Okay, this isn't as off-topic as it may seem. I originally wrote the following bunch of words for this (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=298473) thread but decided I might as well just start my own:

I love reading these threads. There's something nostalgic about it I guess and I'm a sucker for nostalgia. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I don't really have a creepy or riveting story to add that I experienced, but there is something on my mind tangentially related to a lot of the posts in this and other similar threads here...

You hear a lot of people say that kids don't play outside anymore. Whether it's because their parents are protective because of fear of predators, or because they're too busy inside on the computer/phone/game console/etc (or both), there's this somewhat widespread feeling that the kids of today are far less in touch with "nature" or just the simple pleasures of life than those in the past -- particularly those born before, say, 2000. Is this even true, though? There's some kids on my block and they do play outside sometimes, but I feel like I did a lot more in my youth. I was always skateboarding, biking, hanging out with friends, playing various games outside... even making a lemonade stand several times!

Now, I was only born in 1990, but like I said my childhood was pretty outdoors-centered. And it's not like I lived on a farm or in some rural area; on the contrary, a relatively populous city/suburb just a short drive from NYC. Sure, I played on the computer, especially as I got older like 10 or 11... but I always went outside as well. There was always that sense of adventure and fun and endless possibility (or at least it seems that way today). I don't even remember much concern about predators or any nefarious characters trying to do something terrible to me or my sisters or friends -- though I'm sure that stuff was all over the news in the 90's. If anything, I remember being more afraid of fantastical things -- ghosts, monsters, witches, lions and tigers...

What do you guys think? Is there any truth to the belief that kids play outside less nowadays? If so, why? If not, why not?

Do you miss those innocent childhood days of playing outside? I sometimes pine for them in these completely digitized days of sitting inside on the computer so much.

Same age and I also used to play outside a lot as a kid. I remember the innocence of it and having a lot of fun (I lived in a suburb of Los Angeles County with plenty of people). In all that time, I only had two incidents that kind of shattered the security of it, one being a time a guy said something very vulgar to my friend and I after we gave him directions and the other being when a truck full of men stopped near another friend of mine and I at night and obviously had plans to do something. We turned out fine in both cases and at 10 and 12, respectively, at the time of these incidents I suppose it was time to learn that bad things can happen even if it seems really safe. I definitely always had more fears of someone breaking in than grabbing me out on the street.

I see way less kids playing outside nowadays. Perhaps it's the burst in technology on top of paranoia? I see even high schoolers being dropped off at school rather than being allowed to take the bus or walk alone.

I definitely miss the good, old adventurous days when my friends and I would pretend we had mysteries to solve without another care in the world. Last night I went walking around the city alone and felt more worry about it than I care to admit. I miss the innocent days, too, and also feel I'm on my computer a lot.

For me, my neighborhood has become majority Asian over the years so things are different here now.

These kids have almost no recreation. The more Americanized Asians have told me that strict Asians highly prioritize education.

Most of the younger ones stay in school until 6:30pm and then they're home the rest of the night. They even go to school on the weekends. So there are almost no kids playing around my area because most of the kids are either in school or are at home studying.

For the summer most of them are put into summer camps. These aren't the recreational camps, these are more like schools where they do mostly work.




I grew up in the 90s and I was very outdoors, as were the local kids. We played baseball, kickball, dodgeball, tag... we even made up our own games.

We also had block parties every summer, every neighbor knew and looked out for one another. We don't see that anymore.

I used to play outside all of the time. I was born in the early 90s, and as a kid I was always out playing, even till late hours.

Kids in my neighbourhood play outside as well. I always try to keep an eye on them when I can. If I see them talking to strangers I wait till the stranger leave etc.

I still see alot of kids play out on my street everyday after they get out of school. It scares me though because their parents really don't watch them and I live in this mopey neighborhood where the scum of the earth love to cause trouble or speed through the streets without a care. I'm afraid of someone hitting them or kidnapping them.

