Current Events > Why Kids Don't Go Outside Anymore

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2nB0zchM4I

What do you think? Is video wrong? Is it right? Do kids go outside still? If they don't, why?

top comment:

We constantly complain about the lack of independence in young adults, but they were conditioned to lack independence.

Yup, I was going to say issue is stroads.

I watched this video earlier, and I agree with everything as well.

Enclave posted...

Yup, I was going to say issue is stroads.

It's also the lack of places for kids to hang out anymore, as lots of places disallow unsupervised kids--even teens--to be there. The video even cited an incident where a mother was arrested for letting her kids play alone in her own backyard.

As a result, video games and social media has become the last bastion of meeting grounds for kids to play together and socialize.

Solar_Crimson posted...

I watched this video earlier, and I agree with everything as well.

It's also the lack of places for kids to hang out anymore, as lots of places disallow unsupervised kids--even teens--to be there. The video even cited an incident where a mother was arrested for letting her kids play alone in her own backyard.

As a result, video games and social media has become the last bastion of meeting grounds for kids to play together and socialize.

Oh absolutely but a lot of that boils down to how our cities are designed around driving rather than walking or biking.

When I was a kid in the 90s, my mom would let me bike around the neighborhood by myself or play basketball unsupervised with friends >_> Is that weird to do now?

Didn't watch, but surely the question is "why don't parents let their kids go outside anymore?"

NightRender posted...

Didn't watch, but surely the question is "why don't parents let their kids go outside anymore?"

Because our culture has transformed its perception of what a good parent is. Part of that is now that unsupervised play is seen as bad parenting. So it just doesn't happen anymore.

Sad, really. Us older Millenials were the last ones to play outside in the summer, unsupervised.

Along with us losing a lot of third spaces, this is just not healthy.

Plenty of kids go outside, but the amount probably is down. I would say for two reasons:

1) Technology (by that I mean screens)
2) Adults (by that I mean adults suck and ruin stuff for kids in many different ways)

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


no

How old are we talking about kids playing unsupervised?

I think around middle school like 10years old I was playing outside with friends in neighborhood or walking to bus stop or even to school at times without my parents. Back in the days where if you wanted to play video games them you had to go to their house.

Solar_Crimson posted...

It's also the lack of places for kids to hang out anymore, as lots of places disallow unsupervised kids--even teens--to be there. The video even cited an incident where a mother was arrested for letting her kids play alone in her own backyard.

As a result, video games and social media has become the last bastion of meeting grounds for kids to play together and socialize.

This. Is there anywhere in the US that allows kids to just roam around without helicopter parents?

I used to go to the park or bike riding all the time by myself, which seems weird nowadays.

I'm not a kid anymore, so I don't really care. I bet child abductions were higher in the 50s as well.

I think about this a lot.

we live in a neighborhood that is very walkable except there is a major highway a block from the house that you need to cross

technically the speed limit is 30 but it is 8 lanes wide and people regularly go way over that. Some part of me is nervous every time we cross it and I wonder how much freedom Im going to give my kids because of it

nocturnal_traveler posted...

I'm not a kid anymore, so I don't really care. I bet child abductions were higher in the 50s as well.

The video also mentioned that child abductions by strangers is actually rare, but when it does happen, it gets sensationalized by the media, which drives up parental paranoia.

I don't let my child go outside unsupervised because I live in a neighborhood where my neighbors don't care to know others in the neighborhood. When I was a child along with my siblings, everyone in the neighborhood knew each other and the kids were under contact watch so it was okay. Unfortunately my daughter doesn't have that luxury, but I compromise going outside with her after school on Mon/Tues/Fri.

The other reason is definitely technology. My kid is 8 and has a cell phone. She always calls her friends and play games online. And she's okay with that social interaction instead.

-Stroads. Dangerous inconvenient shit
-Less independence. Parents keep kids on shorter leashes.
-Video games and smartphones
-Less places to hang out. Malls, arcades and such have dwindled. Not many cheap places to meet up.
Etc.

Where are kids gonna play?

Especially when adults get pissy and get mad if those kids are anything besides what kids were 50 years ago,

I live in a very small town in the Midwest in the middle of cornfields and soybean fields with farms all around. Traffic isn't an issue. It's a town I spent a lot of time in as a child and we literally played in the streets all the time. Came home after the street lights came on. Unsupervised all day, rode bikes, went swimming in the river (yes unsupervised) played ball, went to the park, went to friends, did all kinds of stuff.

You could tell where we were gathered by the big pile of bikes in the yard at whatever house or area we were at.

I just don't see it much these days. I still see it. I hear giggling, the occasional pair of kids playing catch, they go over to the baseball field at the school and play. I still see kids riding bikes here or there but it is definitely way rarer than when I was young in the 80's.

But these kids have so much more of an online centric social life that simply didn't exist when I was a kid. It's just different. I don't fault them for that.

What in the fuck is a stroad

_____Cait posted...

Where are kids gonna play?

Especially when adults get pissy and get mad if those kids are anything besides what kids were 50 years ago,

Don't you live in Japan? Even my middle of nowhere town has tons of places for kids to play.

Smackems posted...

What in the fuck is a stroad

https://youtu.be/ORzNZUeUHAM?si=2oCvI9RwpyEHuhoS

Bears

Xenogears15 posted...

