To those who grew up in the 80s: did kids really have that much freedom to roam, or is that just how it’s portrayed in movies?
To those who grew up in the 80s: did kids really have that much freedom to roam, or is that just how it’s portrayed in movies?
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I grew up mostly in the late 70 and early 80s. Yes, we roamed. In the summers, roamed all day, mom didn’t know where we were, because we often didn’t know where we were going. As long as we were home by dinner, or called to say why were were not going to be home for dinner. When we were in school, at least for me, I might decide to go to a friend’s house after school, and I would go, and sometimes, I remembered to call mom from the friend’s house and tell here where I was.
I had loads of homework most days. But weekends or after I had finished, yeah, I could walk a couple miles to the park or the mall
I remember riding my bike up to 10 miles from my suburban home as a 10 year old. And taking the city bus downtown on the weekend by myself or with friends.
Yes, we could go out to ‘play’ in the morning in summer and our parents had no idea what we were doing all day unless we were at one of the homes…where the mom would just assume she was feeding us all for lunch.
After school, there was a chance you might go to a friend’s house without telling the parents and then show up home for dinner.
My friends and I roamed all over. Home for dinner or a phone call if I planned to eat at a friends house. Home by sunset, then as a teen, by ten on school nights and eleven on weekends.
My parents didn’t give a shit about me, so I had lots of freedom. The kids with good parents didn’t have nearly as much freedom.
IMO, the movies tend to under state it. In the summer, as a teen, I would be out of the house by 9am. Not home until the street lights came on. No cell phone, no money, no responsibilities. It was bliss
Totally legit. It’s important to understand that this was an era where two things were true:
In that scenario, you pretty much have to accept that the kids will be out on their own for hours at a time. But it didn’t seem all that odd. Today, because of cell phones, the idea of someone being unreachable for hours is strange, but it was just part of everyday life then, for children and adults.
70s/80s – we just left the house in the morning and there were no check-ins unless there were special circumstances.
I was already in HS by the 80s, so I was taking care of younger siblings and driving but unless we were being suspended at school, given some kind of medal, or needed a parent to deal with police/emergency room – our parents didn’t really know where we were or what we were doing until they came home from work or sat down after dinner.
This didn’t stop nosy neighbors from reporting in, and we’d sometimes run into other families / other parents in our travels. It was amazing how many times we’d be 30-40 miles away from home at a beach or concert and we’d run into others from our neighborhood. Our groups would connect and travel together, with older neighbors (like me at 16, or others in their 20s) or other parents looking out for and driving the others all home.
Yes, it really was a “come home for dinner when the street lights come on” situation. You’d leave in the morning and just be out all day. It decreased for me a little as I got into reading.
I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, and we did. I generally just had to give my parents a vague idea of when to expect me home and who I’d be with. Mostly just wandered around to various parks/playgrounds until dinner time. I’d let them know if I was going to have dinner at a friend’s house, or sleep over a friend’s house on a weekend. By middle school, I was allowed to take the bus to the next town over to go to the movie theater on the weekends without an adult.
70’s definitely did. I used to deliver newspapers Saturday morning, walk to the train station, hop a train (paid) to my grandparents town (3 hours away), walk the 4 or 5 miles to their house and my parents did not know I was there until my grandmother called them. They weren’t looking for me either. My grandmother called just to let them know. I was 8 when I started doing this.
We roamed the neighborhood until 7th grade. Then we got public bus passes for school and went everywhere. Beaches. Malls. Parks. EVERYWHERE. All our parents knew was that we were outside.
We roamed. Large! Parents didn’t know the half of it.
I was born in 1989 and I was free to roam around without any supervision since like 1993. Never even had a curfew. I walked to and from preschool and school all alone since the first day, and this was not considered unusual or worrying.
Gen Xer, grew up in the 70s/80s. As long as we were back home by the time the street lights turned on, we were cool. And my folks were helicopter parents relative to my friends!
If I was hanging out with other friends, we would wander around town all night when we were tweens.
I grew up in the 80s on the west side of Los Angeles. And yes, we did a lot of roaming on the weekends. We would take public transit everywhere.
I was a latchkey kid with a single mom who worked as a nurse. At 10 I got up, got my little brother up, made us breakfast, made sure he was ready for school and then left on my own as my classes started earlier. He had to get to his classes on his own. After school we had 3 or 4 hours with zero supervision. In the summer the only supervision we had was my older sister who was about 15. She did her own thing so we’d run around the neighborhood with our friends all day.
It wasn’t as awesome as it might sound. Siblings fight and with no parents around it can get nasty. No one to help us if there was a medical issue, we were on our own (my brother once fell on his bike and was crying all evening until my mom got home hours later and saw he had a broken collarbone). We cooked our own food. Mess it up? No breakfast. Get locked out of the house? Enjoy the outside until parents get home. I remember having to walk home from school at around 6 or 7 and getting lost, crying, but suddenly coming across the house of one of my mom’s friends by accident. Otherwise who knew where I’d end up. No one would have known I was missing for several hours.
I roamed in the 90s. Latch key kid, hung out with a friend every day after school and spent every weekend in sleepovers.
