Do Little Kids *NOT* Still Run Around Playing Ouside Any More?

[BlooInBloo]

Just saw this commercial on espn about nfl players recommending that kids "play outside for at least 60 minutes a day" or something along those lines.

I thought to myself - "what the fuck - kids have to be ENCOURAGED to play outside these days???"

Seriously? The only way my parents could keep me inside for any length of time was by grounding me - and I wasn't out playing by myself. I loved video games as much - or more - than the next guy, but they in no way impinged on my "go play" time. Ride bikes, kickball, hide and seek, football, "exploring", whatever.

Has it really changed that much?

[booley]

1. They do in my neighborhood

And I live in the city where's there less open space to use.

[brendan120678]

2. Seems like sometime between my childhood...

and the present (I'm currently 30), a few things happened:

1. Kids got lazy
2. Parents became over-protective
3. The world became a meaner place

All three of these things probably combined together created quite a change, I'm afraid.

[WCGreen]

3. Ah, it's just an attention shifting device so people don' focus on Vick....

:evilgrin:

[BlooInBloo]

6. Those who keep up know that the real non-issue is Blount.

:P

[crim son]

4. They do where I live.

My ten-year-old is at this moment biking around the neighborhood with friends and in good weather I rarely see him except at mealtimes! But we live in a smallish city, a safe area and some do not. I'm not afraid to allow Henry freedom to roam the neighborhood but if I lived somewhere else I might be.

[TexasLady]

15. Same here

10 yr old girl. We live out in a small area, but with lots of woods, and two known child offenders on the road. You hear and read a lot about your neighbor here, and I am the mom that let's her go HERE or HERE, but prefers our own yard. If she wants to go further, either me, dad or big sister are outside as well, watching her. Just how it is in my family.
But I do know a lot of kids that just don't go outside no matter what. Not sure if it's the kids choice, or the parents?

[crim son]

53. You're right. My kids have all had friends who would rather

play video games or watch movies, even on the nicest day. My kids do both, but only when they are stuck inside. My little guy actually reads in his spare time, go figure!

[MineralMan]

5. Plenty of them in my neighborhood.

Anytime the weather's decent, the boys are out playing football in the street or basketball. Girls ride up and down the street, and little kids ride on the sidewalk. There's a small lake a few blocks away, and I'm always seeing kids with fishing poles walking or riding bikes over there to fish.

When the snow's on the ground, every yard where there's a kid has snowmen, snow forts, and the like.

I live in the City of Saint Paul, MN. It's a ethnically diverse neighborhood of houses built in the mid-1950s. Most of the houses are owner-occupied. All the kids play together, with no racial crap going on.

It's a good old city neighborhood.

Now, out in the suburbs, where my wife's relatives live, the kids don't play outside, except in their own yards. Suburban isolationism, I guess, since there's little crime.

[BlooInBloo]

10. "houses built in the mid-1950s" - Old-school row housing with stoops-type of city setting?

Nice burb zing, btw. :rofl:

[MineralMan]

13. Nope. Single story ramblers on 60 x 100 lots.

Most of the ones on my block were built by the same developer...three different designs, with reversals, making six. They all look very different, now, though, with modifications, etc.

It was the last neighborhood in Saint Paul itself to be built out, starting in 1948.

[Viking12]

20. Far east side? Harding High School area?

Used to live not far from there in an old neighborhood between Payne and Arkwright. Wouldn't necessarily let my kids run free if I still lived there.

[MineralMan]

25. NorthEast Corner. Hayden Heights. North of Maryland and

East of White Bear. We're on the northeast edge of the city.

[MineralMan]

36. Yeah, the neighborhoods west of White Bear Avenue

aren't as well-behaved. The Eastside is a large place.

[chelaque liberal]

63. I went to Harding High School. I lived on Minnehaha and Earl St

[virgogal]

26. Old city neighborhood built in the fifties??? You are kidding.

[MineralMan]

32. Why would I be kidding? Saint Paul finally got built out in

the 1950s. It's an old city, though. The neighborhood is not unlike many others in the city.

It's not that old, as old goes, but it's a real city neighborhood. There's even a corner store within walking distance.

Not every city was completely built-out 100 years ago. Saint Paul had actual farms where my house is before WWII, in the city limits. It still has neighborhood parks and greenways, everywhere in the city. There's a community center and library in every neighborhood, and they're busy. Every ethnic group is well-represented, and in every neighborhood.

You should visit. There are about a dozen lakes within the city limits, each with a nice park around it. They all have fishing piers for the kids and the oldsters. Usually there are both there, and the oldsters help the kids with their fishing.