Because our culture has transformed its perception of what a good parent is. Part of that is now that unsupervised play is seen as bad parenting. So it just doesn't happen anymore.

Sad, really. Us older Millenials were the last ones to play outside in the summer, unsupervised.

Along with us losing a lot of third spaces, this is just not healthy.

Plenty of parents let their kids out unsupervised still.
you seem to be assuming affluent suburbs parents are the only ones that exist.

the real issue is that 1: theres nowhere to play 2: it fucking sucks outside for a variety of reasons including stroads, pollution and climate change and 3: electronic entertainment is literally designed to be more fun, and it is.

NightRender posted...

Didn't watch, but surely the question is "why don't parents let their kids go outside anymore?"

They legally can't and even if they could there's nowhere to go.

as someone who played outside a lot on the street growing up... these pictures of suburbia honestly look like a really nice playground. massive wide large streets for playing ball games or biking or skateboarding or drawing with chalk or whatever, lawns every so often for when you want to sit down, lots of houses around which (hopefully) means good chance to find other kids near your age around to play with

I guess it does have a lot of same-ness to it though, which means if you're playing something like tag you can never take a shorcut through that one backyard or hide on that one porch with the big chair because those things don't exist. So maybe it's not as suitable as it first appears

My kids are outside a ton

A Video that expands on this, sort of. https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustBikes

Werent people complaining they couldnt go outside during Covid lockdowns then when they are free to go outside, they choose not to

kirbymuncher posted...

lawns every so often for when you want to sit down

Until you get shot by some MAGAt moron.

As a parent of a 18 and 15 year old, I find it a lot easier to have my kids venture out into the neighborhood without me with a lot more comfort than my parents would have, even though I had a pretty decent amount of freedom when I was a kid.

Both of my kids have a had a phone since they were in middle school, which allowed us to know their location at all times. There where times when i was a kid where HOURS would go by without my parents knowing where I was other than "out playing with the neighborhood kids".

It's also a matter of trusting your kids to know they won't get into any real trouble.

I didn't watch the video yet, but I imagine they hit on the topic of the illusion of the world being a more violent place than it used to be. But I honestly think that's just a matter of the ease at which information is spread now. Living in New York, if someone got shot in Alabama, you wouldn't know about it unless you read page 20-something in the newspaper. Now, you hear about it online before the body hits the floor.

This just feels like another anti car video. The video is supposed to be about why don't kids go outside anymore, but most of the video is spent talking about how America is too car centric and how we need more walkable cities and proper bike paths.

NoxObscuras posted...

This just feels like another anti car video. The video is supposed to be about why don't kids go outside anymore, but most of the video is spent talking about how America is too car centric and how we need more walkable cities and proper bike paths.

damn you almost figured it out

I had to carry my son about a mile home the other day because he saw a bug.

*sigh*

TheGoldenEel posted...

damn you almost figured it out

lol

I love it when that happens.

NoxObscuras posted...

This just feels like another anti car video. The video is supposed to be about why don't kids go outside anymore, but most of the video is spent talking about how America is too car centric and how we need more walkable cities and proper bike paths.

Weird that anyone educated/knowledgeable on the subject always keeps saying the same things.

It must be the work of an enemy Stand.

They don't give a fuck if kids develop and learn right.

Personal anecdotes. Moved from Florida to NJ.

In Florida, kids would go to the mall or the beach, not much else to do. The only remaining mall is a bougie tourist trap - no theater, few food options, only bougie stores (no Hot Topic, books, Claire's, etc.) Kids had hobbies, like dirt biking, video games, DnD, or literal drag racing.

In my nice military/college town in NJ, there's lots of kids who wander the city in bikes. Unfortunately, I think most of them have parents who kick them out so they can do drugs all day. Most of them are good kids with bad guidance, but they are absolutely the types to break sinks at Starbucks or harass strangers because they're bored. Most people would rather not see/deal with the problem than try to help them or give them something to do.

NightRender posted...

Didn't watch, but surely the question is "why don't parents let their kids go outside anymore?"

Because they get CPS called on them for letting their kids play in the yard.

Just_a_loser posted...

They don't give a fuck if kids develop and learn right.

Most people consider children to be little more than a nuisance, and not future adults.

ChocoboMogALT posted...

Most people would rather not see/deal with the problem than try to help them or give them something to do.

This.

TheGoldenEel posted...

damn you almost figured it out

ellis123 posted...

Weird that anyone educated/knowledgeable on the subject always keeps saying the same things.

It must be the work of an enemy Stand.

I'm not saying that what he talked about wasn't valid. I was just expecting him to cover more issues than he did. Because there's a lot of different causes in there.

Things like technology changing the way kids interact with friends. Or that the falling birth rates mean that there are less kids within the same neighborhoods than there used to be (on my block, I've literally only seen 1 other kid, so that's who my son plays with if he goes outside. Otherwise we have to travel somewhere).

NeonOPPAl posted...

When I was a kid in the 90s, my mom would let me bike around the neighborhood by myself or play basketball unsupervised with friends >_> Is that weird to do now?

My cousin and I used to ride our bikes down country roads when we were real young. One day she was way ahead of me and someone in a Firebird pulled up next to her. He rode around and did the same thing a couple more times. I saw them talking and asked her later who it was and she said she didn't know.

That still creeps me out. I think he was contemplating snatching her and may have if I wasn't there.

I live in a townhouse in a little court and all the kids play together outside in said court.