I have a kid now the same age and I can’t get him out of the house. At best, he’s sitting on the porch looking at his phone. I try getting him to sleep at other kids houses or invite them to ours, but there’s no interest.
My parents never knew where I was. They might call my friends parents if they didn’t see me at least once every 24 hours.
In the 90s we roamed too. As long as I called my mother from my destination and was upfront with what I was doing and where I was going, all while not failing in school, my parents were cool with me doing anything. And it only cost a quarter to make a call back then. Or a friend’s house phone.
I was born in 1976 and oh yeah, we roamed. As far as my bike would take me and still get home at 5 pm sharp, for dinner, because that’s what time my stepdad got home from work.
If I spent too much time at home, I was flat out told, “Get out and DO something.”
Mom didn’t know what I was actually doing, and as far as I know didn’t really care as long as I didn’t end up in handcuffs and was out of her house.
My mom was considered very overprotective, but even I still had a 1 mile radius I could ride around in (basically stay within the neighborhood). I’d ride by myself to the local comic store, computer store, etc.
Late 70s/early 80s kid here. Totally real. Be home for dinner. After dinner, be home when the streetlight comes on, or let mom/dad know you’ll be at the Saunders house after dark.
In my experience, yeah it’s on the money. Weekend and summers, I don’t think I really saw my parents much. I was basically shoved outside when I woke up and only allowed to come to the house for food/water/bathroom, and only a few times. We’d explore way out in the woods, riding abandoned old canoes on the lake, etc. Mind you, I was maybe 8-10. lol. I think how tethered we are to phones now is why it’s so nostalgic. You had no choice but to be in the moment. No phone, nobody could bother you. Things are okay now too, but I don’t think I’ll ever not want to go back.
Before the internet, people were less worried. We didn’t know about all the horrible things that happened to the same degree we do now. I was 14 when I travelled alone abroad, staying with friends of friends of friends of my parents, or some family who had hosted the daughter of someone else a couple of years ago, in other words, pretty much perfect strangers. (There were companies who organised holidays abroad but they were expensive and sometimes dodgy).
Pretty much true. I was out and about on my bike with my friends. Video games were fun back then, but could only hold your attention for a couple of hours. We just bounced from house to house and didn’t ask for permission. Just said, “I’ll be home later.” Of course, I’ll watch a show like “Stranger Things” and even I’ll ask, where are the parents?
I grew up in the 90’s and didn’t lead an extraordinary life, but I’d still say yes.
Hell you should have seen us in the 50s!
My kids used to make up a bottle of orange squash, some jam sandwiches and set off on an “adventure” on their bikes. I worried every minute they were away but they always came back happy, dusty and tired to tell me all about their day. They are both in their 40s now.
My parents never knew where I was from about the age of 9 on. Much of the time I’d go build forts with my friends in the unmaintained areas of a local park 8 or 10 blocks away.
There are adults sleeping and doing other things there now, so I don’t think the situation is comparable.
(By the time I was 12 I was also taking the bus all over, including over the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, without pre-clearing it with parents. That kind of independence is one of the grat joys of growing up in the city, and my kids got to experience it too.)
I was in high school and driving in the 80’s. My parents rule was leave a note where I was headed. I was not to leave the county without advanced notice. I. E. I could drive up to the college town with friends so long as I said so in person the night before.
Would head to my mates place in the next village about half my evenings after school (3 mile bike ride) younger than that, happily out on the local field or the other side on waste land building dens+making bows/arrows. All that is absolutely how it was even till early 90’s in fairly quiet UK town.
Would happily take a bus into town or to elsewhere. There were summers where I’d practically live a friend’s place (knackered, old caravan on his back garden him+friends basically took over) for at least half the week.
Would basically agree it’s understated in movies.
I took public transportation by myself at 7 in NYC in the mid 80’s. My brother and I used to ride our bikes from upper Manhattan to Yonkers from age 9, by ourselves during the summer. My parents were too busy working and handing life to be closely involved in my day to day life so we were left on our own a lot! As a parent now, I’d never let my kids do anything that my parents allowed me to do at a young age.
West hill Toronto. we wolfed down our meal in 1 minute. First one out would holler and whistle to announce to the street gang playing had to start. The only rule parents had was when the street lights came on get home. We were about 5-10 yrs old . The ditches , broken branches, graveyards , a back yard , piles of rocks, behind the stores were all top on the meeting places. We ran everywhere allthetime.
I would literally get kicked out of the house “go play outside”, go wherever. Just had to be home by dark.
We literally got naked in abandoned houses in the middle of the woods while skipping dinner
Yes it was, maybe more so. I would some days be miles from home in the woods or riding to the nearest convenience store. I even went out late at night, I don’t think my parents knew about that though.
Free as the wind. Sunup til sundown.
Small town, everybody knew who we were.
Yes, between the age of 10-18, at different apartments and eventually my parents first house, I roamed far and wide. I was taught not to play with wild animals (bears and wolves, aka to me big looking dogs) to respect other ppl’s property. And lastly to always be home for supper. I work well in the countryside and small towns I live in.
In the summer, we’d grab our bikes and just…go. Sometimes really far away. Just ripping around. But not home before dark? You ded.
