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The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

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Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#171

Post by mmooss »

GerryAdamsSF wrote: post #55
sfifs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia is fairly mono cultural too. Is it safe?

Yes. Russia is inarguably safer in terms of street crime than the USA. Philadelphia in 2025 had a higher murder rate than Belfast during the height of a civil war. https://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_countries_result.jsp?co... Crime in the USA is also extremely regional and local in pattern.

> Philadelphia in 2025 had a higher murder rate than Belfast during the height of a civil war.

Do you have a cite? In American cities crime is at generational lows, including / especially murder.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#172

Post by moralestapia »

ceayo wrote: post #130
zkmon wrote: post #115

It's not isolated phenomenon.If we look at the larger scale of, say, 100 years, a lot of things are rapidly disappearing. It's actually some sort of extinction that is underway, but you don't feel it on a smaller scale of time. Similar to how Romans wouldn't have been aware of the Fall of Roman empire while it was happening, because it was too slow to notice.

Can you give some examples of things rapidly disappearing?

Sure, here's one!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815127

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#173

Post by FloorEgg »

rao-v wrote: post #168
kube-system wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They absolutely could. A quarter of Americans’ primary job was agriculture in the 1920s. While job specialization was certainly a thing that didn’t mean people outsourced all of these tasks the way people do today.

That’s different from solo gather and cook and repair which is the artificially inflated bar being set here. I know people from multiple parts of the world who grew up on family working farms - specializing very real (esp. gender based)

I'm saying that the number of people doing these things are disappearing relative to the past. Seems to me like you are the one making up and moving bars around.

You said 50%, you said 15-20, you are speaking in absolute terms.

I'm pointing at trends.

Do you deny the trends?

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#174

Post by em-bee »

ryandrake wrote: post #62
amazingamazing wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my kids play outside unsupervised all the time, as do all the kids in my neighborhood. I live in just a regular suburban neighborhood Your kids are hardly free-range. Let me guess, there's no way for them to actually meaningfully leave the area (no train, bus, etc)? It's like dumping kids on a 5 acre farm and saying they can do whatever they want. hardly free-range in the way described in the article. Presumably yo…

Yea, I always through "free range" meant the kid walking (or taking the bus/train) a few miles through the city to get to an actual "other place" destination. Not "playing across the street in the suburban park." If the latter is now considered unusual, we have some big problems!!

If the latter is now considered unusual, we have some big problems!!

it is, and we do:

https://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/mom-charged-wi...

https://reason.com/2025/08/09/child-protective-services-inve...

https://reason.com/2026/01/16/she-let-her-6-year-old-ride-to...

https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrest...

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/parents-investig...

https://nationalpost.com/news/growing-up-independent-is-ille...

https://www.todaysparent.com/blogs/mom-arrested-leaving-daug...

https://legalclarity.org/is-it-illegal-to-let-your-kid-play-...

those are all from the first page of a search for "parents charged for letting kids alone on the playground"

there are probably many more such stories.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#175

Post by projektfu »

KnuthIsGod wrote: post #141

On the other hand, stuff happens. Depends on your risk appetite and your systems tolerance for the inevitable consequences of errors... A 5 year old free range kid on a scooter died outside a nearby school a few months ago. Hit by a SUV Was riding back from primary school on a scooter, without the mother. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-14/islah-metcalfe-rouse-... A massive investigation, police, social services,…

There was no support in the link for your assertion that the mother is likely to lose custody. Money was raised in support of the parents. Your link says two other children were struck at the same intersection before this, and the municipality didn't take notice. Yet you blame the parents for not driving to school instead of the driver of the truck, and the traffic situation?

This is really the problem.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#176

Post by projektfu »

D13Fd wrote: post #124
mynegation wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only people who find this joke funny don’t have any children.

Six kids here, I use the “we needed some backups” joke all the time.

Sounds like a game of Paranoia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game)

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#177

Post by projektfu »

tmseidman wrote: post #128
skrrtww wrote: post #69

> “We work in tech,” she says. “Our kids [aren’t] getting any cell phones, no smartphones, no Instagrams. I write the algorithms. I don’t want my kids to touch those algorithms.” It's disgusting that this has become a casual attitude and admission by the tech worker class. No one should be getting this free pass. "I am actively harming children and society with my livelihood (except my own, because I am so smart). He…

I disagree- I think it's not much different than working at a distillery or cigar company (wrappery?). Social media is a vice not very different than whiskey or cigars- they're addictive, feel good in the short term, and are problematic to have too much or to do habitually. But we still let people indulge in them because they're fine in small quantities for responsible adults, and we expect that parents will not let…

Don't get high on your own supply. Famous advice.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#178

Post by mcastle »

Sam6late wrote: post #150
FloorEgg wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average person's ability to acquire food from nature (farm, hunt, gather) and cook it for themselves. The average person ability to make and fix their own tools. Build and fix their shelter. Free range childhood. Average person getting dirt under their fingernails. Being in sync with sunlight cycle. Stargazing at night. These are off the top of my head (I'm not op).

Learnt how to balance and ride a cycle on my own when I was a kid, and I used to 'run away from home' for 12 hours with other kids, I learnt how to swim after drowning, twice, ate whatever was around, green almonds from trees, grapes from vineyards, but raw corn was painful, I would not advise trying. We tried to hunt with arrows and sometimes used gun powder in a primitive red-loading rifle, but we sucked at it. we…

The dude on your shirt is Mork from the show Mork & Mindy, played by Robin Williams.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#179

Post by projektfu »

neuroelectron wrote: post #129

>What changed? In a 2023 article for Psychology Today, Gray proposed some factors that began reshaping parents’ attitudes and children’s behavior around the middle of the century: “the arrival of television, the rise of adult-directed kids’ sports, the gradual exclusion of kids from public spaces, the declining opportunities for gainful employment or meaningful contributions to the family economy, and, finally, the i…

The takeover of US kids soccer by club soccer is disturbing to me. Generally kids who play are either well off or extremely talented (called "scholarship"?).

I think the clubs suck the fun out of it. Even with the expense, American players perform much worse than players in other countries where the kids have just been playing for fun for years until they start getting paid.

Re: The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood

#180

Post by jandrewrogers »

rao-v wrote: post #135
FloorEgg wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average person's ability to acquire food from nature (farm, hunt, gather) and cook it for themselves. The average person ability to make and fix their own tools. Build and fix their shelter. Free range childhood. Average person getting dirt under their fingernails. Being in sync with sunlight cycle. Stargazing at night. These are off the top of my head (I'm not op).

I don’t think in 1926 more than 50% of global 15-20 year olds could: “acquire food from nature (farm, hunt, gather) and cook it for themselves.” Or “make and fix their own tools. Build and fix their shelter.” (Culturally, those tasks often specialize by vocation, gender etc.)

I don't know about "globally" but I would be surprised if 50% of American males couldn't do this in 1926. These were skills taught to most young males and the country was far more rural. It was far less universal among females though some did learn these skills.

While unstructured, this kind of standard life knowledge was intentionally and systematically passed down to most boys in every community I lived even when in elementary school. It was expected that you knew how to do these things and men would go out of their way to teach you if you didn't.

Kids did fishing, trapping, hunting, building out camp sites, etc for fun when I was growing up and it was generally encouraged. Learned helplessness wasn't really a thing.

This started to die out decades ago. Most zoomers I know didn't have anything like this experience.

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