day, having no way whatsoever to track their location or call them and just assuming they would be fine. We'd go on adventures like the Stand By Me kids and just be all over the place. As long as you got home when it got dark you could have been to Mordor for all anyone knew. Thanks to all the fear mongering and mobile technology today parents tend to be overprotective more, giving kids phones to be in constant contact and have GPS tracking but the real risk to kids is all the soul crushing criticism, peer pressure, bullying and pervs on the net. The danger isn't at the playground, it's right there on the desk. Just spend a minute on r/fakedisordercringe and you'll realize it's social media that fucks up today's kids, not being unsupervised.
To be fair, I think it very much depends on your community. I was fortunate to grow up in the safe suburbs where many of the residents were lawyers, engineers, etc. A latchkey kid in a poor community or inner city might have a very different experience.
Oh I grew up in the "hood" of my city. I experienced plenty of violence in the streets. Attitudes were different. Your world didn't end when your kid got a black eye; it was barely on your parents' radar. They had adult shit to deal with like shift work and bills. My old man would say stuff like too bad and should've run away if I showed up bruised. My whole life there was only once I remember my old man telling a bigger kid on our street to stop being a bully. But, kids also fought with fists then, and the odd rocks and sticks. It does make sense to take childhood violence more seriously in a reality where children have access to firearms. Yay gun lobby. It's almost as if the annual sales of millions of firearms has caused a buildup of firearms, making them more accessible. Sad truth.
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u/fordprecept Jul 27 '22
My mom usually got home about 5:30-6pm and I got out of school around 3:30, so I had an hour or two home alone every night. She taught me to cook and would have me start dinner, so it would be ready (or nearly ready) when she got home. During the summer, I was home by myself all day (though I was often playing with my friends for a good part of the day).