When I was a kid, myself and the neighborhood kids would play out on the streets and cul-de-sacs and on the playground and near the pond. We never had any problems and had fun, but there was this one incident where a creepy man approached me, my brother and my mom's friend's son. He asked us if we could help him plant tomato seeds in exchange for money. My brother and mom's friend's son ran off real quick and I told the man that I'd have to ask my mom first and then I walked away. As I did, the man chuckled and quietly mocked "you got to go ask your mom first...pfff". My mom obviously and directly told me "no" when I asked her if I could help the man. Growing up and later realizing that day, I feel the man was a pedophile of some sort and myself and my brother and friend could've been molested had we not walked away from the man.

Parents obviously still let their kids play outside in this day and age but due to all the paranoia and kidnappings in the 80's and 90's, parents are more cautious about where their kids are and who they play with. They don't want their kid(s) to end up like Katherine Korzilius or Somer Thompson or Corrine Gustavson.

Same age and I also used to play outside a lot as a kid. I remember the innocence of it and having a lot of fun (I lived in a suburb of Los Angeles County with plenty of people). In all that time, I only had two incidents that kind of shattered the security of it, one being a time a guy said something very vulgar to my friend and I after we gave him directions and the other being when a truck full of men stopped near another friend of mine and I at night and obviously had plans to do something. We turned out fine in both cases and at 10 and 12, respectively, at the time of these incidents I suppose it was time to learn that bad things can happen even if it seems really safe. I definitely always had more fears of someone breaking in than grabbing me out on the street.

I see way less kids playing outside nowadays. Perhaps it's the burst in technology on top of paranoia? I see even high schoolers being dropped off at school rather than being allowed to take the bus or walk alone.

I definitely miss the good, old adventurous days when my friends and I would pretend we had mysteries to solve without another care in the world. Last night I went walking around the city alone and felt more worry about it than I care to admit. I miss the innocent days, too, and also feel I'm on my computer a lot.
Interesting post. I think you're probably right as to the reasons why kids play outside less now. It might not even be paranoia/fear of child predators as much as the overall climate of fear that's been around since 9/11. I remember the first Halloween after that, there was a noticeable big drop in kids going out trick-or-treating. Which is understandable cause it was just a month later and there were crazy urban legends in the NYC area at the time like of terrorists blowing up malls or wrecking havoc in suburbia or doing just about anything terrible one could conceive of. But even several years after all that, and to this day, every Halloween there has been SO many less kids ringing the doorbell than there were pre-9/11. When I was younger you'd hear the doorbell every couple minutes for the whole night; last year, we got maybe 5 visitors at all. It's sort of sad.

Anyway, your stories just reminded me. Something "dangerous" did happen to me when I was a kid playing outside; although it was not at all life-threatening, it definitely made me think about how to trust or not trust strangers. I was 10, playing outside my front yard with my friend on a sunny September afternoon after school, messing around on my skateboard and he on my bike, when two slightly older kids (maybe 14 or so) came down the street and started talking to us. They seemed pretty cool and nice enough, so my ten year old-self thought nothing of one of them asking to try out my skateboard on my street after several minutes of chatting. I let him, and then watched in disbelief as he skated down my street along with the other kid and never returned. I ran inside breathlessly relaying the tale to my parents and, long story short, we took it to the police and they found the kid... there was going to be a trial... here I was, this 10 year old all dressed up in fancy clothes and rehearsing my story carefully, etc. lol. but the guy settled out of court and I had enough money for a new skateboard from my parents that Christmas. Nothing life-shattering or particularly disturbing but it really shook me up at the time because it was the first time I had a complete stranger (who seemed so nice, to boot) deceive me to such an extent, not to mention rob me of one of my then-most prized possessions.

We also had block parties every summer, every neighbor knew and looked out for one another. We don't see that anymore.
That's another thing. Neighbors generally aren't as close or friendly as they used to be, it seems. Everyone's a lot more fragmented, just going about their own business. I don't even know what to chalk this one up to as I doubt most people think they're living next to a bunch of terrorists or even predators. Technology might be a factor here as well, insofar as it seems to make people less interested in or have less time for face-to-face interaction. Back in the 90s, it was common to go to a friend or neighbor's house and just ring their doorbell and see who was there if you wanted to hang out. Now because of cell/smart phones and the internet everything's very sanitized, very worked out in advance, and you don't see that kind of spontaneity.

