According to npr.org, children today spend an average of merely 30 minutes per week engaged in free play outdoors. Their parents won’t let them out alone. “Unstructured time outdoors is becoming a thing of the past. There was a time — and it wasn’t that long ago — when kids would leave home on a summer morning and roam free,” reports npr.org. “I knew kids who were pushed out the door at eight in the morning,” writes Bill Bryson of his childhood in the 1950s, “and not allowed back until five unless they were on fire or actively bleeding. That’s what kids did. They went out. Parents let them, and everybody did it.”
“Earlier this year,” reports the conversation.com, “an American mother was arrested for allowing her nine year old daughter to play unsupervised in a park while she finished her shift at work.” When I was nine years old, I rode the Pennsylvania Railroad by myself to visit relatives in another state. Growing up in Brooklyn during the 1950s, we lived on the streets from the age of five. America had a lot of the same problems we experience today—the difference is that the intensity was much lower. Although my neighborhood was considered one of the most dangerous in New York City, we were neither murdered nor abducted. Each day was an adventure.
Before we hit puberty, my best friend and I often walked unaccompanied to the amusement parks in Coney Island, a 20-mile round trip, where we rode the roller coaster, the mechanical steeplechase, and the bumper cars. On the way home, we would stop at Nathan’s for one of their famous hot dogs. We would think nothing of riding the subway to Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan or to the Bronx Zoo. We sailed the ferries from Brooklyn to Staten Island and lower Manhattan. Our parents did not know where we were until bed time.
Danger would occasionally present itself, but we survived. We might be surrounded by a gang of toughs and roughed up a bit. We might be robbed of small change. But that was it. In those days, people respected the police and crime was petty compared to what we have today. I learned that when I was knocked down, I could get up. Thanks to the lessons of self-reliance gained from those experiences, I was able to travel across the country by myself at the tender age of 16.
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“Earlier this year,” reports the conversation.com, “an American mother was arrested for allowing her nine year old daughter to play unsupervised in a park while she finished her shift at work.” When I was nine years old, I rode the Pennsylvania Railroad by myself to visit relatives in another state. Growing up in Brooklyn during the 1950s, we lived on the streets from the age of five. America had a lot of the same problems we experience today—the difference is that the intensity was much lower. Although my neighborhood was considered one of the most dangerous in New York City, we were neither murdered nor abducted. Each day was an adventure.
Before we hit puberty, my best friend and I often walked unaccompanied to the amusement parks in Coney Island, a 20-mile round trip, where we rode the roller coaster, the mechanical steeplechase, and the bumper cars. On the way home, we would stop at Nathan’s for one of their famous hot dogs. We would think nothing of riding the subway to Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan or to the Bronx Zoo. We sailed the ferries from Brooklyn to Staten Island and lower Manhattan. Our parents did not know where we were until bed time.
Danger would occasionally present itself, but we survived. We might be surrounded by a gang of toughs and roughed up a bit. We might be robbed of small change. But that was it. In those days, people respected the police and crime was petty compared to what we have today. I learned that when I was knocked down, I could get up. Thanks to the lessons of self-reliance gained from those experiences, I was able to travel across the country by myself at the tender age of 16.
America today vs. 1950 — what we are missing
Sadly, American kids growing up today are missing developmental opportunities that used to be taken for granted.