I was under ten in the 80s and living in a really bad neighborhood so my parents didn’t want me or my half siblings leaving from in front of our house but the neighborhood kids would roam the entire neighborhood. When my mom and I moved to the suburbs I was limited to the two townships which were about 10 sq miles. So I basically lost my mind from 10-13 due to the freedom. My teen years I moved back to the city and basically went wherever public transit would take me.
Yep, off in the morning, back for tea time or before the street lights came on. Good times
My rules from 7th grade on
Don’t get arrested
Be home before we go to work
They literally had to create PSAs to remind parents that they should know where their kids are after 10 PM.
You better believe we had freedom. Adults had their world, kids had theirs, and they didn’t have much to do with each other. Legal age for alcohol was 18, cigarettes were everywhere, and we roamed far and wide. It is sad that kids these days aren’t very independent-minded.
Yep we roamed. A lot of times parents would tell us to go outside and play, so we did.
All my friends had to go in when the street lights came on. I didn’t have that.
I also didn’t have chores or a bed time. But my parents didn’t really parent.
Yes we traveled miles from our homes on our bikes at 8 years old every single day after school.
My old neighbors had a story that they used to like to tell. They were older folks and had some friends over for tea. When they excused themselves to the kitchen, their guests told them that a baby wearing only a diaper had just pushed open the screen door, and crossed the room to where the candy dish was located. He carefully took one hard candy from the dish, replaced the lid, and then slowly waddled back outside. My nieghbors simply told them, “Yeah, that’s little bershirker from next door.”
That baby was me, and not only did I apparently walk around our neighborhood unaccompanied before I could even speak, but I also knew where the candy was next-door and had enough opportunities to take one that my randomly wandering into their home had become an everyday occurrence.
And I grew up in a normal middle-class family with both parents. My dad was a minister and my mom, a nurse. Neither of them remember this happening, of course. They were and are fantastic parents, and now shake their heads when this story is told. Neglecting your kids back then was just what happened when adults were busy.
I grew up in the 60s, early 70s. My kids grew up in the late 80s, and 90s. And even then they had no phones and were limited as to how much time they spent gaming or watching tv. 2 hours per day. But so were their friends in the neighbourhood and they were gone for hours at a time on their bikes or skateboards doing who the hell knows what. As long as they came home happy and still had their limbs attached it was all good.
I grew up after the 80’s, but still was basically left to roam the neighborhood. Especially during the summers when my parents would be working and I’d be off school. Sure I was supposed to be at the Boys and Girls Club or being “watched” by my older brother…. but really I just ran around and did whatever I wanted/could.
I lived in Chicago (the city proper, not the burbs), and I would regularly just go off and do whatever I wanted. I would go to the lake, or downtown, all the time.
I was born in 1972. I honestly think it’s more than portrayed in movies. My mother had no way to reach me once I left the house. I just needed to be home when the streetlights came on. I had access to the “T” greater Boston’s public transportation. My friends and I were all over the place.
Yes.
In ways you can’t possibly imagine.
I was explaining this to a 7th grader whose dad still cuts up her meat for her. Not only were we able to roam and had freedom, if something bad happened, it was our fault no matter what. We should have been smarter, we shouldn’t have been there, we shouldn’t have been wearing that, etc. Which, honestly, wasn’t always fair, but it did teach us something about being in command of our own person at all times. Like, literally, if you went home to mommy and complained that you got robbed or touched, they would punish YOU for not avoiding it properly.
More was expected out of us in all facets of life. We were expected to solve our own problems and face our own consequences. If you were out screwing around and got in trouble with your buddy, after your mom and dad chewed you out they would promptly chew out your buddy for letting you get in trouble and “YOU KNOW HE WILL DO STUFF LIKE THAT!!!” and the like.
The idea that anyone over 10 didn’t have 5 important phone numbers memorized, a general understanding of how to get from point a to b in the town/city they lived in, how to use a phone book, a pay phone, public transit (when available), arrange your own transportation with friends and family, etc would have blown people’s minds in the 80s. They would assume you grew up dangerously sheltered. You all, right now, are growing up dangerously sheltered yet exposed to all manner of nonsense on the internet. What a paradox to deal with. Don’t get me wrong, we 1000% percent would have looked at internet porn starting at a young age, we didn’t get that luxury, so we started touching each other as soon as it was feasible. Like all generations before us. The benefit to that is we rapidly needed to contextualize our sexuality as it relates to others. We didn’t have the option of staying at home with a glowing porn box or snapchatting our privates. We had to do it the old fashioned way, in the back of a car or in some public place or snuck into some girl’s room.
Man those were the days.
I grew up in the 90s and 2000s and was allowed to go basically wherever by myself from about age 7.
Yeah, it really wasn’t that different than how it’s portrayed; hell, elements of it still existed when I was growing up in the early aughts. During the summer I’d finish up my chores for the day, have a quick lunch, then get on my bike and go roam around the neighborhood with the other kids until 7pm or so. Admittedly this may not be very representative of the broad state of things during that time since I lived in a fairly small, geographically-isolated town, but nevertheless.
Idk about the 80’s but in the late 90’s I was supposed to walk home from school but there was no one home to make sure I did. No one home til 4-5hrs later. Mostly hung out at friends houses but could have been up to any kind of shenanigans.