Each of the neighborhoods has a grammar school, too. All the kids walk to that school, unless they're enrolled at another school in the city. Anyone can attend any of the schools, and buses run all over the city. We have magnet grammar schools, including an international magnet school that is very popular with everyone.

Every neighborhood contains at least one parkway street, with a wide median park that goes on for a long way, complete with seating, walking paths, and more. And people use them. In the winter, the walking paths are full of people on cross-country skis and, where there are hills, kids on sleds.

That's not to say there aren't tough neighborhoods in St. Paul. There are. The one I live in, though, presents about the same danger to kids as it did in the 1950s. Old geezers like me call the cops when something wrong is going on. We've rid the neighborhood of the drug house that tried to get started, with the full cooperation of the police.

Every place is not the same. Come to Saint Paul, and I'll show you around.

[BlooInBloo]

40. Sounds great - but the climate is a bit much for me.

[virgogal]

64. Sounds delightful. My uncle-in-law,an Irish immigrant.settled in

St.Paul in the thirties. He loved it there.

And he liked to talk about ice-fishing---------a lot! :-)

I am also a fan of the John Sandford books and have learned a lot about The Cities from him.

[Fumesucker]

7. Eh, I'm fifty nine and when I was a kid the very *last* place any kid wanted to be..

Was anywhere near the adults, because if you bugged the adults they were going to find something for you to do and the chances were better than excellent that you were not going to like it.

Today the kids are underfoot constantly it seems..

Get off my grass. Also, too.

[Xenotime]

8. I thought the noble goal of school was to sit still, keep quite and pay attention..

I thought THAT was the purpose of being there.

:shrug:

[lukasahero]

41. What's school have to do with going outside to play?

Am I missing something?

[havocmom]

9. Once in a great while I see an 8 or 9 year old go by on a bike

talking on their cell phone

[2Design]

11. not safe in america on the streets n/t

[MineralMan]

21. Right. Tell that to the kids in my neighborhood.

Those of us who are home in the daytime keep an eye on the streets. Crime in the neighborhood is close to zero. We're old-fashioned, and some of us are just plain old. There are about six houses on my block, alone, that have the original residents still living in the houses they bought back in the early 50s.

National Night Out had everyone on the block out, mingling and mixing. We had a big BBQ, kids' bike races, and a little parade.

Big cities aren't all bad...

[Brickbat]

12. In many places, yes. In the suburbs, the combination of a generation raised on stranger-danger, poor

development planning that results in no place to walk to except for strip malls (even if there were sidewalks), a lack of just open spaces (empty lots, parks, back fields), and the rise of video games and organized sports makes it difficult and unattractive for many kids to just *play*. A great book on this subject is called "Last Child in the Woods" and I highly, highly recommend it.

[mitchum]

44. +1

those are indeed the factors

[Viking12]

14. Video games. As a parent of 7 and 9 year olds, it can be a struggle to get them outside at times.

Once they're out, however, I usually don't see them for hours.

I suspect many absentee parents aren't there to push them out the door and kids sit on the couch all day playing the Wii.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. They sure do in my neighborhood!

I love it!

I can look out my second story window and see them biking, throwing various balls, playing whatever they play...

It's really nice!

We do have a quiet street, so that helps, of course.

[hobbit709]

17. TV, computers and video games

They certainly don't read. There's plenty of kids in my neighborhood but you wouldn't know it from driving through. Maybe 10% play outside on a regular basis.

[BlooInBloo]

22. Weird. I had all of that too - and loved it all. Plus encyclopedias, more importantly...

I was still outside until my mom screamed her lungs out at dark.

And once inside, I promptly threw a hissyfit about eating my peas, naturally.

[TorchTheWitch]

52. peas are for flinging with a fork

in a pinch, hide them under the mashed potatoes.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

18. It hasn't changed that much where I live

Kids riding bikes and skateboards, playing softball and basketball all over the place. Most of the parents I know say their kids play video games when their supposed to be doing their chores or doing homework before the parents get home from work. That sacred time before the parents got home used to be used for television and junk food back in childhood. :)

[HughBeaumont]

19. I used to do all that stuff . . .

. . . and then legitimate sex offenders and rotten kidnapping scum littering just about anywhere happened.

There were always children that went missing for whatever reason, but around 1978-79, missing children became a huge deal once the Atlanta child murders came about. During the next decade, the media put a giant "stranger danger" scare on families, and I gotta tell you - it worked.