Maybe just the technology itself creates more paranoia? When you can look up the crime in your neighborhood very in-depth on sites like trulia, or can of course see where exactly the RSO's live, it makes people more likely to trust their neighbors less, I suppose.

Man, I miss the pre-digital age. It's made a lot of things far better and far easier and far safer, no doubt, but we've also lost a lot of our humanity in the process IMO.

EDIT: That's a really creepy story, 1990 UM Fan. Those kinds of just-escaped "what-if" stories always make my blood run cold. There is a trade off, definitely, with the climate of paranoia comes all the expected downsides I've been discussing, but it also makes kids more aware of danger. I imagine in the 50's, say, that same situation might've been seen as perfectly benign and many kids might've been happy to help out the man. It's a slippery slope, between paranoia and safety.

I'm not buying any "climate of fear" explanations. With all due respect it comes down to two very simple things: the abundance of technology that is out there and how accessible it's become compared to 20/30 years ago and the demands placed on children today in comparison to the aforementioned timeframe.

Children who were born in the late nineties that are now in their early teens know only of a world with text messages, cell phones, internet and of course a preponderance of video games.

There are many factors as to why this is so from technology now being far more accessible and affordable than it was for the generations of youngsters who grew up in the eighties and nineties. I remember a time when purchasing a video game was a huge deal, it was something you saved up for or put on your holiday wish list. That just isn't the case anymore.

There also seems to be generally speaking more of a "Keeping Up With The Joneses" type atmosphere in middle class America that may have not existed as strongly say thirty years ago. It seems that parents buy their kids more and more stuff these days because their neighbors already have it and they don't want their kid to be left out. I don't know if that makes much sense but I believe it's something that is happening out there.

A lot of kids today really do live their life from "screen to screen". They know the television, the computer, the Xbox and whatever else they got and that is how they choose to occupy their time. Thirty years ago there would be less choices available to youngsters as to how to occupy their time so many of them would take to the streets to run around or play ball or whatever.
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Their is also the issue that youngsters coming up through our school systems today find more demands on their free time than our generation did. There is more homework and parents tend to get their kids into more after school activities. There certainly seems to be more of a competitive nature with regards to raising children now than say thirty years ago and in my opinion it may be robbing this generation of youngsters of their childhood as parents and teachers both are striving harder than ever to make kids grow up faster than ever before.

The point being: Less free time for youngsters equals less time they have to go outside and play.

I don't think kids play outside these days for all the reasons mentioned. You also have homes where both parents work, the kids are in afterschool programs, they get picked up, go through the drive through and then off to organized sports activities. Kids can't just be kids these days. They don't have a clue what it is to play ball with the neighborhood kids in a vacant lot or in the yard...its all organized with uniforms and trophies for all...ok, I'm going off on a rant.....

I know I've said in other threads that I watched my kids carefully. But when the 2 oldest(boys) were in middleschool I did loosen up. We lived out in the country. near the river. Those boys and their cousins the same age roamed those woods and river swamps. They camped out in tents in our yard and played manhunt all night in the field behind our house. They weren't into sports, but they loved this. In fact, it was something they did until they were finished with school. This was in the 90s. I wasn't afraid. The most I worried about was snakes and gators. They still talk about all the fun they had.

I'm not buying any "climate of fear" explanations. With all due respect it comes down to two very simple things: the abundance of technology that is out there and how accessible it's become compared to 20/30 years ago and the demands placed on children today in comparison to the aforementioned timeframe.

Children who were born in the late nineties that are now in their early teens know only of a world with text messages, cell phones, internet and of course a preponderance of video games.

There are many factors as to why this is so from technology now being far more accessible and affordable than it was for the generations of youngsters who grew up in the eighties and nineties. I remember a time when purchasing a video game was a huge deal, it was something you saved up for or put on your holiday wish list. That just isn't the case anymore.

There also seems to be generally speaking more of a "Keeping Up With The Joneses" type atmosphere in middle class America that may have not existed as strongly say thirty years ago. It seems that parents buy their kids more and more stuff these days because their neighbors already have it and they don't want their kid to be left out. I don't know if that makes much sense but I believe it's something that is happening out there.