It was legit like that. My dad was overprotective (or maybe ahead of his time), and would go out looking for me if I wasn’t back by dinner time, but more than likely I would be in the tree by our apartment building. So he didn’t have too far to go
I’d walk miles and miles on my own. When I got a bike, I’d visit uncles and comic shops too far too walk too.
Once, when I was 8, I disappeared all day with the neighbor kids, and we went to work with 1 of thier dad’s.
My family was looking for me all day. No cell phones. I barely got in trouble. A strong talking too is what I’d call it.
I have kids around that age now and it’s hard for me to imagine them just roaming around all day with no contact.
I grew up in the 90s. Every summer day ages 11-13 was the same formula.
Wake up at 6 to go fishing with my friends. Fish til 9. Ride my bike back home to play Sega until about 10. Ride bike to friends house to watch sportscenter, and a bit of price is right. Spend the next 6-7 hours outside playing whiffleball, riding bikes a mile away to get baseball cards, riding bikes to find crawfish in a stream, throwing rocks and sticks at each other, etc. Then we would fish until dark. If it was Sunday, we would watch Sunday night baseball. If it was Monday, we would watch Raw.
The funny thing is that parents today think this existence isn’t possible.
Kick your kids out the door at 9am. They will be fine.
Roamed everywhere. Came back for dinner and at sunset (in summer). A lot of moms were stay-at-home, but they certainly weren’t out observing us. Only time I got in trouble is when I admitted I went to a creek near my house that I wasn’t allowed to go to (as it ran high at times) because I had brought home some crayfish.
All true. I’m from Australia. There was a four-year old on my street who would wander over and hang out in the yard with us ‘big’ twelve-year-old kids. It was just taken for granted that we’d watch out for him, which we did.
Born in ’84, and by about 10 years old, I would leave the house at 9am, come home for lunch, and head back out until the street lights came on. Mostly was either playing hockey in the streets, riding bikes in the nearby woods, or hanging out at a friend’s house. Parents didn’t really know for sure where we were because… well, no phones. Definitely got away with stuff that I wouldn’t be able to now, but also, wasn’t really a problematic kid, so didn’t do anything “bad,” per se.
From the time I was 6 years old, most summer days were spent leaving on my bicycle to go to swim practice, spend most of the day at the pool (with a bag lunch), ride our bikes to a store and ice cream shop about 4 miles further away and as long as I was home by dinner, my parents had no idea where I was. All of my friends ‘roamed’ in the same way. After dinner, I would leave again to find my friends on the street and we would play until dark (sometimes after if we borrowed our dad’s flashlights).
Yep it was like that. We were chased out right after breakfast, sullenly fed lunch if we had the temerity to return home, and not expected back until the streetlights came on. Dinner was often a paper plate of whatever mom and dad had a couple hours previously wrapped with tinfoil. We ate a shload of apples off my neighbor’s three apple trees during the course of the average day. No one at home had a clue where we were.
I grew up in the 90s and I roamed. I was only allowed around our immediate neighborhood until I was around 9/10, then I was okay to go bike through the forest preserve at the edge of the neighborhood. Otherwise, the kids were all at the park or around the houses all day, going home when the street lights turned on.
I do know parents were getting more paranoid around then. A lady kept seeing me play with her kids at the park, and asked where my parents were. Thinking nothing of it, I told her they were at home. She freaked me out a little bit when she followed me home in her car one day and handed me an envelope to give to my mom. I never got to read it, but I know it upset my mom (she later told me the woman wrote a letter about how horrible of a parent my mom was). Not sure what the lady’s end goal was. All that happened was I avoided her and her kids at the park from then on.
My parents seldom knew what county I was in. They thought I was at the library.
Don’t know about the 80’s but in the 70’s I’d often ride my bike miles from home without telling anyone. Never got in trouble as long as i was home by dark.
I had to tell my mom where’d I’d be after school, and if I wasn’t home by planned time I had to call her and let her know. Driving on the weekends – she got a call at midnight letting her know my plans. Otherwise – if I wasn’t at work or family business after school, I was doing pretty much whatever crossed my mind. It’s amazing with that much freedom (or perhaps because of it) I didn’t get up to more mischief.
Hang onto your cerebrum because yes. It was true.
I look back and think: “am I demented, or did my fairly strict mom really let a 10-year-old walk into town, crossing two sets of railroad tracks and several vacant fields, with another 10-year-old so they could go to an ice cream shop, and the drugstore, and buy jeans on account at a locally owned, not chain, department store (another thing from bygone years)? Did we really have NO cell phones at all, and therefore no way for anyone to pinpoint our location? And then we walked back home? Am I remembering this shit correctly?!”
It was a different world.
Total freedom. Have a kid, feed a kid, off goes the kid. I was walking to school with other 4-5 year olds. At six I wouldn’t even consider coming in till dinner. Never mind the teenage years. I don’t think I saw my folks much after I was ten.
We weren’t just free to roam but had to go outside. Mom would flip off the TV, say we needed to get out into the sunshine and practically throw us out of the house. So every kid in the neighborhood was out trying to find something to do. We explored canyons, built forts and got into mischief. If you were bleeding, you could stop into any house and the mom would patch you up. We all became very self reliant. I’m surprised we survived all the shenanigans.