There are things I did when I was 5-8 years old that I would NEVER think of letting my kid do now. Like ride my bike up to the local store or park unsupervised. Granted, it was a small community and there were adults everywhere who knew who I was, but still.

See, I shouldn't be afraid that someone is going to kidnap and slaughter my kid; after all, the odds of getting harmed by a relative or acquaintance are greater, but that's still a lottery I'm not about to win. "What if it happens" is ALWAYS going to be in the back of your mind. The families who have unfortunately lost children to kidnappers and murderers never thought it would happen to their kid either.

[SidneyCarton]

34. +1

It would seem that we have both seen the same developments.

[HughBeaumont]

55. What spooked me is something that happened in Bay Village in 1989 -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Mihaljevic

On October 27, 1989, ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic was kidnapped from the Bay Square Shopping Center in Bay Village, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The abductor had contacted Mihaljevic by telephone and arranged to meet her on the pretext of buying a gift for her mother, who had recently been promoted. On February 8, 1990, the girl's body was found in a field off of County Road 1181, Ruggles Township in rural Ashland County, Ohio.<1>

Evidence found at the scene of the crime suggests that Mihaljevic's body was probably dumped there shortly after her abduction. There were signs that her body had been previously stored in a relatively cool place. Based on findings by the Cuyahoga County coroner, Mihaljevic's last meal was some sort of soy substance, possibly an artificial chicken product or Chinese food. Other evidence includes the presence of yellow/gold colored fibers on her body.<2> It appears her killer also took several souvenirs including the girl's horse-riding boots, her denim backpack, a binder with "Buick, Best in Class" written on the front clasp, and turquoise earrings in the shape of horse heads.<3>

The Bay Village Police and the FBI conducted an extensive investigation into her disappearance and murder. The case generated thousands of leads. Dozens of suspects were asked to take lie-detector tests, but no one has ever been charged with the crime. Law enforcement continues to pursue leads and monitor suspects to the present day.

snip

In November 2006 it was revealed that several other young girls had received phone calls similar to that to which Amy responded, during the weeks prior to Amy's abduction in 1989. These comprised requests from an unknown man, claiming to work with their mother, asking the girl to help him shop for a present to celebrate her mother's job promotion. The girls who received these calls lived in North Olmsted, a suburb near Bay Village; some had unlisted phone numbers. This new information was considered significant by new movement on the case.<5><6>

Bay Village police collected DNA samples from several potential suspects in the case in December, 2006. As of early 2007, it was reported that a longtime suspect in the case had retained legal counsel.


That suspect was my former 7th grade science teacher.

IF it's true, that could have happened to ANYone. You just never know until it's too late.

[Rude Dog]

23. Let's not forget...

...in the rush to blame media, we're forgetting that parents are inundated with panics about everything that could happen to their children if they're not kept under constant watch.

[Kalyke]

24. Not really.

Video games and pedophiles keep them inside.

We're lucky: we have a big fenced-in back yard and three dogs who bark at strangers, so my munchkins have a safe place to play.

[BlooInBloo]

54. My rough conclusion from the extremely different answers in this thread...

Is that it's very regional - or maybe even higher-resolution than that.

[MineralMan]

57. I've tried to figure it out, too.

In the city, it's neighborhood based. Decent neighborhood, the kids play outside. Questionable neighborhood, they don't seem to.

It's also economics based, I think. My neighborhood is distinctly blue-collar. I doubt that there is a lot of extra disposable income in the households here. Mostly, it's two people working very hard, and kids who don't have the fancy video games and the like. So...they head outdoors.

There doesn't seem to be an ethnic element to it in my neighborhood. Everyone's out and everyone plays together.

The safety of the neighborhood is aided by the long-term residents who are retired. They're home. They're watching the neighborhood. Kid falls off his bike, some 60+ person is outside within 30 seconds checking on the kid. If a strange car parks on the street, someone comes outside and asks what they want, politely.

Anything really weird, and the cops get called. It never takes more than five minutes to get a unit here. I called once when the neighbor girls from across the street, 10 and 1l years old knocked on my door and said they thought someone was in their basement. Cops came when I called, accompanied by a K9 unit. I leashed up the kids' dog and they went inside. Nobody was there, but the girls were scared by some sound.

The cops thanked me for helping to look after the girls. Their parents had told them that our house was where to go if there was a problem of any kind. So, I fixed their bikes when they broke, and so forth all the time. They were pesky sometimes, but my wife and I don't mind.

It's the same all up and down the street. There's a retired person or couple about every three houses, and they all act as something of a neighborhood watch. All the parents know us, and trust us.

