Millennials Are Weighing In On Whether Or Not They Had “Free-Range” Childhoods, And It’s An Interesting Glimpse Into The Past

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“So many scrapes, cuts, forts, tents, special sticks, bonfires, water balloon fights, sneaking around construction sites, riding my bike into puddles as fast as possible, hiding things in holes, climbing through the trees behind other houses…anything and everything. We played every type of game. We didn’t go home until mosquitoes made being outside unbearable. There was not enough potential danger around in terms of vehicles or people. A kid wouldn’t necessarily be given a watch, certainly not a phone, as that wasn’t a thing back then. So you knew it was time to go home when it was dark and you were getting bitten up.”

“At one point, I realized if I played too close to my house, my parents could find me and make me come in. So I just went even further away. I rode my bicycle on main roads to supermarkets and rode back with bags of candy balanced on both handlebars. I went to visit friends who lived more than a few streets away.

I think when people describe this type of childhood, it comes in two varieties: the suburban and the rural. An urban childhood is different. It’s security-minded, it’s boundary-minded, as opposed to laissez-faire.”

–oldsoulseven