Be home by dark.
Nope, pretty accurate.
The best modern depiction of The Eighties I’ve ever seen is The Americans, by the by.
I would roam all day on my BMX bike with my friends, exploring.
I needed to be home for dinner.
Yes, I grew up in Richland WA in the 80’s and early 90’s and it was like mad max desert anything goes as we were in Hills West and the rivers (the delta) and rolling scrub brush hills were our playground.
It was wild and my parents didn’t really care. It was open door policy with other parents and since there were no cell.phones, computers, or Internet it was crazy fun just being outside getting into trouble.
BMX bikes, bb guns, hitting 7-11, arcades, radio controlled cars, pick up games, blowing shit up.
The original NES didn’t come out until I was in 3rd grade, lol.
Roam? You mean traveled.
I went on all day bike rides North, South, East, and West. I once rode my bike to the beach 30 miles away and got a flat tire. I went into town and found a bike shop. He looked at me (12 years old) and the bike (one speed) and asked “You rode this from WHERE?” He fixed the flat for free out of pity.
Sometimes I didn’t get back till the next day but there were six of us so one gone was not that big of a deal.
My parents had absolutely no idea where I was until the streetlights came on. They didn’t care in the slightest.
My friends and I would leave our houses in the morning, ride bikes and go to the arcade all day, then be back home for dinner. It was awesome. We had all the freedom in the world.
more than true. No one I know wanted to be at home unless it was mandatory. Be home for dinner (or go hungry), after that, be home when the streetlights come on.
I’d leave the house on my bike and not come home until dinner. When my parents asked where I was going, I’d say, “out.” That answer worked for my parents 86% of the time.
80s/90s kid here. My neighborhood wasn’t ideal for walking in (too much traffic, no sidewalks), but my brother and I were allowed to stay home alone for at least a few hours at a time, by the time we were in middle school.
I also started babysitting when I was 10, and got my first real job when I was 13, at the local video store, which I had all through high school.
Summers were easier, because I lived in a small, very touristy beach town, and from about the age of 10 or so, I was allowed to wander. I pretty much knew most of the local shop owners, because they either went to school with my dad and/or they had kids my age, so there wasn’t much “stranger danger” (I have heard the town has changed quite a bit though, so I doubt I’d be allowed to do any of that today)
Without reading through the other responses, media doesn’t do it any justice. There’s a reason GenX is called “feral.” We, practically raised ourselves and we’re educated in the school of hard knocks.
I went everywhere!!!!!!!
It’s real.
I was born in 86 and grew up on a lake that was surrounded by cottages. The cottages all had kids my age. Everyone’s parents worked during the day so we were just a band of unsupervised kids mostly all summer until someone came home and fed us lol.
I found the show Stranger Things to be very true about what being a teen/ preteen in the 80s was like. We kind of told our parents, and mostly we were where we said- but then we got older and they didn’t really care or check- so we lied and did whatever we wanted.
Lots of us had parents that worked, so no one was around to micromanage everything, and most of us had jobs as teenagers as well, so we had our own cash and friends- busy social lives with work, school, sports, and friends. We were never home, and no cell phones meant no one was really keeping too tight a leash.
Our parents had no idea who we were or what we were doing.
‘Mom, can I go to the library” ‘Sure’. I then had to decide which one. The smaller one closer to my home was a 15 minute bike ride – all on major city streets where we had to know to be responsible to get there in one piece or the bigger one which was a 30+ minute bike ride across town, or 2 bus trips (with transfers) and start off with a 10 minute walk to the stop – and several major intersection crossings.
We had to know the traffic rules and be responsible – we went alone or with a younger sibling. It wasn’t even a consideration that the parent would come with you or drop you off, even if they had nothing else to do.
Yes it was really like that and now that I reflect on those times, it was an amazing experience. . I would be outside all day getting involved in all kinds of shenanigans.
Late 80s/early 90s here. Yes. We used to play outside for hours. Sometimes even to places that are a bit far from home (ie 30 minutes walking distance). As long as I was back before sunset my parents didn’t mind.
I was completely feral. A child of divorce my mom worked all day then went out nearly every night. Not having many friends I just kind of bummed around my neighborhood not really going further than a couple miles from my house to walk through woods, break bottles down a drainage ditch, just killing time and reading.
I used to ride the New York City subways by myself in the 70s when I was 12 years old. And I can assure you, the New York City transit system was orders of magnitude or back then than it is today
If I tried that with my kids, I’d be up on child abuse charges.
It’s genuine. The rule in my house was “Don’t go past the McDonald’s, or the Kmart, and come home when the street lights turn on.”
So in other words, I could wander anywhere in a three radius of my house. I just had to he back before dark. And, the radius rule was never checked on. I would go as far as I was willing to ride my bike.
This was still absolutely the case in the 90s for me, i would play out in the local streets and round on the hillside/forest in the local area aged 7/8, and then when i was older (10+) and had moved nearer our town I’d often be out all day on my bike, push scooter or rollerblades with my friends.. was all fine. I’d tell my mum I’d be seeing a mate, but rarely would that involve just going to their house. Just did whatever! I walked a mile to school and back every day from age 11. Never a problem! Didn’t have a phone till I was 16.