We actually have an organized neighborhood watch thing going on, and everyone looks out for everyone else. People go on vacation and a neighbor is always available to feed pets, etc. It's taken a while, but it's become a great neighborhood.

The suburbs, on the other hand, don't have those advantages. The parents both still work, but they can afford the toys. There's nobody around during the day, so when the kids get home, parents worry. There are no old, nosy folks watching things. I think that's part of the difference, along with people not having time to build neighborhood relationships.

[gkhouston]

27. Mine does. Usually have to make her wash her feet before bedime. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

38. :)

[aikoaiko]

28. Not enough.

sad to say.

When I was kid, by the age of 4 my mother would send me out of the house to play unattended (mostly, but perhaps within ear shot) or send me to a neighbor kids house to play. We roamed the neighborhood building forts, playing war, playing stick ball in the street, riding our banana seat bikes.

I don't do that with my 4 year old. I wouldn't send him out like that.

[Arugula Latte]

29. My kids do. They make forts, ride bikes, dig holes, shoot hoops

poke around with sticks, pull each other in the wagon, hang out in the hammock, throw the frisbee around, swing on the rope swing, jump through sprinklers, make fairy houses (my daughter only), play with the neighbor kids. When it snowed here and stuck around for days during the Xmas holiday, the neighbors up the slope made a kick ass sled run that was lit up with strings of lights for night sledding.

We're lucky we're on a woodsy cul de sac -- but we're within Portland city limits, too, so we can get downtown in 10 minutes.

[SidneyCarton]

30. Been that way a while now.

Mrs. Carton's mother wouldn't let her or her sisters play outside for fear that someone might snatch them. We are trying to allow our daughter more space (she is very active) and our new housing on campus makes that more likely, but unfortunately, we (as a nation) have become housebound in our terror of our neighbors. Now not all of this fear is groundless, the story of Jaycee Dugard and countless others remind us that there are monsters in the world, but one has to wonder if, in our fixation on these issues, we've become a nation of people too paranoid to enjoy the fresh air.

Edited for clarification

[One_Life_To_Give]

31. Play without Coaches, Referee's etc. Inconceivable. nt

[budkin]

33. Not many in mine... you have to make "playdates"

[annabanana]

37. ditto around here... It was like that even 15 years ago

when my boys were little.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. From what I see in LA, seems more like monitored play. Parents bring the

little ones out into the courtyard for a bit of play, then take them back in. don't see pre-teens wandering around by themselves.

[Posteritatis]

39. Healthy dose of The Fear, pretty much

Even if a lot of communities are actually safer now than they were twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago, all people see is the howling on the news, a few anecdotes that make national headlines, and suddenly everyone has to be locked inside and guarded non-stop until they can vote.

Even if the kids might actually want to play outside, a lot of the parents these days wouldn't allow it unless there was a leash or fences or constant hovering involved.

My own neighborhood right now's actually an exception - most of the neighborhood kids concentrate in the cul-de-sac I'm on right now, so it's nonstop screamy chaos from about 3:01 until a little after dusk most days. Gets annoying at times, but I'll take being annoyed at noise and the occasional actively irritating kid over a neighborhood full of paranoid shutins.

[tXr]

47. Yep. It's the continuing criminalization of everyday life and the 24/7 news cycle.

People need to turn off the teevee and get outside and meet their neighbors, which may pose a bit of a problem when everyone is hiding behind locked doors while being scared by the noozhowlers. It's a vicious cycle. :P

[AspenRose]

42. You? Grounded? Nah....

:-)

[BlooInBloo]

43. hahahaaa! right? Imagine what I'd be like if they hadn't!

:rofl:

[retread]

45. There will be more kids outside now that they can watch tv on their cell phones. n/t

[abelenkpe2]

46. When I grew up

I was outside all the time. As young as 5 playing in the neighborhood.

I have a 5 and 3 year old and cannot imagine letting them out of my sight. I live in LA, no yard, busy street. We go to the park or beach after work for a couple hours during the summer and for four hours on Saturday and Sunday. But still they aren't out on their own.

It's the city. And It doesn't help that there are bad people out there: pedophiles, criminals who we can't afford to incarcerate and are let go early, mentally disturbed people our society doesn't properly care fore anymore.


Maybe kids still play in the suburbs or small towns, but definitely not in the city.

[Ignis]

48. I live across from a big, city park in CA.

It's woefully underutilized. :( And every time there's an amber alert or Polanski's in the news or something, I can look out the window and see the crowds shrink for a few days.

Parents are drowning in the fear that the MSM pipes into their living rooms.