A lot of kids today really do live their life from "screen to screen". They know the television, the computer, the Xbox and whatever else they got and that is how they choose to occupy their time. Thirty years ago there would be less choices available to youngsters as to how to occupy their time so many of them would take to the streets to run around or play ball or whatever.
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Their is also the issue that youngsters coming up through our school systems today find more demands on their free time than our generation did. There is more homework and parents tend to get their kids into more after school activities. There certainly seems to be more of a competitive nature with regards to raising children now than say thirty years ago and in my opinion it may be robbing this generation of youngsters of their childhood as parents and teachers both are striving harder than ever to make kids grow up faster than ever before.

The point being: Less free time for youngsters equals less time they have to go outside and play.


I agree with all of this but the part about keeping up with the Joneses. :) I actually think there is LESS of that now as the idea of a homogenized society has become more archaic. There will always be people who define themselves by what they own, but I think the notion of "everyone on the block has a bmw so we must have one too" is dying out in most levels of society as individuality is embraced as a positive trait instead of the negative it used to be.

If kids are getting what they beg their parents for, that isn't necessarily keeping up with the neighbors as it is a change in parenting techniques. Like you said, stuff is cheaper now so kids truly don't have to work for it like they did in past generations when a toy or game was more of a financial sacrifice.

I'll also throw it out there that kids these days also have to deal with more allergies than before - I know a few kids that don't play outside because it'll make them sick. Not to mention some people just simply aren't outdoors people - one doesn't have to spend a lot of time outdoors to be active, after all.

If anything, "Stranger Danger" made people realize that it IS dumb to do things like let your kids play in the front yard unsupervised. Sure, some parents probably overreacted but I think most people learned that with a few small changes kids could still have freedom and play outside AND be safe.

I grew up in the 80's and 90's and I played outside alone frequently. I was not allowed to leave the block I lived on but I had a lot of freedom outside. My parents were always working or too busy to have much to do with me. I was always too afraid to go beyond the boundaries they gave me.

Now I only allow my kids to play in our secure backyard unsupervised. The open front yard..no. Door has to be open at the very least.

I agree with all of this but the part about keeping up with the Joneses. :) I actually think there is LESS of that now as the idea of a homogenized society has become more archaic. There will always be people who define themselves by what they own, but I think the notion of "everyone on the block has a bmw so we must have one too" is dying out in most levels of society as individuality is embraced as a positive trait instead of the negative it used to be.

If kids are getting what they beg their parents for, that isn't necessarily keeping up with the neighbors as it is a change in parenting techniques. Like you said, stuff is cheaper now so kids truly don't have to work for it like they did in past generations when a toy or game was more of a financial sacrifice.

I'll also throw it out there that kids these days also have to deal with more allergies than before - I know a few kids that don't play outside because it'll make them sick. Not to mention some people just simply aren't outdoors people - one doesn't have to spend a lot of time outdoors to be active, after all.


Good points, although I don't agree there is some valid stuff in there and a more than reasonable way of assessing the situation. Truth be told, the emphasis put on materialistic possessions may have something to do with where an individual or family chooses to live than anything else.

I grew up in a highly competitive environment especially in the school system where students competed with each other over grades and about everything else as well. This competitive atmosphere still exists today from the best that I can tell over both matters of importance and matters of no importance. I'm not sure how else to explain it except to say that kids around here end up with a truckload of stuff.

The allergies point is very valid. It's actually a real eye opener as to how many kids are allergic for example to peanuts. I honestly can't remember anyone when I was school age having an allergy to peanuts as almost everyone ate PB&J once in awhile. But this is obviously no longer the case.

probably so.I was born in '65,and beleive me,we did a lot more outside than ppl do nowadays.
that said...do any of you think you'd be outside more if you didn't have today's technology? a computer,iphone,ipad,ipod,or whatnot?
OTOH,sometimes these very things DO get us outside more,like taking pics or video with them. :)

My girls love their technology but still like to play outside. We played outside growing up all the time but lived out in the country and had only a couple channels on tv and not much else to do inside. My 11 year old daughter summed it up perfectly a few days ago (when telling her she had to play outside where I could see her from the windows) "I wish I could roam the neighborhood without being kidnapped or murdered". A sad state but true....:(

I was born in 1976 so I was definitely outside all the time when I was a kid. I'd go over to neighbors' homes and vice versa and we would ride bikes, walk around the neighborhood and play ball. My grandfather got an Atari through work, I had a miniature Frogger arcade game, but I wasn't indoors constantly playing video games.