My family was overprotective compared to peers and I had free run of the town as long as I stayed on one side of the highway and was home by streetlight time.
But I was a child in the 90s, and could roam like that from nine or ten on.
Even in the 90s. We used to show up at each other’s houses and just go. In walking distance of course
This part keeps being ignored when people talk about population decline but being a parent in previous decades was a lot less demanding in a lot of ways
We would get on our bikes and just ride everywhere and / or go out into the woods and build forts. Yes, we were pretty much unsupervised all summer.
Sometimes I wouldn’t even come home for days. Just a phone call to tell my mom which friends house I’m staying at that night.
Pretty much. Mom kicked us out to spend time outside fore most of the day. I could wander the neighborhood, walk to school, go to the park or pool, wander over to a friend’s house, or the corner store all without my mom knowing where I was most of the day. We didnt have cell phones so basically the rule was to be home by a certain time or call from a friends house if I planned to stay out longer or go somewhere unsual for me. I actually really miss those times.
Even in the 90s, we just did whatever we wanted, most times up to no good.
90’s weren’t much different. Used to go out and play touch football for hours in the street, then head off to the creek nearby to fish up some perch, or to a buddy’s house.
Video games were couch co-op only if 2p and cell phones didn’t exist. Hell, the only internet we had was later on and we got it for free from KMart on a disc lol.
well we had to stay on the property & still show for meal times & to do our chores but otherwise be home by dark
I was a farm kid and the property was 1 mile x 1 mile plus my uncles place was next door too & we had horses, mechanic/welding/blacksmith shop and a creek with a beaver pond so us kids plus our cousins got up to a bunch of shenanigans
I’m surprised more of us weren’t kidnapped and never see again. I shudder at the “freedom ” I had….more like neglect.
It’s STILL like this in some areas and small towns, but yeah – this is how I grew up. Even into the 90’s early 2000’s.
as long as I was home for meals I was never questioned as to where I was from about age 10 and up.
It’s not portrayed enough, at least compared to how I grew up. We’d leave after breakfast in the summer, raise hell all over town until we got hungry. Then we’d make our way to this park that always gave out free lunches for poor people. And when you’ve been running around playing tag throughout your school’s entire campus that dry bologna sandwich, still-green banana, generic bag of chips, and Shasta hit the spot.
Not a word of a lie in the following paragraphs.
1989, Age 11, I’d wake up at 8am on a Saturday, put two water bottles in my bottle holders on my 12 speed mountain bike, put £2-4 in my pocket and ride out to assemble the lads.
We live about 5 miles from Dartmoor, so we’d ride up there, swim in the rivers, jump off the quarry walls into the clay pits, ride for miles and miles, stop at a pub for a coke in a glass bottle and then plan to be near home as it started to get dark.
Put the bike away, get the football out and play until someone yelled at us for it being too late to play football.
I’d go home, some sort of food would be dried up in the oven, I’d eat that while mum said, “where have you been today?” I’d reply “just out”
She’d smile and head back into the front room.
I was a country kid. literally no friends within several miles of me. Even then at some point in elementary school my folks got me a small 3 wheeler ATV. I would rip ass up and down dirt roads, thru wooded trails and sometimes on the old paved road even though that was forbidden.
Wrecked it once in the woods, was flying down a trail and rear end caught a part of an old fence laying on the ground like an arresting hook on an aircraft carrier. I flew over the handlebars and was out cold for a while, did have a helmet on at least so didn’t crack head fully open. It would have been a long time before anyone recognized i was missing and then found me.
Of course this I was raised by parents that had more freedom than that. My dad would tell stories about growing up in the 30s. His mom would bake biscuits in the morning, tell them to fill their pockets with them and then they weren’t allowed back home till dinner. His brothers once tied him to a tree (he was the youngest) and left him all day. They just roamed the woods if there wasn’t some work to be done.
I was a child of the 80s. On the weekends, I would head to the park near my cousins and we’d play until just before dinner.
When I got a little older, about 12, I could walk home from school myself. On the weekend, a friend of mine and I would walk to the mall and hang out for hours. The Nature Company and The Museum Store were right next to each other and we played with every thing they had out. 😆 Those metal puzzles where you had to separate a piece kept us entertained.
So definitely not exaggerated. 🥰
yes, and freedom to be left alone if you choose without.
the 70’s were even better, we didn’t even have a landline back then so the only way we found out if someone wanted to come out to play was to walk/cycle to their house, if they weren’t already out playing in the street.
Yup.
I would regularly forget to tell my mom that I wasn’t coming home and she would have to wait until I cared to show up. All she could do was ask me to please phone if this is happening.
Sometimes, when my teenage brain wouldn’t let me sleep, I’d take a three hour walk in the middle of the night.
90s kid. During the summer or school breaks if I wasn’t at home my parents had a vague idea of where I was. And unless I was being punished or had what to do as long as I was home at a reasonable hour and didn’t get picked up by the cops nobody really batted an eye
Most of my childhood was in the 2000s and I roamed freely lol
Come home before dark, and no questions were asked. Complete trust that you knew what you were doing.