[Liquorice]

49. The kids in my neighborhood certainly do. nt

[Codeine]

50. Are you kidding?!

The streets are crawling with pedophiles and kidnappers ready to snatch your kid up! :sarcasm:

Christ, I'm glad people were less paranoid and god-damned fearful when I was little. We had our bikes, our BB guns, and a pocketful of Star Wars action figures keeping us outdoors from sunup to sundown.

[BlooInBloo]

51. I didn't realize that so many lived their lives in such abject fear, either.

[Control-Z]

61. The worst trouble I ever got into

with my father was when I lost track of time and arrived home after 5:00 pm. It happened a lot.

[Matariki]

56. I tried to get my neice and nephew to play in the snow with me once.

They wanted to go back inside after 15 minutes. When I was a kid, if it snowed we'd be outside all day. Sledding, making forts, snowball fights, etc. Our parents had to fight to get us to come back in.

It sort of made me sad for them.

[Control-Z]

58. "Get out and play an hour a day"

Old ad. Been airing in California for years. My kids make fun of it mercilessly. I'll leave it at that.

It's geared toward the kids who don't go out and play, and those with obesity problems. My kids did/do their fair share of indoor and outdoor play. They still do, and there are plenty of other kids out in the neighborhood doing the same thing. But there is a much higher percentage (than there used to be) of overweight kids in the classroom, who get picked up after school and are not seen again until the next day in class.

I actually had a friend with a daughter like that. She never walked to or from school a day in her life (while they only lived two blocks away). I felt she would not have as much of a weight problem if she got out moved, but never had the right words to encourage her mother. I broached it a few times, kindly, but never got anywhere. As soon as my kids were old enough, I made them walk (weather permitting).

[dysfunctional press]

59. the video games have gotten exponentially better...

and many parents have gotten more scared about letting the kids be gone unattended all day.

yes, things really HAVE changed that much.

[BlooInBloo]

70. You don't have to tell me that....

Then, Elite:


Now, Eve:


After all these years - I still fly computer spaceships. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.

[Missy Vixen]

60. "Play 60" started off as a joke

The league thought the players would never buy into it. They obviously have. After all, it's an easy PR thing.

As far as playing outside -- we don't see many of our neighbors' kids outside at all. They have to be constantly supervised. After all, we live in a rural community that has the lowest crime rate in Western Washington. :sarcasm: It's especially weird when I consider that I grew up in a small community; we were outside from daylight till Mom called us for dinner.

[Jennicut]

62. Yes, with video games and the internet and tv as a babysitter. My kids are 4 and 5.

My husband and I take them out every single day for at least two hours, if not more until its too cold to go out and even then we go sledding for half an hour.

It is very sad, I have taken my kids to other kid's houses and all they do is watch tv.

[bridgit]

65. Meh, fuck that, happiness fresh air and exercise are fer'chumps!

:rant:

[SoCalDem]

66. Go online and order the CD to show you how to jump rope & run around

:rofl:

Get Up Get up, get out..indeed.

Although in "these" times, many kids are schlepped to school by parents (often to schools close to their work, and not their homes), picked up by sitters, and then carted home to scarf down a bucket of KFC or a pizza..many neighborhoods are ghost towns during daylight hours.

Millions of kids who are latchkey kids are made to stay indoors with triple dead-bolted doors "until mom gets home".

and many school age kids might not even know their neighborhood peers except for on-the-bus or in-class time.

Many parents micro-manage their kids' time with classes & activities, so the wandering around daydreaming, riding bikes, or just exploring time is probably nowhere near what it was when many of us were kids..

Shock journalism has many parents so scared for their unattended kids, that they are not allowed to be free-range kids like a lot of us were..

summer schedule for me and my peers:

breakfast
"GO OUTSIDE"..come back for lunch

then

GO OUTSIDE... come back when the street lights come on

of course we did not have tv or A/C, so there was no reason to hang out inside with Mom..she'd find some chore for us to do :evilgrin:

[morningglory]

67. When I was growing up, I spent hours picking blackberries when in season.

As an adult, a co-worker invited me to pick berries at their place. It was Saturday. His children were watching tv with the air conditioner humming. I thought (like a typical old geezer) "What's the matter with these kids today?"

[cynatnite]

68. My kid loves his playstation, but he'd rather be outside...

far as I know it hasn't changed all that much.

[Odin2005]

69. Parents are moronically paranoid about strangers kidnapping their kids.

People blaming video games miss that many parents would rather kids be inside playing video games and thus "safe" rather than outside where a "pedo might come and kidnap them".