My neighborhood is mostly made up of older people and young couples with either no kids or babies, but the newer housing development right across the street has a lot of kids and whenever the weather is nice, quite a few are outside playing. These are younger kids, around 6-10, I hardly see teenagers unless they're walking or skateboarding.

I don't think society being more fearful and knowledgeable about child abductions, and technology is the only reason it seems less children are outside. More kids these days do organized activities, whether it's through youth sports leagues, play dates, church outings, etc. A lot of them are hardly ever home. Then add in the kids who are at daycare while parents are working---kids are still getting out, they're just getting out other places besides home. You've also got to take into account kids who live in city neighborhoods as opposed to suburbs---I would think they're outside playing in their yards or in streets even more.

Born in 1980 here. We played on the streets till the cows came home, especially when we were pre-teens. Street hockey all the time. It was very common to come home, organize a game with your friends and wait until your mother's called you in for supper. After supper, more street hockey until you got called in to bed. In reality, our parents didn't have to keep an eye on us.

I don't think I'm the only one who didn't come home from school right away. Sometimes it wasn't until closer to dinner. My mom never worried. She knew I was at a friend's house and had all the numbers. Or I took off on my bike. I did that all the time and would be gone from my parents supervision for multiple hours. They never worried. Wow, simple times. I was 9-10 years old when I did stuff like that.

I guess when we were kids the big thing was Nintendo. We had TV too, but Nintendo was something that kept kids inside at times too. It isn't as if my generation didn't laze around either because we did at times, but it just seemed like we were outside a lot more because there was so much more freedom with us, it seemed. No cell phones (aka electronic dog leash), your own parents never even knew where you were sometimes and just assumed you were with a friend. They never worried. You never checked in with them unless you were calling to tell them you were staying for dinner at a friends house. You walked home from school alone or with friends. You climbed trees. We had much more challenging playgrounds. Does anyone remember the playgrounds with the tires and chains? Here no more. It's all plastic now. I don't remember kids getting hurt on those either. I mean, it was a tire, a smart kid knew where to step.

Okay, does anyone here remember the days when getting a ride home from school (elementary mostly) was a big deal? I remember. You would hop in the car the first chance you got. No walking home. That happened rarely for me. I walked to and from school until high school. If a buddy of mine had his mom pick him up I tagged along. But it was a big deal.

Also, I remember a girl in grade 8, just 20 years ago pretty much got universally mocked because her father would walk her to school and wait for her afterwards. This was 1992 or so. I have a neighbour who walks to the school everyday to bring her 13 year old daughter home. My kids aren't in school yet so I have to ask, is this a normal thing to do nowadays? I started walking home alone in Grade 1.

Okay, does anyone here remember the days when getting a ride home from school (elementary mostly) was a big deal? I remember. You would hop in the car the first chance you got. No walking home. That happened rarely for me. I walked to and from school until high school. If a buddy of mine had his mom pick him up I tagged along. But it was a big deal.

Also, I remember a girl in grade 8, just 20 years ago pretty much got universally mocked because her father would walk her to school and wait for her afterwards. This was 1992 or so. I have a neighbour who walks to the school everyday to bring her 13 year old daughter home. My kids aren't in school yet so I have to ask, is this a normal thing to do nowadays? I started walking home alone in Grade 1.
There quite a few kids who walk to school where I live. Our middle, high and main elementary school are set up in a triangle and each is within walking distance from each other. So a lot of kids around that area do walk to and from school. When my mom lived in a neighborhood close to each school, I would walk to her house (I lived with my grandparents) after school let out. Sometimes it would be with friends, sometimes alone. This was back in the late 80's/early 90's. There are a lot of neighborhoods in the county where a school is within walking distance so it's quite common for kids to walk. These days though, it's with parents if the kids are in elementary school.