We did not. We got into construction sites, deep into the woods, broke into abandoned houses, stole cigarettes from convenience stores… whatever popped into our heads.
That generally stopped once we discovered girls. YMMV
I grew up in the 90s, and we definitely did. I grew up in Imperial Beach, SD county, CA. So I can’t imagine is was that different just 10 or 5 years from when I was born. We also had that kind of freedom when I was a teen in the 2000s, so…you be the judge. I imagine that the paranoia that exists exacerbated by our always online, always monitored, always watching…phone/sound/drone recording world…has made our safety concerns for our little ones feel so overwhelming that the idea of our kids roaming around…where people can record or stalk or monitor them from afar through various means…for whatever reason…something that worries us to the point of not letting our kids out of our sight and safety for long.
I was a free range kid back then. Went all over the place.
It varies on the area you lived in. From my own small town experience in the 80s, yeah, we roamed all day. Built forts in the forest, went swimming in a lake or river, went fishing, rode my bike wherever. Zero supervision, but we were only allowed to play by the river after taking swimming lessons. So, not TOTALLY reckless.
My fellow sibling of earth, I was born in 1990. From age five until I moved out my only rule for playing outside was be back before the streetlights came on.
It’s been studied.
Did they have more freedom? Yes. Because their parents did not/could not focus on them. Some think it’s a good thing and that modern parents are too soft/coddling. Others will point out that Gen X tend to be… bad parents, so maybe their experience wasn’t the best….(as evidenced by how modern Millenial parents do not use the same parenting style their parents used)
As children in the 1970s and 1980s, a time of shifting societal values, Gen Xers were sometimes called the “Latchkey Generation”, a reference to their returning as children from school to an empty home and using a key to let themselves in. This was a result of what is now called free-range parenting, increasing divorce rates, and increased maternal participation in the workforce before widespread availability of childcare options outside the home.
Strauss and Howe, who wrote several books on generations, including one specifically on Generation X titled 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? (1993), reported that Gen Xers were children at a time when society was less focused on children and more focused on adults. Xers were children during a time of increasing divorce rates, with divorce rates doubling in the mid-1960s, before peaking in 1980. Strauss and Howe described a cultural shift where the long-held societal value of staying together for the sake of the children was replaced with a societal value of parental and individual self-actualization.
Out all the time. Riding bikes in my dressing gown. Jumping between motorway bridge girders. Exploding railway charges. Scrapping. Made me.
I rode my bike across town to the library once I learned how. It was great
I grew up in the ’90s. The kids in the ’80s absolutely had tons of freedom to roam. We had quite a lot too.
I remember the summer that me and my 3 friends trekked down the Royal River to see a dead body. I’ll never have friends like the ones I had when I was 12, Christ does anyone…..
Dude seriously, by age 8, in the summertime I’d be out the door by 6 am for swim team either on my own or in charge of my sibling for the day then wouldn’t see parents until 5-6 pm at the earliest, sometimes not until the next day or two if I slept over somewhere for a night or two. There were occasional check in phone calls, some adult likely knew our general location etc but yeah, me and all my friends grew up like that to varying degrees.
First time sibling and I were left home alone for multiple days over a weekend I was 11, sibling 9. But also by that age I could prepare basic meals and did my owl laundry etc
We got ourselves into and out of all kinds of crazy shit and we definitely should have had more supervision 🤣
Born in 76 for reference
Yes.
It was probably more wild and worse than how the movies show it. At least that’s my recollection.
We left whenever and wherever we wanted as long as we came back before its dark.
I could have gone to the moon and back if it were possible, so long as I was home by the time the streetlights came on for dinner.
Yes. It was nuts. Both my parents worked and by age 7 I was just left at home all summer. I smoked my dad’s cigarettes and drank his beer.
The movies make it look too well communicated and planned.
Even in grade school I was out of the house all day every day. Everyone I knew was somewhere in town. No money (usually), not even parents had cell phones, no nothing.
We would, no joke, find change under the high school bleachers, and near other areas we knew to check like under stairways and random places that coins tended to collect, and go buy junk from the corner store. No recycle center nearby so we didn’t collect cans.
If I didn’t tell my mom “i’ll be home late” in the morning – then I’d go home after school and leave again. usually till dark or dinner.
If anything changed, we’d hit up the nearest friends house and make phone calls if we needed to.
Sorta, see once you were out the door your parents had no way to get a hold of you other than calling around neighbors or other parents to find you. Also many house holds had both parents working, so kids were on their own for several hours after school.
So yeah whether it’s the goodies,stranger tings or 80’s based stuff the free roaming is mostly accurate, the crazy adventures not so much. Mostly you road your bikes to the corner store or school to hang out. That or you played in the woods /exploring. Nothing major excitement but it filled up time. That or you roamed the mall.
When I was 5 years old I was allowed to walk around our neighborhood by myself.
Well, not really “allowed” per se, but my mom would leave us home alone at ages 5, 7, and 9 so I’d roam where I pleased.
Shit I was born in the 90’s and we were still able to do this. Leave the house whenever, come back when the sun was going down basically. Ride as far as we could and back on our bikes. Go to friend’s houses, pick up football or basketball, whatever we could do that would entertain us. Parents felt pretty safe about their kids at the time, and if we were in the house too long they would get annoyed.
It was exactly it’s portrayed in my case. Almost zero supervision. We were a an afterthought where the day to day was concerned.
UK and yes.
We had to be home by dark and not go off with strangers.
Most of my time was spent riding my bike round town and the woods.
When I got older, and phone cards and pagers became a thing, we used to just say we were OK at a friend’s house.
This lead to multiple ferry trips to France, Belgium and Amsterdam at what I know know was a bit young.
90s kid here from the UK. I went wherever the hell I wanted on my bike.
I think from like 5 on, I was able to ride my bike wherever I wanted with my friends without supervision
Yup! For me we were allowed to roam as far as we could walk/bike, as long as we were home when the streetlights came on, or had called to say we were at someone else’s house and how we were getting home after dark.
Born in the late 60’s. I have nothing to add to this except to say DITTO.
So much so they came up with a campaign to curb it.
https://youtu.be/iq6b8e78EpA?si=GOhD5YlqOhD_TJLu
We had lots of freedom. Just had to be in by the time the street lights came on. It was such a good time to grow up
I’m a 90s kid myself. You could ride your bike to the transit terminal hop on a bus to the next city. Go to the cinema and maybe the rollerink or arcade. And be back home by 8pm on a Saturday. All on $20. When I was 13.
But I’m a girl and had a curfew. My brother 2 years older then me, just had to be home by midnight.
Literally just ride my bike around, used to walk around town. I kept change in my pocket to use a pay phone if I needed. Used to play in the creek a lot and houses being built when construction wasn’t there.
Even though my childhood home was in an area known for some petty crime (b&e mostly), my dad and a few others hand bought early in a developing neighborhood and had some control over who bought lots and moved in. Sort of an enlarged cul-de-sac.
Within those streets I and the other kids if the neighborhood had pretty free rein.
Summers and holidays had spontaneous pool parties, playground (elementary school at one street’s end) adventures, woods roaming, group bike rides, etc.
Just a check in every now and then – “Hey mom – gonna be at John’s house today”, “heading to Smiths for the pool”, or just finding our own entertainment in whoever’s yard was the best. Often ours, but also a few with really good climbing trees, an outdoor clubhouse/shed, tetherball, a badminton/volleyball net, etc.
Streetlights on, time to head home – or at least a check-in call if you had to finish that game or the host family had the kids fixed for supper…
I grew up in the 90s and we still had that kind of freedom in the town I lived in (in Maryland). We’d bike to the beaches and play in the woods. We had tire swings and tree houses and wooden bike ramps through out the neighborhood and we’d play kickball in the street. I’d say it was mostly kids ages 8 and up that had that kind of freedom in town.
Majority of the people in the town knew each other or their families so you couldn’t get away with much trouble or it would get back to your parents quickly. Our boundaries were just the major traffic roads that we weren’t allowed to cross. We had at least a 2 mile radius of house lined streets we’d roam within.
So much freedom
I was born in the 70s. In the 80s, especially on summer break, I was expected to be outside playing all day unless there were chores I had to do. Watching TV or playing Atari, during the day was against parental law. So we got on our bikes and went wherever we wanted. Total freedom. 80s kid rules = Don’t get hit by a car, or molested, or in trouble with the cops, be home for dinner, make sure any chores were done BEFORE mom or dad got home.
You still do (by and large) have the freedom to roam as kids did at that time. Kids lives are just significantly more structured around their parents.
Even in the 90’s it was way more free.
By the time I was a middle school, my roaming area was a very generous 10 square miles of rural forest neighborhoods and the town.
By the time I was in high school, my roaming area was “as far as you can go and get back before dark”. Once I had a car, that was essentially larger than Massachusetts.
No Cell phone. No GPS. No tracking. Just blissful freedom.
Now I can’t even send my kid to the corner store without risking them coming home in a cop car and me having long uncomfortable chats with CPS.
Yes, we had tons of freedom because back then, the news didn’t focus on bad things like they do now.
Except public rest rooms, my mom was so afraid of someone cutting my junk off in a public restroom room that she constantly checked on me or had strangers check on me.
It’s scary thinking that there men all over the place cutting off little kids junk, then having a strange man come up to you and say “hello, are you John Doe? Your mom is outside worrying about you”. I was constantly afraid that someone was going to cut my junk off and make it into a keychain or something.
Yup. From like 12y.o. during the summer I left the house at around 9am and wasn’t home till 6pm for dinner. What I did in between was up to me so long as I was home for dinner. Even during the school year I just had to home by 6pm. Born in ’76
As an 80s kid it was normal to ride a bike at 13 and then later skate 6+ miles away to visit friends, ramps, or record stores.
There is a reason why the TV would say, every damn night, “It’s 10pm, do you know where your kids are?” The answer was usually no in my house.
I grew up in the 90’s and all the time after school and on weekends, I would play outside with my friends until either the street lights came on, or I could hear my moms really loud whistle to let me know it’s time to come home. Life felt so freeing back then. Didn’t have a cell phone back then, either. We didn’t have to worry nearly as much as we do now.
I grew up in 90’s Canada and we would leave on our bikes at 9am and come home at 9pm in the Summer.